National Indoor Cricket – Regional Finals:

 

Neyland (72 for 3) lost to Ferndown Wayfarers (73 for 0) by 6 wickets

 
Venue: Somerset County Cricket Club, Taunton
Umpires: Peter Osborne & Sam Hollingshead
Scorers: Ben Noden & Craig McLean
 
Neyland’s hopes of an amazing fifth appearance in the finals of the national Indoor Cricket competition at Lord’s were brought to an abrupt end on Sunday when they were well beaten by Ferndown Wayfarers, the champions of Dorset, in the semi-final of the regional competition, which is the stepping stone that Sean Hannon and his talented team have previously taken at the County Ground, the home of Somerset Cricket Club, five times before, with four of them leading to ‘The Home of Cricket’.

Neyland made the long trek to Taunton with high hopes but these were severely dented in the first three overs after they were invited to bat by opposing captain Eric Linge, with key batsmen Paul Miller (1) and Nick Koomen (6) back in the hutch with only 12 runs on the electronic scoreboard operated by Neyland team manager Martin Jones, both clean bowled as Wayfarers really applied the pressure as they fielded superbly in support of bowlers Miles Lewis and Freddie Pittaway.

Skipper Sean Hannon and Ross Hardy rightly settled things down but it was slow going so that at the half way stage of their allotted 12 overs the score was only 34 for 2 – but they did manage to raise the tempo a little as both Hannon (28) and Hardy (27) retired but Jack Kohn was out without scoring late on and Patrick Hannon was 1 not out in a low score that was only boosted by 9 extras.

Such was the dominance of ball over bat that Neyland could only muster five fours and eight threes as they failed to score any runs off a massive 38 deliveries – more than half the balls balled by Lewis (1 for 22), Pittaway (1 for 12), James Raftrey (1 for 18) and Alex Sansom (0 for 17) from their respective three overs.
 

Quick wickets needed – which didn’t come

Neyland knew they needed quick wickets but try as they might Wayfarers scored at above the required run rate, especially picking up more threes, and  after six overs they stood on 45 without loss, with Eric Lange (25) and Alex Sansom (26) retiring soon afterwards.

15 runs came from the seventh over to really set the seal on defeat for Neyland, with Freddie Pittaway (11 not out) and James Raftrey (4 not out) applying the coup de grace as their total included 7 extras, only one four but 16 threes – and only 24 ‘dot balls’ as they reached their target with all wickets intact and 15 balls in hand: arguably Neyland’s heaviest defeat in their long and illustrious history of indoor cricket.

*Perhaps the only minor consolation for the Neyland team, plus 7^th man Lewis Page, was the fact that Ferndown Wayfarers scored 120 in the final and bowled out Old Tauntonians for 35 to reach their first-ever Lord’s Final – and our local team can be proud of the fact that they were Welsh Champions for the umpteenth time and flew the Pembrokeshire flag with distinction throughout the previous rounds!*
SCORECARDS:
 
Neyland Batting:
Nick Koomen b Freddie Pittaway 6
Paul Murray b Miles Lewis 1
Sean Hannon retired 28
Ross Hardy retired 27
Jack John ct Freddie Pittaway b James Raftrey 0
Patrick Hannon not out 1
Extras 9
Total (3 wickets) 72
 
Ferndown Wayfarers Bowling:
Freddie Pittaway 3-0-12-1;  Miles Lewis 3-0- 1-22; James Raftrey 3-0-18-1; Alex Sansom 3-0-17-0.
 
Ferndown Wayfarers Batting:
Eric Lange retired 25
Alex Sansom retired 26
Freddie Pittaway not out 11
James Raftrey not out 4
Extras 7
Total (0 wickets) 73
 
Neyland Bowling:
Jack John 2-0-14-0; Nick Koomen 2-0-19-0; Patrick Hannon 2-0-11-0; Sean Hannon 2-0-16-0; Ross Hardy 1.3-0-10-0.
 

Pictures kindly supplied by Martin Jones.