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Dai captains cricket at Glandy Cross
Dai Dearden is just 22 years old but has already captained Crymych Cricket Club for three seasons and won’t mind if he is given the chance to lead them for a while longer yet because he enjoys the job.
In that time he has seen his club gain promotion and appear in two Alan Brown Cup Finals, winning one of them, and as well as batting high up he has also done his share of the bowling since he believes in leading by example.
Dai played all his senior cricket at Glandy Cross but because Crymych didn’t have a junior team.
“ When I was youngster Ipicked up a huge amount of experience with a range of other clubs and with the county junior teams, all of which held me in good stead for my current role, where I have to lead much older players like Dai Jenkins, Rob and Gary Nicholas, plus Murray Briggs, the club’s resident South African who is the ‘quiet man’ of the side!”
Accidental start
He started at Crymych almost by accident as he lived at Mynachlogddu and his dad John took him to watch a match there. John and his father Alf before him had played cricket in the Lancashire League before they moved to Pembrokeshire and Dai had practised lots in the back garden.
“ I was asked if I would like to have a net and readily said yes – and was soon in the second team captained by Barry Webb and with Vernon Beynon as his first lieutenant,” says Dai, “ I made my debut at Llanddewi Velfrey as a nipper of 13 and claimed a 5 for 22 haul.
I played for two years in the second XI and then gained promotion to the first team which was captained by Tudor Harries and for the next two years I batted at No 11, didn’t bowl and fielded at fine leg all day – but I enjoyed the teas! Then, in the last match of the second season I was called up to bowl and after I had recovered from the shock grabbed 4 for 12 to show Tudor what I had to offer but he had missed!”
Dai has opened the bowling ever since and has gradually moved up the order with some solid batting displays which included a top score of 69 in a stand of 132 with Will Randall. His best bowling at senior level is a 7 for 17 spell at Pembroke which was all the more pleasing because Crymych had only set a low target but still won.
Alan Brown Cup Finals
In his first season Dai was delighted when Crymych reached the final of the Alan Brown Cup at Whitland but sadly it turned out to be a day he will remember for other reasons because Peter John, of opponents Herbrandston, was taken ill on the pitch and passed away.
The match was rightly abandoned and Crymych also missed out on promotion by a whisker in their last game of the season but Dai and Co bounced back in the 2008 season to beat Manorbier in the Alan Brown Cup Final.
“We had been drawn against old rivals Pembroke Dock in an epic semi-final where the teams had tied in the first match and Crymych won the replay from the last ball of the match!”
“We were also back for another Alan Brown Final this season – against the Dock – and the match was abandoned because of rain at a very promising stage before we lost the replay since we didn’t perform as we should.”
Travelled in search of junior cricket
It all seems a long way from the time that he played junior cricket at Pembroke and then Stackpole and was voted ‘Best Player’ in the under 11s and under 13s at Treleet in teams looked after by Ray Kane. Then he moved to Stackpole with players of the calibre of Alex Kemp, Rob Jones and Huw Cox before playing for a short while at Haverfordwest – but then Crymych finally started up a youth team and he played in the Ormond Youth Cup under the captaincy of Mallory Stanford and reached the semi-final before losing to a very good Llanrhian team which included Gareth Davies, Chris Couzens and Geraint Morris.
Throughout this lengthy period of gaining experience at junior level he was also a regular in the county set-up alongside Alex Kemp and Jonathan Venables (Burton) – and his best figures of 5 for 18 included two wickets in two balls whilst Pembrokeshire were on a tour to Bishop Stortford. He also played on other tours to Scotland, North of England and Jersey – and enjoyed every one of them.
Other sports
Outside of his cricket, it comes as no surprise to learn that Dai has also played other sports and whilst he was a student at Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, in Whitland, he played in the centre or on the wing for the rugby team and as a striker in the football time they started up there. He has also recently taken up golf and admits that he still has a lot of work to do despite being a natural driver of a golf ball.
“It goes for miles,” says Dai with a chuckle, “I just need to make sure that some of the shots go straight!”
Future hopes for a ‘Characters’ club
So what of the future for 22 year old Dai?
“I would love to try my luck in the first division at some stage,” he says, “hopefully with Crymych because we have a strong set-up there now. We have teams at under 11, 13 and 15 so that is a start, and we also have a ladies’ team just started as another extension of the game at Glandy Cross. I’ve already mentioned Murray Briggs and some of the Golden Oldies but there other characters like Elgan Vittle, a great all-round sportsman, Rhys Davies and Eurig Lewis, who is the team’s joker. His speciality is to clap for a 50 when the batsman only has 49 runs but raises his bat in acknowledgement – and is then told he still has a run to go. When Rob Nicholas joined us last season he fell for it, hook, line and sinker!”
It seems that Dai’s feelings for the club are returned by his colleagues because one old-timer told us,
“Dai is a great asset to us, not only in his performances but as a club member. We couldn’t have anyone better at the helm and we hope he stays there for some time.”
PembrokeshireSport.co.uk could pay Dai Dearden no higher tribute, other than to say that it is always a pleasure to speak to a sportsman who is not only talented but modest and unassuming as well!
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