At 15 years of age Nikhil Mathias has just made his first century in cricket for his Pembrokeshire age group team and made his debut for the first team at Haverfordwest Cricket Club, where he made an impressive start with 40 runs in a productive opening partnership with Dai Davies that put The Town on the road to a vital victory.

It not only provides proof of the way that a successful coaching policy can pay dividends, but is testament to Nikhil’s natural talent, allied to a willingness to take on board good advice.

It is nicely rounding off a cracking season for Nikhil because so far he has notched seven half centuries at various levels and claimed his first three-figure score as a stylish young batsman.

Early start in East Sussex and great family support

He has played for Haverfordwest and Pembrokeshire since his arrival in the county in 2010, when his father Jeggy took up his role as a surgeon at Withybush Hospital. 

He and his older brother Nitin, another very talented young cricketer, have always received total support from his father and mother Shirley since the time he started out in the game playing soft-ball cricket at Hellingly Cricket Club in Eastbourne, East Sussex and adapted to the game straight away.

Warmly welcomed to Haverfordwest

When the family moved to Pembrokeshire the Mathias boys were made very welcome at Haverfordwest by the players, plus coaches like Rick Walton and Andrew Phillips, and Nikhil has since featured regularly in his age-group team and often a year above since then.

He has captained his team at Sir Thomas Picton School every year since he joined them in year seven and says that teachers like Mr Jonathan Dodd and Mr Med Richards always tried to organise as many games as possible for them in the short time available during the summer term.

Well coached – and has already played first division cricket

“At club and county level I have been very lucky to be coached by Simon Williams, Huw Scriven and my brother Nitin,” said Nikhil, “and my game has improved considerably with the advice they have given me.

“The club always tries to look after young players and I was delighted that first team captain Danny Potter not only recently welcomed me into the first team but showed his confidence in my batting by letting me open the innings with Dai Davies - and after I scored 40 runs was picked again for the following week, which was brilliant!”

Ormond Cup matters

A couple of seasons ago Nikhil was a very young 13th man for the Haverfordwest Youth team which won the Ormond Cup, with Kieran Griffiths as man of the match. He had played in the semi-final against Neyland but wasn’t called upon to bat or bowl and at 13 years of age he was just delighted to be involved on the big day – and was pleased to pick up his memento.

“Last year we got knocked out against a very strong Kilgetty side in the first round but this season we have reached the final against Carew on their own pitch after comfortably beating a good Neyland team in the semi-final.

“We restricted them to 78 all out as Jonathan White claimed three key wickets in an over and skipper Kieran O’Brien also bowled really well and won by eight wickets as I managed to score 52 not out and Jake Merry supported with 18 not out.”

Other sports

Outside of his cricket, Nikhil is also a more than useful badminton player and won the Pembrokeshire Final for his age group that was organised by Phil Gwyther before moving on to the Welsh finals at Welshpool, where he finished in a very creditable second place.

He also enjoys playing hockey as a defender at STP School and went for a hockey trial alongside players of the calibre of Ollie Wheeler and Jack Evans but didn’t really have time to commit himself fully in the game because of the demands of his cricket.

Enjoying county representation . . . And scoring runs aplenty!

Back on the cricket front, Nikhil has played for Pembrokeshire at every age-group level so far and really enjoyed being involved with some smashing cricketers from around the county like twins Jack and Harry Nicholas, brothers Tom & John Mansbridge, Johnnie White, Jack Scriven, Noah Davies, Lewis Hough, Lewis Rhead and the rest of what is a very talented squad.

His best county score for a while remained at 81 not out in an away game against Carmarthenshire until a recent tour to Oxfordshire to take on their developmental squads named as Wessex and Mercia. 


Nikhil scored 63 against Wessex before he was caught at mid-wicket – but learned a lot from this error as he scored 107 not out against Mercia, including 18 fours and a six.
“I was in good form as I scored 76 in the first 20 overs and it was a great feeling to reach my first century but I was a little lucky because when I was on 98 I was dropped – at short mid-wicket!

Already helping with coaching – and a cricket ambassador

He received the ‘Player of the Tour’ award for his batting prowess and back at The Racecourse he has shown his ability to be a good club man by helping Simon Williams and Nick Dyer to coach some of the players who turn up in droves for junior practice on Friday evenings.

“I aim to take my coaching badges when the pressure of school work is off a little and I was really pleased when the club made me a ‘Cricket Ambassador’ with the aim of encouraging all the younger players to reach their full potential through hard work.

“The club presented me with a sports top that has ‘Cricket Ambassador’ embroidered on it, alongside the Haverfordwest Blue Lightning’ badge, which is the name of our team in the T20 competition.

‘Blue Lightning’ success enjoyed ‘up the line’

“We reached the finals of this year’s T20 Finals at Hook after beating Cresselly, Cleddau and Neyland but it was rained off so we are hoping to play it later in the season.”
 
Nikhil was also captain of the ‘Blue Lightning’ team which did well to reach the Welsh Finals in Carmarthenshire but lost there – and similarly in the ECB competition they beat Pontarddulais and Mumbles before bowing out of this prestigious competition against Newport an Ammanford, but as Nikhil told us, it was another part of his learning curve!

And finally . . .

So what of the future for Nikhil? On the academic front he has exams aplenty in the next few years but has already set his sights on going to University to study medicine.

In the shorter term he hopes to push for Welsh trials next season and is ready for the commitment that will require – and we can only say that we wish this talented, mature and very modest young cricketer every success because he is a credit to himself, his family, club and county!