The final Senior game of this extraordinary season was played at Marespool this afternoon (19th) when an MCC XI played host to a Pontarddulais XI..and it was the home side who emerged victorious!
Captain Ryan Aingworth won the toss, elected to bat and settled into his socially distanced deckchair to watch his mates bat well for 40 overs.
Young opening batsmen Sean Davies & Ben Lloyd clearly enjoy batting together as they once again “produced the goods”. They got their team off to a a fine start, adding 76 in 16 overs before Sean was dismissed for 33 (2 fours).
It is a strange thing in cricket that we often see two wickets fall in quick succession after a decent partnership is broken. This could be down to a lack of concentration on occasions or, more likely in the current age of each player having to bring his own match food, this could be that the second batsman was simply feeling a tad peckish! Whatever the reason (?!), Ben duly lost his wicket with the scoreboard reading 90 after 19 overs, having notched 37 runs (2 fours).
90-2 then became 136-5 after 28 overs before Luke Edwards was joined by Adam Frangakis-Williams. It was worth the wait as these guys added a sparkling & crucial 61 runs in 8 overs! Luke was eventually run out for 32 (2 fours) whilst Adam slammed 7 fours on his way to his side’s top score of 41! MCC’s final total after 40 overs was a healthy looking 219-8.
After the break, Pontarddulais were soon 36-2 from 11 overs as Ryan (1-26) and Phil Roche (1-13) each took a scalp. Just as important, “Bont” were already behind the run rate and, in truth, never recovered the position.
Mention must be made, however, of a great knock by opener Iwan Rees who contributed a superb 108 out of his team’s final total of 188-6. Ryan, Phil, Jamie Sheldon (1-43), Ben Lloyd (2-23, including the crucial wicket of Iwan) and Ieuan Rosser (1-5) shared the wickets, thus ensuring a comfortable home win by 31 runs. Well done, men!
The very last Club game of 2020 sees our Under 17 side take on Gorseinon at Marespool tomorrow (20th). This 35 over contest will start at 12.30pm.
A fortnight ago I wrote
“A few months ago, the likely scenario for this year was zero cricket at all…when the belated chance to play did come, some very hard work was put in behind the scenes to produce the excellent quality of ground that many have taken for granted over the years and, more importantly this year, to ensure that the Club was as safe a place as possible for our loyal members, coaches and Senior & Junior players alike to have a lot of fun late in the season. Many thanks to those stalwarts..they know who they are”.
I feel that it is worth repeating today.
Hopefully, next season will see the return of cricketing normality. Time will tell..
Take care everyone..and thanks so much for your support in recent months.