Hot on the back of early season Welsh Cup wins within the last week or two for our Under 15 and Under 13 squads, each of our three Senior sides won their opening league matches in glorious sunshine today (3rd)!
Throw in a couple of pre-season victories last weekend, and it’s fair to say that the early mood throughout the Club is buoyant! Long may it last, eh!
So, to the stories across South Wales..
Team of The Day? Well, if only on “seniority”, that’ll be the 1st XI who recovered well from an uncertain position at one stage to trounce our hosts at Malpas. However, each of the three XIs had reasons to be cheerful, and proud!
At Malpas, evergreen 1st XI skipper Aneurin Norman and his men were asked to bat first. On a warm, sunny day? Hhmmm..
Actually, the decision looked inspired early on, as “Noddy’s” team stuttered on 30-1, 30-2 etc, until the board read 81-5. The clutch of fallen wickets included the skipper for 32 (4 fours & a six). However, Max Phillips was still at the crease as 17 year old debutant Euan Amyatt-Leir joined him.
These two added 56 before Euan (26, 3 fours & a six) was dismissed: 137-6 in the 30th over. Wicketkeeper Sean Davies joined Maximus, who between them took the score up to 178-7 when Sean (18, 1 of each) was out.
Debutant number two, Sam Langley, came in at numero neuf. May not be batting there for much longer as he coolly contributed 49no from 37 balls faced (5 fours & 3 sixes) to Mumbles’ eventual total of 267-9 in 50 overs! Max was 8th out (211) after posting a priceless 74 runs (10 fours), just as it seemed inevitable that a hundred was to be his. The tail wagged, playing sensibly as Sam strut his Australian stuff for the final flurry!
In reply, Noddy bowled an absolute beauty first ball that saw off the home captain and prolific scorer Michael Martin, caught behind! There followed an inspired spell from Sam (3-24) at the other end: Malpas 5-4!
There was to be no Mumbles-esque recovery as Malpas were bowled out for 98 in the 28th over! Apart from Sam’s fine efforts, Noddy had taken 1-8 from 5 overs, Jack Straw claimed (1-27) while Man-of-The-Match Max snaffled 5-38! Top work, men!
At Marespool, Ammanford’s 2nd XI were in town and chose to bat first. Acting home captain Jaimie Thomas marshalled his troops well – anyone would have thought he had held rank in The Navy!
Wickets fell steadily until the board confirmed an all-out score of 166, with 6 overs unused. All six home bowlers were successful wicket takers: Eoghan McKeegan (1-20), Rhys Davies (2-21), Siraj Salim (2-38), Dave Martin (1-37), Joe Holland (2-32) and Macsen Denman (2-13) had enjoyed bowling in tandem!
After tea, those on the ground were treated to a magnificent display of batsmanship by two players with so much promise! Following Captain Thomas’ dismissal for 11 early on, 15 year old Tom Ludman & 19 year old Joe took MCC to a convincing win by 9 wickets in the 28th over! Tom finished with a really impressive 81 runs to his name, whilst Joe ended on 56no! Well played, team!
On the Club’s return to it’s original home at Underhill Park, our ‘A’ XI ran out winners by 4 wickets against Merthyr!
Click on image to enlarge
Our visitors were put into bat, reaching 118 all out at the interval! The wicket takers were Rehan Joseph (1-12), Captain Kapilan Radhakrishnan (4-22), 15 year old Tom Phillips (3-33), Bob Stiddard (1-14) and Ricky Runout (1).
Upon resumption, MCC were given a solid start by Tony Dowrick (34) and James Slack (15), before a flurry of wickets reduced Kaps’ Charges to 79-6 from 20 overs..40 to win!
Tension in the park?!
Old Plunch Lane proverb says “never fear when a Ludman is here”, as 13 year old Oliver (16no) and 15 year old Dan Board (27no, including a six to win) saw their team home with no further loss of wickets! Coolness in the heat!
As usual, scorecards etc can be found on our Play-cricket website https://mumbles.play-cricket.com/Matches
Next Saturday (10th), our 1st XI welcome Carmarthen Wanderers to Marespool, the 2nd XI make their way to Margam Park and our ‘A’ XI travel to Llandysul.
Brief summaries of today’s triumphs will follow – however, as usual, go to https://mumbles.play-cricket.com/Matches for the full facts & figures!