The Club’s ‘A’ XI is climbing steadily up Division 5 of the SWCA after displays such as the one seen at Murton yesterday (20th) to see off Drefach!
Our visitors were invited to bat first and did well to post a competitive total of 167-8 in the face of some “tidy” bowling by Captain Paul Kenealy’s Lads. PK himself (2-39), Alex Davies (2-26), Kaps (1-42), Stuart Seaton (1-27), Rhys Davies (0-17 from 8 overs) plus The Runout Twins did the damage.
Despite losing an early wicket after tea, Seats (45) and George Lloyd (22) combined well to take the score to 80…when 3 wickets fell! Whoops..80-4 was not good! Tony Dowrick, being the experienced campaigner what he is, was unfazed however. With support from the Captain (19) and Carl Lawrence (15), he coolly stroked an undefeated 42 to see his team home. The four wicket win occurred with almost 3 overs to spare!
At Marespool, there was no real “game” as matters were all over by 2.45pm!
Carmarthen Wanderers 2nd XI = 72 all out in the 24th over, wickets falling mainly to the returning Simon Tuckett (4-21), Sam Harris (2-5) and Adam Frangakis-Williams (3-24). Up for an early finish by this time, our 2nd XI burned off to the winning total of 73-1 in the 11th over, thanks to Gareth Baggers (28), Ben Jones (18no) & Joe Phillips (16no)…oh, and 11 wides!
The 1st XI travelled to Neath, and returned home having eventually lost by 38 runs, Things could have been so different had it not been for some misfields and one dropped catch in particular, all of which contributed to Neath scoring 221-7 at tea. At 148-2 at one point, Neath might have had eyes on a larger score but steady wickets did fall, effectively stemming the tide. The prizes for economic bowling went to Aneurin Norman (1-20 from 10 overs) & spinner Jack Straw (0-27 in 10) whilst the main wicket taker was Captain Max Phillips (3-53).
In reply, MCC got off to a poor start (22-2), but then rallied and at 112-2 things were looking good at The Gnoll! Gavin Williams (29) then got out, followed almost immediately by his partner, Dan Lewis-Williams (53)..113-4. Ieuan Rosser (25) tried hard but Neath’s bowlers won the day as our 1st XI sunk steadily to 183 all out, with five overs of the game left.
Next Saturday, the 1st XI welcome Port Talbot to Marespool, the 2nd XI travel to Neath and the ‘A’ XI visit Skewen.