CAPTAIN James Williams condemned his side’s ill-discipline after a miserable opening day defeat to St Ives left Wisbech Town rooted to the bottom of the league.

Starting their Tucker Gardner Premier Division One campaign as title hopefuls, Wisbech suffered a devastating early setback - losing Saturday’s game by eight wickets and failing to record a single bonus point.

After being put into bat at newly-promoted St Ives, Wisbech got off to a nightmare start with Henry Rosier run out in the first over for a duck. Opening partner David Wood soon followed him back to the pavilion, edging to gully for just three.

Williams (28) and Gary Freear (55) launched a revival but when the Wisbech skipper was given out leg before wicket the visitors’ innings crumbled.

Saints’ spinners ran through the Wisbech batting line up and, after Freear’s fluent knock was ended, they collapsed to 126 all out with only three players reaching double figures.

A miserable day was complete when St Ives cruised to victory inside 30 overs, reaching 130 for the loss of just two wickets.

Williams said: “We lacked discipline. It seemed like too many of us thought it would be easy against a new team in the league. We just didn’t turn up. They had the bottle and wanted the game more than us.

“Last year we only lost two games all season, so it was a bit of a shock to get tonked in the first game like that.

“We had a long chat after the game and identified what we need to work on. We have got Khalsa at home on Saturday and there should be a good crowd so hopefully that will help us get back on track.

“We have got a good mix of youngsters and experience and our overseas player should be with us by early May.”

• WISBECH’S fortunes did not improve on Sunday, as both Rutland League teams were beaten.

Williams scored 49 as the first team struggled to 158-8 off their 45 overs against Eaton Socon. It was a total that never looked enough and Socon waltzed to a nine-wicket victory, with Danny Emmington taking the only wicket.

Dom Stannard (35) and James Sheppard (22) helped the second team reach 154 all out against Warboys in Rutland Division Five.

Although Sam Darlow (2-35) bowled well, Wisbech were unable to defend their total with Warboys reaching 155-4 in the 33rd over.