The Isle of Man squad for the European Division Two championships in Essex has been announced. There are six changes from the line-up which competed in the ICC Tournament last season.

Into the team come Wicus Wessels, Gareth Morris (Castletown), Sam Kebbell, Adam Killey (Cronkbourne), Greg Hawke (Peel and St John’s) and Danny Kniveton (Crosby).

The side will be led by Phil Littlejohns (Peel and St Johns) and includes Alex Stokoe, Max Stokoe, Carl Wagstaffe, Adam McAuley, Luke Lacey(Cronkbourne), Ollie Webster and Akkie van den Berg (Peel and St John’s).

The tournament starts at the end of June and the other nations involved are Germany, Norway, Austria, Gibraltar and Belgium. The Tour Manager will be Colin Jones and the coach is Phil Unsworth.

As part of their preparations, the squad are playing three matches in England this week against Liverpool Competition opposition. The trip has been arranged by Phil Unsworth to give everybody the opportunity to play on high quality cricket grounds, develop their cricketing skills and help prepare for the ICC tournament.

Today (Thursday) they meet Liverpool CC at 6pm followed by two games on Friday at Southport & Birkdale CC against a Liverpool Competition Under 21's (11am) and Ormskirk CC (3pm). All games will be played in coloured clothing with white balls under ICC regulations.

Unsworth said," I am really grateful for the kind support of all involved in the Liverpool Competition to help make this trip a great opportunity for Manx cricket. A lot of my players play regularly on artificial pitches on the island so to come across and experience playing on high quality pitches and grounds like Liverpool and Southport will be a fantastic and worthwhile experience for them".

Tony Elwood, Chairman of Southport & Birkdale Cricket Club said, “We are looking forward to hosting the IoM team on their visit to the UK. We wish them well, both in these warm-up games and for the ICC T20 competition at Chelmsford later in the season. We are always keen to support touring sides and I personally look forward to welcoming them to the Club and hope that they enjoy their stay in Southport".

John Williams, Chairman of the Liverpool Competition, commented, "A number of our clubs have made regular trips across to the island and last summer we played each other in a highly competitive series of matches at Under 17 level. This fixture gives some of the up and coming youngsters in our league a great opportunity to play on such a stage, whilst providing a stern test for the Isle of Man boys in their preparation for what lies ahead”.

RESULTS

Standard Bank T20 Forrester Division One
Cronkbourne B 85 (Sam Mills 29, Ross Berber 10, Matt Kneale 10 : Will Bailey 2 -10, Tom Gascoyne 2 -11), Peel and St John’s B 86 for 1 (Peter Lewis 47no, Mark Walker 23 : Nick Wild 1 -15). Peel and St John’s B won by nine wickets.
Peel and St John’s B v Crosby B, Ronaldsway v Castletown B & Union Mills v Finch Hill A : Games abandoned (rain) – one point to each side.

Standard Bank T20 Forrester Division Two
Ramsey C v Cronkbourne Bacchas : Game abandoned (rain) – one point to each side.