page revision date: 28th August 2008

Dads and daughters hat-trick for Whitland

Whitland Third XI created a little piece of Pembrokeshire cricketing history recently when they played a Division Five match against Hook Seconds and included in their team three fathers and their respective daughters.
Should it have been fathers and sons it would have been pretty special but to have three daughters and their dads and their daughters could well have been the first time in league cricket anywhere in the country, or even in the world!

Colin John, Gwyn Phillips and Ashley Evans have all served Whitland well, with Colin having been a first team regular for years and doing so much good work with coaching the juniors at the club. Gwyn opened the batting for the first team and is now skipper of the third XI where he uses his wealth of experience to good effect bringing on young players who can move through the club’s senior teams, whilst Ashley is a useful pace bowler who is renowned for his 100% commitment.
They all turned out at Hook and found themselves with their daughters also involved, with Colin’s daughter Alice (14), Gwyn’s daughter Rachel (20) and Ashley’s daughter Nerys (13) in the same side. All three love their cricket, with Rachel captaining the team at Aberystwyth University, Alice and Nerys both playing for Wales Girls under 15 team, with Nerys as a useful wicket-keeper batswoman and Alice as an all-rounder. Sadly, there was no fairy tale ending against a team which received the divisional silverware prior to the match from County Club chairman Trefor Evans, with Hook totalling 159 for 3 and Whitland managing to score only 82 all out.

Just for the record, Colin scored ten runs and Alice had three runs, Gwyn managed four runs and Rachel was unlucky to be run out without scoring, whilst Ashley and Nerys both failed to score any runs but Dad claimed 2 for 25 in his bowling spell.
Trefor Evans actually umpired the match alongside Whitland CC chairman Richard Merriman, with Trefor saying,
“We are delighted to see girls playing the game at any level, with Samantha Rossiter in the opposing team and grabbing 4 for 12. The three fathers are always 100% enthusiastic and the daughters are certainly following in their footsteps.”
His view was echoed by Richard Merriman, who told us,
“Whitland is a family club and anyone can play for us. This must be a very unique occasion and we are delighted to have three dads and daughters all playing together.”