The Club’s 2nd XI and ‘A’ XI both strolled to comfortable victories yesterday (3rd), whilst the 1st XI came second in a rare low scoring game at Marespool.
At Murton, the ‘A’ XI restricted 10-player Merthyr to 139 all out in the 34th over. Phil Rochey (1-23), Dan Board (1-28), Hannah Thompson-Radford (3-23), Sam Martin (2-7) and Evergreen Eurig (2-25) shared the wickets.
After the interval, James Harris and Tom Ludman were not in the mood to share as they saw their team home by 10 wickets – JH 65no (7 fours, 3 sixes) and TL 64no (7 fours & a six) forged a fine unbeaten opening stand!
At Clydach, the 2nd XI tallied 261-4 in their 45 overs. Gareth Baglow (66, 7 fours & a six), Alan Harries (39, 8 fours) added 90 for the first wicket, with Harry Owens (52, 6 fours) and Kaesh Vigneswaran (58, 6 fours & a max) adding the flesh to the bones later on.
In reply, Clydach were bowled out for 152 in the 39th over, thanks to good spells from Harri Turner (4-32), Captain Stuart Seaton (1-26) and Macsen Denman (3-31).
Finally, bowling first, our 1st XI did really well to restrict Chepstow to 149 all out before tea. Each of our bowlers gave little away, with Max Phillips & Jack Straw (each 1-20) the most economical from their respective 10 overs. Two more spinners in Sam Harris (4-25) and Alex Oliver (3-34) then completed the scorecard.
On resumption after the break, MCC were handily placed at 65-2, when opener Luke Smith (35, 6 fours) was dismissed. Plenty of time to go, however, so what could possibly go wrong?!
Well, a fair bit actually, as 65-3 became 137 all out! And this despite all-rounder Max doing his best to keep things calm. He came in at 32-2, and carefully picked his way through the innings, top-scoring with 42 (1 four), hoping that someone could keep him company for long enough. In the event, his team were bowled out for 137 with 10 overs remaining – defeat by 12 runs.
Next Saturday, the 1st XI make their way to Ynysygerwn, the 2nd XI take on Cowbridge at Marespool and our ‘A’ XI travel to Briton Ferry Town.
PS – There is currently a gremlin within the Play-cricket website, affecting the names on the 1st XI scorecard yesterday. Hopefully, the good ol’ PC Helpdesk will sort it tomorrow when we ring them!