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New name for Herbie
John ‘Chippie’ Harries does a great job compiling the weekly cricket scores, tables and best performances in his role as League Secretary of the Pembroke County Cricket Club, aided and abetted by his side-kick Lyn ‘Boy’ Smith, from Lynjay Farm in Monkton, near Pembroke. That the intrepid duo are very much part of the local farming community can be gauged by the fact that when they recently sent out the scores and other details on a Sunday it had Herbrandston down as Herberts Moor, a well-known local farm instead of the cricketing village!
But Messrs Harries and Smith quickly had the error spotted, sent out to those who need the details, and had a chuckle about their farming faux pas. As someone who knows how easy it is to make a Freudian slip with the lap top they have my sympathy and to both of them I say keep up the good work that you do for Pembrokeshire Cricket!
Jenks escapes with just a small dent
It is great to watch local cricket on a variety of attractive grounds but there is always a danger of one’s car being dented or having the windscreen smashed by a soaring cricket ball which plummets to earth like a meteor. Such an incident happened at The Racecourse, home of Haverfordwest Cricket Club, when the second XI beat Pembroke and talented young Town bowler Simon Williams showed that he can also bat as he launched a huge straight six in the direction of the club nets and the small crowd gasped as the ball hit a parked car. Gasping the most was former cricketer Ian Jenkins, whose son Jamie was captaining the Haverfordwest team, because it was his car! Luckily, the ball only just caught the wing of the car and left a little dent but I bet it is some time before ‘Jenks’ leaves his car in the firing line at a cricket match because he’s not the first to suffer the indignity – and certainly won’t be the last!
Family Club at Oatfield Park
If you wanted proof that Burton is very much a family cricket club then their recent match at Stackpole provided real proof because there were no fewer than three sets of fathers and sons in their line-up as they were able to celebrate their first league win in over two years, with a possible fourth but James Scale was at a wedding so he wasn’t there with son Morgan, who played well.
The father and son pairings were Richard and Luke Hayman, Steve and Richard Jones, plus Chris and Gavin Campbell, and there might have been a grandfather and son involved at the match had Dennis Venables joined young Mark in the scoring box, as he often does to help out when the other team hasn’t got a scorer. There could have been pairs of brothers in James and Johnny Scale, or Mike and Jonathan Venables but one of each was missing – and earlier in the season Brian Griffiths joined his sons Mark and Johnnie in the side to complete what is a cracking family club!
Iwan forgets his kit – but still scores heaps of runs
Iwan Izzard is proving to be a very promising young batsman at Cresselly Cricket Club 2nds and as the youngster in the team inevitably has his leg pulled by older players like skipper Richard Arthur, Steve Thomas and Matthew Lewis. This was certainly the case after one recent away match where Iwan turned up, minus some of his kit, and had to borrow some from his colleagues. They told me that Iwan had mixed up his school bag with his kit bag but I know this wasn’t the case – and it was nice to see Iwan chuckle with them at this gentle leg pull. He usually has the final word with his batting as well, because he’s heavily outscoring most of them and as a teenager has many years of first team cricket to come!
Steve Junior loses a glove but scores runs galore
Another very promising teenager in cricket is Steve Mills (Junior), who opens the bowling for Johnston first XI and also scores lots of runs as a stroke-making middle order batsman – and he also lost some kit recently, albeit only a batting glove. Steve was playing for Pembrokeshire under 17s against Wales over 40s at Whitland and when he was due to bat discovered that one of his batting gloves had gone AWOL. He had to borrow a pair from a team mate but it made no difference to his batting since he scored a smashing 91on his seventeenth birthday to prove what a good young player he has become. Of course, it was dad, Steve (Senior) who somehow managed to get the blame as well as the other players but he is made of stern stuff and naturally made sure that Steve (Junior) was properly attired for his next match, where he also bowled and batted really well. In the meanwhile, the missing glove turned up for Johnston’s next home match so the blame for its absence might lie with one or two jokers there!
Bernie is in the runs
Bernie Armstrong is best known as a very good footballer and current team manager of Goodwick United FC, who doubles up as one of the best table-tennis players in the County. But last season he helped out Fishguard and Goodwick 2nds in cricket and at 49 years of age has been well and truly bitten by the cricketing bug.
I watched him play last year and he asked me what I thought of his batting – and since Bernie is an old friend I told him that he was a little limited in his stroke play. He countered by saying that his ambition was to score a half century and I told him that it was so unlikely that if it ever came to fruition I would bare my backside in Woolworth’s window.
Luckily Woolworth’s is now closed because a few weeks ago Bernie smashed eight fours in his innings of 62 against Pembroke Dock 2nds and a week later rattled up 75 against Lamphey 2nds. On both occasions he was on the phone to tell me of his prowess and I reckon I might make a fresh start as a sports psychologist if I can motivate ordinary performers to such high achievements!
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