Phil Roche’s 1st XI bounced back superbly today, after their defeat at Cardiff last week. They nipped over to Pontarddulais and nipped home again, after a convincing 7 wicket victory in good time!
Electing to field first after winning the toss, “Rochey” need to use only four bowlers to bowl out our hosts for just 80 inside 35 overs. Aneurin Norman (1-17 from two spells), Glamorgan debutant Jamie McIlroy (3-17 from two spells), Max Phillips (3-24 from his 10 over stint) and fellow spinner Jack Straw (3-22 from his 10) were the trouble makers for “Bont”.
In reply, MCC reached their target in 20 overs, with opener Charles Clist (37no, 5 fours) and Craig Meschede (22, 3 fours & a straight six) top scoring today.
A great win, which will hopefully give the guys confidence for tomorrow’s Premier League T20 Cup game v Swansea at Marespool, start 1pm.
At Murton, our ‘A’ XI were on the wrong end of a heavy defeat at the hands of Maesteg.
Batting first, our visitors raced to a total of 217-6 in their 40 overs. In a home XI of experience (aka age!) and youth, 14 year old Tomos Williams bowled very well to claim 2-34 from 6 overs while Kaps Radhakrishnan also took two wickets..2-32. Chandra Murugesan nipped in with 1-32 and 16 year old Michael Jarrett was the most economical bowler with 1-26 off 8 overs. Of the six wickets taken by our guys, 17 year old ‘keeper Sean Davies pouched 3 catches! In addition, Sean concede zero byes!
In reply, it was not to be our lads’ day with the bat..69 all out in the 29th over, to come second by 148 runs. Joe Phillips top scored with 20 (3 fours) whilst opener Tony “I was 14 once” Dowrick hit 19 (also 3 fours).
At Marespool. Jaimie Thomas’ 2nd XI fell 40 runs short of Carmarthen Wanderers total of 252-7.
Fielding first, MCC got off to a great start as Adam Lewis-Williams bowled Carl Holding early on..4-1! However, that was to be the only success for some time as our visitors climbed to 129 before the 2nd wicket fell. The early rapid run rate was steadily reduced by off-spinner John Blyth however, who conceded a mere 19 runs from his 10 overs! Teammates Adam (2-65), Jamie Sheldon (1-35), Ben Jones (1-47), Jaimie (2-34) and Richie Runout shared the wickets that eventually fell.
After the break, our boys were never really in the hunt, finding it difficult to recover from 53-4. Ben (62no, 2 fours) and Edgar Extras (31) were the Club’s top scorers in a total of 212-8 at the close.
Next Saturday (5th), our 1st XI welcome Neath to Marespool, our 2nd XI travel to Pontarddulais and the ‘A’ XI make their way over to Baglan. Then on Sunday (6th), the 1st XI take on Ynystawe at Marespool, in R1 of this year’s Welsh Cup competition.