With our ‘A’ XI fixture at Llantwit never starting yesterday (6th) owing to the overnight rain, there were just two Senior League matches, each completed with the same winning margin of 4 wickets!
At The New Manse in Port Talbot, our hosts, “The Pirates” as they are known, chose to bat first. Hmmm…
Within minutes of the start, Craig Barrington had reduced them to 9-2! Craig bowled his ten overs of accurate medium pace straight through, returning 2-38..not a bad effort in your first Club game of the season! At the other end, Captain Aneurin Norman was even more miserly, taking 1-21 from his 10, in two spells at either end of the innings.
In between his two stints, our lads did well. PT did recover to reach 72-2 before the 3rd wicket was taken and saw the start of a slide! The scoreboard, as usually immaculately managed by highly respected home scorer/club secretary Ben Davies in his 21st season of service in the box, soon read 90-6, as spinners Jack Straw (2-19) and Max Phillips (2-27) got to work. Two partnerships of 48 (138-7) and 30 at the end saw Port Talbot reaching 167-7 at the break.
However, your scribe is going to doff his cap to 15 year old seamer Eoghan (say “Owen”) McKeegan as MCC’s bowler of the day! With one or two regular choices of bowler not available for this match, not only was Eoghan selected, but he was thrown the ball as first change bowler after Aneurin’s tight opening burst! PT must have thought “right, here we go, let’s get after this young lad”!
Well, Eoghan put in a performance way ahead of his years, as he took the lead from his skipper & gave precious little away! He did not join the wicket takers but he yielded a mere 15 runs from his first spell (5 overs) at 1st XI level, and that included a no-ball & a wide! Impressive!
After tea, any one present must have thought our top order all had trains to catch as they blazed away with some great shots! However, they also got out when life was looking so easy! MCC 62-3 in the 8th! Luke Smith (18 from 15 balls faced, 2 fours), Captain Norman (16 from 15, 2 fours) and Richard Gibby (27 from 16, 1 four & 3 huge sixes) had certainly entertained the good crowd!
62-3 became 69-4 soon after. Some cool heads needed now!
Thankfully, Max (53no, 7 fours) and ‘keeper Sean Davies (12, 1 four) had theirs on yesterday! They carefully added 52 before Sean was stumped: 121-5! Nice work guys, but yet more nice work required!
Alex Oliver took guard, and reverted to blazing away! He smashed 30 (6 fours) from 17 balls, adding 45 with Max, before getting out with just 3 required for victory! Duly achieved by 4 wickets with just over 16 overs remaining! A tremendous team effort in the end!
Meanwhile, at Marespool, our 2nd XI were taking on Pontarddulais, or “Bont” as they are more commonly known.
Put into bat, Stuart Seaton’s Men mustered 176-9 in their 45 overs. Elliott Oates (run out for 71, 6 fours) was the mainstay batter, with 5 others dismissed in the teens.
After tea, Bont started steadily, reaching 65 before wicket numero uno fell in the 17th over. This became 106-4, and very interesting!
However, ensuing partnerships of 26 & 32 were enough to see our visitors home by 4 wickets in the 42nd over. Elliott (2-25), Steve Maddock (1-32) and J-P Cronje (1-17) were the wicket-taking MCC bowlers.
After this round of matches, the first of the second half of the season, our 1st XI & 2nd XI lie 5th & 3rd in their respective Premier League divisions. And, despite being rained off, our ‘A’ XI are also in 5th spot within SWCA Division 5.
Next Saturday (13th), the 1st XI cruise up the Heads of The Valley road to Abergavenny, our 2nd XI have no game and the ‘A’ XI take on Briton Ferry Steel at Marespool, start 1pm.
On Sunday (14th), the Club hosts the latest Women’s Festival within the South Wales Women’s Cricket League – South West Softball League – Zone C.
MCC play Clydach at 11am and Llandarcy at 3pm.
GOOD LUCK, PEOPLE!