Mixed fortunes for county boys (From Western Telegraph)

Mixed fortunes for county boys

3:00pm Saturday 4th July 2009

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Pembrokeshire 173 all out beat West Glamorgan 135 all out

Pembrokeshire came away from the heartland of cricket at West Glamorgan with an excellent win in a game that could have gone either way.

The winning margin of 38 runs was due to the fighting spirit and character of the whole team, which fought back when West Glamorgan were in the driving seat with ten overs to go and seven wickets outstanding. Pembrokeshire lost the toss and were given first use of a good wicket at Clydach. Kurtis Marsh and Alex Codd put on 36 in 12 overs, before Codd (20) was bowled by G John. Scott Thomas and James Phillips bowled tight spells for West Glamorgan. Scott Jones and Kurtis put on 99 for the next wicket before Marsh (41) fell lbw to Matthew Blake, who ended with 2-15.

Jones pushed onto 62, before being well caught by Scott Thomas off R. Phillips, who ended up with 2-9. Ewan Meredith making his debut for Pembrokeshire, batted well, together with Jacob Knox, who must now be looking to move up the order. West Glamorgan’s reply started strongly with Matthew Blake and Anthony Thomas, batting well and being particularly harsh on some short bowling by the Pembrokeshire team. George Williams bowled a very tight spell conceding only five runs together with Tomas Lewis. West Glam reached 68 in 17 overs.

It was now the spin kings of Codd, Jones and Marsh who slowed the run rate down, with Codd and Jones bowling five successive maidens between them. However, West Glam responded strongly with Matthew Blake and Scott Thomas throwing caution to the wind. They took the score up to 97 in the 26th over, before two excellent run outs by Geraint and Scott Jones, aided by Philip Llewellyn, swung the game again. West Glam only needed 60 off the last ten overs with 7 wickets in hand.

However, after drinks, an uplift in the Pembrokeshire fielding and the introduction of Marsh, swung the game. Marsh clean bowled Blake for 49 and ended up with excellent figures of 5-16-7, including a well-deserved hat trick. West Glam finished on 135 all out in the 39th over.

The game provided some excellent learning for both sides, with the only down side for Pembrokeshire, being an injury to George Williams. The team is now starting to gel together, learn the game of cricket with all performances improving. It was only fitting that the Pembrokeshire team voted Kurtis Marsh the man of the match on his birthday weekend, for his excellent contribution of 41 runs and five wickets.

Cardiff and The Vale 122 all out beat Pembrokeshire 115 for 9 A tight exciting finish saw Cardiff and The Vale inflict the first defeat of the season for Pembrokeshire.

On a good batting track at Bosherston and Stackpole, Cardiff won the toss and elected to bat. The bowling of both sides was of a very high standard and on the day this was the stronger of the two disciplines.

For Pembrokeshire, Greg Thompson and George Williams continued their tight opening spells where it was the turn of George to pick up the first wicket. Chris Van Os looked very stylish for Cardiff and started to build his innings. Geraint Jones and Tomos Lewis bowled a second tight spell, with Geraint picking up the second wicket for Pembrokeshire. There were two good run outs by Alex Codd and George Williams, aided by Philip Llewellyn. Adi and Achi Khamaraj got into double figures for Cardiff and Chris Van Os went on to score 45. Alex Codd and Scott Jones took five wickets between them where there were six good catches by the Pembrokeshire team with George Williams being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 6.1-3-7-2. Cardiff were bowled out in the 40th over for 122, with the Pembrokeshire fielding getting better with every game.

It was a similar story when Pembrokeshire batted with James Caddy and Edwards Hayes conceding only seven runs in their opening spell with Hayes picking up two wickets. Tristan Wharf, son of Alex, and Cai Evans, son of Ieuan Evans also bowled well with Kurtis Marsh and Scott Jones trying to build up momentum. Alex Boorman, the pick of the Cardiff bowlers with three–14, picked up the valuable wicket of Marsh – l.b.w. for 12 runs. Wickets fell at regular intervals, with Geraint Jones looking good, before he was run out. Jones went onto 40 runs, before he was stumped off the bowling of Adi Khamaraj. Tomos Lewis had an excellent knock of 15 n.o. and George Williams seven n.o. Pembrokeshire finished eight runs short in an absorbing game.

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