Daley drives Dock to massive victory by Bill Carne

 

Stackpole (104 for 8 &  145 for 5) lost to Pembroke Dock 185 for 0 &  65 for 0) by 10 wickets

 

Venue: Spring Hill, Whitland (Well done the ground staff!)
 
Umpires: Chris Stapleton & Neil Thomas

Scorers: Phil Tallett (Stackpole) & Nicola Murray (Pembroke Dock)
 
Man of the Match: Nick Daley (Pembroke Dock)

MoM Adjudicator: Martin Jones (Vice Chairman, Pembroke County Cricket Club)

Static Pics - Bill carne
Excellent action pics - Keith Adie (with more tomorrow in a terrific extra feature!)
 
Pembroke Dock were worthy winners of the 2025 Alan Brown Cup as they easily overcame the challenge from old rivals Stackpole in a one-side contest where the losers deserve real credit for battling away until the final delivery was despatched to the boundary by Jake Davies in the seventh over – in a  game that was a credit to both clubs and their supporters.
 
Although it has to be said that Stackpole must have been heartily sick of seeing The Dock players because they had met in the league the day before and had also lost by ten wickets there – and it was the first time that a team had batted throughout both of their innings without losing a wicket – with Nick Delay as their tormentor-in-chief because he was at the crease for all three innings!
 
On the Saturday he had been the junior partner to Jake Griffiths, but on Sunday he smashed an unbeaten century and after overcoming cramp and bowling his second spell he came back out, albeit looking a little stiff,  to score the bulk of the runs as they easily chased down the small score required, with Jake Davies his admirable partner on both occasions.
 

Disappointing start just got worse for Stackpole

 
The day hadn’t started well for Stackpole as skipper Josh Davies lost the toss and was invited to bat first by opposite number George Smith – and ace batsmen Richard Mackay and Yori Roberts both departed for ducks.
 
Josh Davies (9) rapped two boundaries but was then well caught by keeper Scott Griffiths  and repeated the process with an even better catch, this time to remove ‘danger man’ John Williams, both off pace-man Euan McDonald (3 for 29), and neatly stumped James Adie to help Jamie White to a 2 for 17 analysis – and all this meant Stackpole stood precariously 47 for 5.
 
But they fought back well via Paul Oeppen (24) and Simon Bevan (20) but both were joined by Chris Gibbs  (beautifully caught on the boundary by Adam Phillips  for a duck off Neil Gregory (2 for 26) as all three departed whilst one run was added. George Smith (1 for 19) was the other successful bowler but there were 29 extras to include in the equation and after their allotted overs were ended, they would not have been happy with a score of  105 for 8.
 

The Dock start in top gear – and maintain the run-glut throughout

 
In sharp contrast, The Dock started with a bang as they reached 50 in their fourth over, with Daley registering the bulk of them and Davies doing a great job of feeding him the strike.
 
They raced past three figures and the only blip came when Daley stood  at 95 and tried to go to a first hundred in 20 overs (he already has five ‘tons’ in league cricket) with a six, but his shot gently arced to keeper John Williams, who failed to hold on.
 
 Daley went on to reach 114 not out from 77 balls, including 16 fours and two sixes, with Davies deservedly reaching 55 not out in 44 deliveries, including eight boundaries, alongside 16 extras.
 

Skipper Josh tries to lead a counter-attack

 
It meant that Pembroke Dock led by 84 runs and after a superb buffet tea supplied for players, officials and members of the Umpires Association by Shan Richards and Jackie Izzard, Stackpole knew they needed someone to match Mr Dale Snr, if they were to have any chance of victory.
 
And skipper Josh Davies led his troops by example as he and former captain Richard Mackay put on 78 for the first wicket but had used up 11 overs when Josh departed for a gritty  53 in 45 balls that included eight fours and a six, with Richard chipping in with 30 (3 fours and 2 sixes) and James Adie (29) also hitting 3 fours and two sixes before he was removed by Geoge Smith, who clean bowed John Williams for a ‘golden duck’ to compete an excellent 3 for 24 spell that also slowed down the run rate.
 
From then on there were small Stackpole cameos but with limited time left the Dock kept them tight as Neil Gregory and the ubiquitous older Daley kept them to a decent score of 145 for 5 but meant they had 20 overs to reach a winning total of 65
 

Daley  and Davies race to victory with over 13 overs in hand
 

But the  Pembroke Dock openers clearly had no intention of hanging around and after four overs had already amassed 36 runs with some big hits allied to some well-judged running in between that sometimes turned ones into twos.
 
They applied the coup de grace in the seventh over when Davies punched the ball to the boundary and both teams were rightly congratulated on their effort and attitude by chairman Trefor Evans on behalf of the Pembrokeshire Association of Cricket Officials, who also rightly thanked Whitland Cricket Club for traditionally warm welcome, the umpires, scorers and everyone else involved – plus sponsor Clive Edwards of Bysiau Cwm Taf.
 
It was nice that Stackpole skipper Josh Davies received the Thomas Carroll award for the month from Mr Evans after a string of good scores and the day was nicely rounded off  as Martin Jones announced the man of the match winner, but as he said, no-one needed to be told who it was – it was Nick Daley!