Ladies’ Cricket – Clive Huxley Final:

 
 

Pembroke Dock Ladies (82 for 8 & 83 all out) lost to Burton Ladies (163 for 5 & 4 for 0) by 10 wickets

 
Umpires: Martin Jones & Allan Hansen
Scorers: Peter Kingdom & Diane Morris
Venue: Stackpole Cricket Club
 
Finola Scale was the toast of her colleagues in the Burton Ladies’ team as her virtuoso performance with bat and ball saw them win the Clive Huxley Cup with relative ease at a sun-baked Stackpole Ground where Clive played his cricket locally.
 
So it was fitting that his daughter, Kath Adams, presented the trophy after The Dock started both their innings quite well but failed to score big totals so that after Finola had stroked an unbeaten 76 in their 163 for 5 it left them with just four runs needed in their second innings, which they duly did in their very first over.
 

The Dock fail to build on a solid start (1)

 
Batting first, The Dock  lost the big-hitting Carys Lloyd in their first over, well caught by Bronwen Scale off Olivia James for a single but stood at a reasonable 61 for 3 in the 12^th over thanks to Katie Griffiths (14), Sian James (16, including two fours) and Ava Midgeley (14).
 
But when this trio departed they only mustered 21 in their final eight overs since Burton bowled and fielded well as Lilly Thomas claimed 2 for 17, Olivia James topped the charts with 3 for 18, Zoe Brick picked up 1 for 15 and Finola Scale made her first contribution with 2 for 10.



 

Finola fires a huge salvo of shots

 
Burton also got off to a shaky start as Rhiannon Morgan could only muster 7 runs before she was trapped lbw by Lana Jones – but Finola Scale then showed her batting class with her full array of shots around the wicket alongside Lilly Thomas, who had two fours in her score of 16 before she gave a return catch to Cheryl Hughes.
 
But by then Burton had amassed 72 in only the eighth over and the arrival at the crease of Bronwen Scale saw the tempo raise even further as he struck four boundaries in her score of 30 before she was caught by Lana Jones off Carys Lloyd, with the total having rocketed to 153.
 
Burton finished on 163 for 5 thanks to Finola Scale’s magnificent undefeated innings of 74 runs, which contained nine fours – and their tally was helped in no small measure by the 28 extras conceded by The Dock,  19 from wides and six from no balls.
 

The Dock fail to build on a solid start (2)

 
The Dock’s second innings followed a very similar pattern to their first as Katie Griffiths batted sensibly as opener to score 21 before she was seventh out and there were other useful innings from Ava Midgeley (10) and Cheryl Hughes 16, including two fours) but again they lost their way against tight fielding and accurate bowling as they slipped from 60 for 3 to 83 all out as no-one else managed to reach double figures.
 
Indeed, it was only 12 extras that helped take them beyond Burton’s first innings tally as Finola Scale led the way with 3 for 11, with support from Lilly Thomas (2 for 15), Rhiannon Morgan (2 for 14) and Olivia James (1 for 16).


 

And finally . . .

 
So Burton needed to score only four runs for victory and from the fifth ball of Ava Midgeley’s first over against Lucy Luke and Lauren Owens it was the former player who sent the ball to the boundary and Burton were worthy winners.
 
It meant disappointment for Pembroke Dock but they can take consolation from the fact that they have been playing well in the second division and had done really well to reach the final against such experienced opposition.
 
Eleri Williams and Lauren Davies had little difficulty in picking Finola Scale as player of the match as tributes were also paid to umpires Martin Jones and Allan Hansen, plus scorers Diane Morris and Peter Kingdom.