Bowl out ensures Jubilee Cup goes to Lamphey (From Western Telegraph)

Bowl out ensures Jubilee Cup goes to Lamphey

Lamphey 305 for 6 beat Haverfordwest (39 FOR3)

Lamphey won 4-0 in bowl out

Umpires: Les Hastings and John Williams Scorers: Jayne Cole (HWest) and Helen Hodges (Lamphey)

Hakin United have swept all before them in the local football scene over recent years and some have their victories have been so convincing that they almost correspond with cricket scores. However, it is doubtful that their star defender Karl Rhead has ever lost a cricket match by a score that resembles a football result, writes Hywel Gibbs.

Well he has now, because after the weather intervened yet again to spoil this re-arranged Jubilee Cup match between the Harrison-Allen winners of 2000 and the league runners-up of the same year, the game was decided on a bowl out between the two teams.

It was a farcical yet enjoyable way to decide a game, but it would have been a travesty of justice if Lamphey had failed to win the match after they racked up a mammoth score of 305 against a weakened Haverfordwest attack, with Dave Lovell and Craig Nutty smashing centuries, with the latters coming off only 53 balls.

Once the umpire had decided that play was unable to continue due to the constant drizzle, they convened with the captains of both sides and concluded that the only way to decided the game would be with a bowl-out.

Therefore, all 11 players of both sides would have to bowl at the stumps once, with the most number of hits deciding the winner.

On winning the toss, Dave Lovell decided to bat and in only the second over of the game this decision looked like backfiring on him as Daniel Sutton was bowled by a terrific inswinger from Steven H Phillips. Any hopes of Haverfordwest ripping through Lampheys top order were soon quashed however when Gareth Lewis joined his captain in a stand worth over 100 runs with both players mixing caution with a series of lovely drives, hooks and pulls.

Lewis was in supreme form and looked back to his best after going through a lean patch mid-way through the season while Lovell was just his usual commanding self hitting any bad balls to the boundary.

Lewis was eventually run out one short of a deserved half century through a piece of fielding brilliance by Clive Tucker, who dived in the covers and in one movement threw the ball at the stumps for a direct hit.

The stage was then set for Lovell to take control as he often has this year, but in truth he was upstaged by 19-year-old Nutty, who has developed superbly this year.

Initially, he let his captain have the strike, but then he just cut loose against the bowlers and reached his 50 off 36 balls, with Lovell taking 63 for his and then raised his bat for a brilliant ton 17 balls later having hit a colossal ten sixes and four fours.

For the record, Lovell hit 14 fours and six sixes.

Nuttys innings eventually came to an end when Richard James stumped him off the bowling off John Venebles.

Haverfordwest started their innings poorly as Andrew Phillips was bowled by Hywel Gibbs for a second ball duck while David Davies and Karl Rhead were bowled by Tim Haggar for 11 and five respectfully, although Paul Thomas and Venebles were going along nicely, and if the game was called off with 15 of their overs bowled, they would surely have won on the run rate rule.

However, the rain worsened and after a slight delay while the officials decided what to do, the bowl-out started.

Haverfordwest went first and failed to hit the stumps until Dai Davies did so, although his ball was ruled a no-ball after it hit on the full, while the rules stated that it has to bounce first.

Naturally, it was Lovell who hit first for the home side and he was quickly joined by Brian Hall, Hywel Gibbs and Tim Haggar to secure victory for Lamphey in unfamiliar circumstances, although it was a fair result on reflection of the game.

Craig Nutty celebrates reaching his century