Cricket anoraks Paul and Janice Webb have followed their fascinating statistics on the batting stakes in the first division of the Pembroke County Cricket Club over the last decade with similar facts and figures for bowling – and it is Neyland’s canny spin bowler Andrew ‘Windy’ Miller who takes the honours with not only the most wickets in ten years but also the best average.
 

Most wickets and best average runs per wicket

 
At one stage he was rightly regarded as one of the best three batsmen in the county and the club captain who started Neyland’s surge to becoming the top team in the county – but he stepped down as skipper and dropped down the batting order but can still wield the willow when needs dictate!
 
Andrew bowled the  third-highest number of overs to claim a massive 335 wickets, which was 41 ahead of fiery fast bowler Adam ‘Viking’ James (Haverfordwest) and a further seven more that St Ishmael’s left-arm spin bowler Andrew Pawlett, whom we have always felt has been the most under-rated slow bowler in the county over that time.
 
James also had the second-best economy rate whilst Pawlett finished tenth in that area!
The bowlers who did well to reach the top 20 but conceded most runs per wake were Lawrenny’s Jamie Lewis (28.13), Matthew Davies of Whitland (26.15) and Dan James (then Whitland) with 22.34.



 

Palmer powers to best performance as Tish have three in first five places

 
No doubt about the best one-off bowling figures over the decade and that came from Andrew Palmer of St Ishmaels who went with his team-mates to Llanrhian and returned fine figures of eight wickets for a paltry six runs in 6.5 overs, four of them maidens! That occurred on the 2nd of July, 2016 and sadly Andrew stepped down from local cricket shortly afterwards, otherwise this talented all-rounder would surely have featured far higher than 15^th place with 154 wickets.
 
There were also four seven-wicket hauls that fell to Neyland’s ‘Mr Reliable’ Gary Lloyd (7 for 20) and Dan James, then with Whitland (7 for 38), whilst Tish claimed a remarkable three of the best five  as Pawlett (7 for 21) and Andrew Williams (7 for 23) were sandwiched in at Nos 3 and 4!
 

Neyland top the team representation

 
It comes as no surprise that Neyland have the biggest representation in the top 20 places as Miller is joined by Henry Durrant (13^th),  Lloyd (18^th) and Koomen (19^th), with Haverfordwest joining Tish on three players, with Simon Holliday in seventh spot after being runaway winner as best batsman, followed by Clive Tucker (10^th) alongside runner-up James.
 
There are two each for Lawrenny, Carew and Whitland, whilst Narberth and, surprisingly, Cresselly having one representative to complete the names who have played for just one club.
 
The final figures are great to study, although there are inevitably some surprise omissions, and we at PembrokeshireSport.co.uk would again like to thank Paul and Janice for all their efforts and can’t help wondering – WHAT WILL THEY COME UP WITH NEXT?!




 

Name	Club	Overs	Maidens	Figures	Runs	Wkts	Average
Andrew Miller	Neyland	1341.4	138	6 for 30	4608	335	13.75
Adam James	Haverfordwest	1178.3	229	6 for 15	4179	294	14.21
Andrew Pawlett	St Ishmaels	1428.1	222	7 for 21	5166	287	18.01
Robert Williams	Lawrenny	1471.1	320	6 for 48	4879	244	19.99
Tom Davies	Carew	1071.1	201	6 for 15	3469	229	15.14
Simon Holliday	Haverfordwest	835.5	145	5 for 13	3195	213	15.01
Rhys Davies	Carew	1089.2	188	6 for 16	3756	208	18.05
Nathan Banner	Herbie/HW/ Neyland	1019.5	244	5 for 19	3070	203	15.12
Ryan Lewis	Cresselly	939.1	147	6 for 19	3453	198	17.43
Clive Tucker	Haverfordwest	948.2	171	6 for 15	3314	186	17.81
Andrew Williams	St Ishmaels	912.1	114	7 for 23	3685	171	21.54
Jamie Lewis	Lawrenny	1041.5	145	5 for 36	4698	167	28.13
Henry Durrant	Neyland	984.1	219	5 for 6	3156	165	19.12
Matthew Davies	Whitland	930.4	107	5 for 38	4185	160	26.15
Andrew Palmer	St Ishmaels	876.5	164	8 for 6	2906	154	18.87
Brad McDermott-Jenkins	Lawrenny/Cresselly	781.1	108	6 for 38	3255	148	21.99
Dan James	Whitland	840.4	148	7 for 38	3262	146	22.34
Gary Lloyd	Neyland	881.1	172	7 for 20	2730	143	19.09
Nick Koomen	Neyland	666.1	112	6 for 25	2489	141	17.65
Ian Hughes	Narberth	772.1	188	5 for 29	2135	137	15.58