The Night Watchman

An Article by The-Academy.tv

Just 3 and a half weeks after The Academy bidded a fond farewell to Nicholas Carter, Ricky Town have announced that their 31 y/o all-rounder, Percy Napier, has parted company with the club following a 21k transfer to Valley Power. This is the second selling of a notable player that has passed manager mischivious’ current age range. The 31 year old was still believed to be a significant part of the team but with his large wages courtesy of being an integral part of previous sides, aging years, Ricky Town’s exit from the Pavilion Cup and the ICC’s planned introduction of rules to allow youth players to play youth matches despite being declared for senior matches are believed to be among the reasons for the move.

Napier was an exciting all-rounder, dominating with the bat and difficult with the ball, one for the crowds and one who was often able to please many, if not all, of the fans he brought through the turnstiles. His left-arm Fast-mediums caused trouble for batsman and his then peculiar choice of being a right-handed batsman proved more than effective. He was a star in the 20/20s where his aggressive nature thrived and he averaged about 50 in the form despite opening for 8 of his 9 appearances in the code. A 101 to his name and 3 50s from those 9 is impressive, though he never managed to get the same with the ball, only collecting 4 wickets.

His One Day appearances are what he’ll be remembered for though. With his depreciating value to the team and less frequent appearances there were doubts as to whether Napier could shrug the “best player to not score a century” tag but credit to the man, he stepped up against an unmanaged and disorganised Tesremos C.C. and smashed 132. It was to be his only century for the club but a much deserved one. His stats speak plenty about the man and while not one that will ever be rated as one of the best in the world, never was and never will be, he is a legend in the eyes of Ricky Town fans and one of the “pioneering” players for the team. Batting at opener often he averaged 40 in ODs, with that sole hundred and 5 50s, all for 630 runs, taking 27 wickets at just over 22 runs per wicket, 5 3-wicket hauls and a best bowling of 4-52, 7 catches as well and all in 17 matches.

His best performance you may ask? His 3 wickets against Lapal Grange in a vital title-challengers match in the promotion season was pretty impressive, taking advantage of a swinging ball and a favourable wicket he helped bowl out a talented batting lineup, bowling sensibly early and grabbing a wicket before cleaning up the tail, a runout early on helped too. Or his opening 56 against The Athritics when Ricky were chasing a huge target and losing wickets quicker than they should’ve been?

While impressive, those don’t match his height, his best ever performance, against Ricky Town’s biggest rivals so far, The Plunderers 2. Batting first on a Hard pitch with the weather looking overcast and gloomy, the seamers were always going to give the openers trouble and Ricky Town were facing their biggest challengers for the title and needed to set a good score to win. Napier started off in typical brutal style and he and Galloway put on 88 off 13 overs before Galloway fell to some sharp bowling. In came Parsonage but the game plan revolved around Napier who shot past 50 and raced towards 100 with boundaries flowing. In a bit of very intelligent bowling though, Plunderers’ star spinner Pritchard managed to lure Napier out of his crease and Bailey removed the bails, a superb and quick 86 set the tone for a 303 total. Not content though with contributing to the batting score, Napier, who had perfected the art of bowling with the old ball, picked up on the work of Edward Eaton in the earlier stages of The Plunderers’ chase and as the game got tight, wrapped up the middle and lower order as well as the tail for good measure with 4 superb wickets. He even helped turn the match early by dismissing Bailey after a 159 partnership courtesy of a stunning catch. Ricky Town won by 2 runs.

Erratic but Dangerous with the ball, exciting with the bat and excellent in the field, Napier is one of Ricky Town’s first true greats, hopefully the memories won’t fade.