Kirkby kills off Cresselly chance (From Western Telegraph)

Kirkby kills off Cresselly chance

Haverfordwest (152 for 7) drew with Cresselly (126 for 5) Umpires: Rob Bellerby and Tony Scourfield Scorers: Jayne Cole and Dave Richards

A fine unbeaten innings of 82 by Phil Kirkby rescued Haverfordwest from potential disaster at 19 for 3 and took them to a respectable tally but with Paul Luke marking his return to the Cresselly with a solid half century The Town bowlers were never able to make headway at such a rate as to really threaten a win - and the game petered out into a tame draw.

The game started in interesting fashion as James Caine charged down The Racecourse slope to bowl three wides from his opening salvo - and then had in-form Haverfordwest skipper Jonathan Twigg caught at point by Ryan Lewis for a duck from his first legitimate delivery.

Even worse was to follow for the home side because Phil James had Andrew Phillips trapped lbw without scoring and so after two overs the score was 3 for 2!

Dai Davies departed with the total on 19 as Caine struck again with the aid of a good catch by keeper Simon Hart but then Kirkby joined Phil Sutton and the pair added 50 runs before Sutton was caught by Luke off Richard Harris for 28, a steady knock made from 90 balls and containing two fours.

Then Lyn Richards joined the fray and shifted Steve Phillips and Paul Thomas so that The Town were struggling on 99 for 6 but Kirkby dominated affairs to such an extent that he scored most of the late runs as Huw Scriven and Adrian Griffiths gave him much-needed support, and included eight fours and a six as he faced 112 balls and looked in command throughout.

Haverfordwest made a better start as they lost only Julian Arthur in reaching 44 but then Damian Arthur and Ryan Lewis departed at the same score.

But Paul Luke looked in command and he hit some nice boundaries backward of square and through the covers as he held the innings together.

He reached 52 before he touched a delivery from Simon Williams into Huw Scrivens gloves - and although Williams also had Richard Harris lbw for 14 there was to be no late break-through as Lyn Richards (16) and Huw Griffiths (19) remained undefeated as Cresselly finished up 27 runs short of victory but with maximum draw points.

The Haverfordwest match-day sponsors were Tara Builders and Haverfordwest Coin Machines.

HAVERFORDWEST J. Twigg c R. Lewis b J. Caine 0 A. Phillips lbw b P. James 0 D. Davies c S. Hart b J. Caine 8 P. Sutton b P. Luke b R. Harris 28 P. Kirkby not out 82 S. Phillips b L. Richards 0 P. Thomas b L. Richards 5 H. Scriven b L. Richards 11 A. Griffiths not out 4 Extras 14 Total (for 7 wkts) 152 Bowling: J. Caine 3-0-12-2; P. James 12-2-27-1; R. Harris 12-2-25-1; L. Richards 10-1-25-3; S. Jenkins 3-1-16-0; R. Lewis 5-0-38-0.

CRESSELLY J. Arthur c A. Phillips b P. Thomas 8 P. Luke c H. Scriven b S. Williams 52 D. Arthur c A. Griffiths b C. Tucker 4 R. Lewis lbw b S. Phillips 0 R. Harris lbw b S. Williams 14 H. Griffiths not out 19 L. Richards not out 16 Extras 13 Total (for 5 wkts) 126 Bowling: P. Thomas 8-4-12-1; A. Griffiths 7-0-24-0; S. Phillips 0-1-37-1; C. Tucker 12-2-25-1; S. Williams 8-1-17-2.