Drought of Senior Cricket, that is, with two consecutive weekends completely washed out since 8th July!
And even then, there were some rain breaks yesterday (29th)!
Anyway, we managed to claim one victory from the three games that the Club played throughout South Wales!
At Merthyr, acting skipper Phil Roche led his boys & men to a fine 6 wicket victory! In the absence of Eurig Morgan, ‘Rochey’ lost the toss and was ordered to field first.
Whoops! Either the home side had completely misread the conditions or they had all been invited to the wedding “do in the night”, taking place at their clubhouse! For, at the break, the home MCC had been bowled out for 82 in the 25th over! Daddy Dave Martin (3-15), 14-year-old son Sam (2-25), Stuart Seaton (2-26) and 13-year-old Ed Harris (2-12) were the plunderers, as 10-man Merthyr surrendered somewhat meekly.
In reply, the visiting MCC strolled to their emphatic win in the 21st over!
Up-and-coming 13-year-old wicket-keeper/batsman Tom Ludman carried his bat for 21no, whilst Matty Jovic (23), Tom Hannant (16) and Alan Harris (12) also reached double figures during the successful chase!
At Marespool, our 2nd XI played host to a Pontarddulais XI, intent on doing the double this season, having already won at “Bont” in June.
Batting first, MCC struggled to put any lengthy partnerships together as they made their way to 146 all out in the 43rd over. Wales Over 50s player Jon Brearley, coming in at 3, was the top scorer off the bat with 36 (5 fours), whilst 15 year old Theo Morris, batting at 8, weighed in with 29 runs (4 fours). Loyal player Eddie Extras also contributed 40 to the total.
In reply, our visitors coasted to their convincing 8 wicket victory with 22 overs to spare. Siraj & Kaesh took a wicket each.
Finally, at Pentyrch (oh, what teas!), Aneurin Norman’s Lads also finished runners-up, losing by 17 runs in the end.
Asked to bat first, our hosts got off to a speedy start! After initially scoring at a run a ball, Pentyrch lost their first wicket in the 8th over – 49-1. A few balls later, the board read 50-2!
One interesting stat re our bowling yesterday – 4 MCC spinners bowled 10 overs each, and not badly either!
With the Captain returning to snare 2 tailenders (2-25) at the end, Jack Straw (1-45), Max Phillips (2-30), Sam Harris (3-24) and Greg Thomas (1-39) worked hard to restrict Pentyrch to 189-9 at the interval.
In reply, unfortunately, our top order batsman never got going, apart from Tim Hemp (34, 2 fours & 2 sixes) who did his best to speed up a slow start. At 82-7 in the 30th over, our lads were well out of the running, except that wicket-keeper Sean Davies & Sam had other ideas!
These two added 52 runs in good time and were starting to cause some anxiety amongst the home crowd. However, Sam (20, 1 four & a max) was stumped in the 42nd over – 134-8 now. 56 runs required!
Rhys Davies (8, 1 four) joined Sean and these two tried hard, whilst in turn the home bowlers made it difficult for our guys to score fluently enough.
MCC 172-9 at stumps, with Sean ending 53no, including 3 fours & a six.
Next Saturday, the 1st XI take on Gorseinon at Marespool, the 2nd XI travel to “Gors” and our ‘A’ XI welcome Ynystawe to Murton.