Neyland finally break Town domination

 

Great joy for Neyland on first success

Congratulations to Sam Laugharne and his Neyland Thirds team on winning the Ken Morris Cup for the first time after one previous final – and defeat in 2017. It was fitting reward for their mainly youthful team, supported by the experience of Phil Sutton and Steve Murray. Their joy was evident at the end and who could blame them because they had five team members who were 21 or under.

Town lose first final after 10 victories – eight of them in the last eight years!

Haverfordwest have won the trophy ten times in its 13-year history as they started off with two successes before Carew won three on the trot  - and then The Town have won the last eight times on the trot. But with John Ebenezer as their youngest player at 29 they were inevitably slower about the field and paid the price – but gave 100% nonetheless!

Matthew has a runners-up memento – after ten winners’ medals!

Popular bowler Matthew Vaughan was the only Town player who could rightfully boast (but he didn’t) that he had played in all ten Town triumphs but it wasn’t his day after lots of wickets in the earlier games – although he was as sportsmanlike as ever in accepting his first runners-up trophy!






 

Walter’s back and joined Chris in the middle

Walter Dash used to play cricket for Spittal and then took up umpiring before moving away from the area – but he is back living in Narberth and helping out at the local cricket club so it was nice that he officiated the final. Joining him as umpire was Chris Stapleton, who had played earlier in the competition for Hundleton after starting out his playing career as a fiery fast bowler with Laugharne. Chris has also been a hugely respected football referee who officiated the 2005/06 Senior Cup Final. Well done – you did a good job!





 

Natalie and John – so efficient as scorers

The scorers for the day were Natalie Thomas (Haverfordwest) and John Laugharne (Neyland), working superbly together despite an age difference of more than 50 years. They not only make sure that their scorebooks look a picture but are so helpful to the nuisances of the local press – so a huge special thanks from us to you!





 

Special day for John as his grandson Sam was Neyland skipper

After so many top cup finals many years ago as a player with Neyland and as a scorer as well, including this year’s first-team triumph in the Harrison-Allen Bowl, John Laugharne readily admitted after the match that this was a special occasion for him which matched any of the afore-mentioned mementoes. Because his grandson Sam successfully led the Neyland team with a maturity beyond his years and did well with bat and ball, as he was also watched by sister Libby.  When Sam smashed the ball to the boundary for the winning runs I thought I spotted the suspicion of a tear in John’s eyes but I suppose it could have been hay fever!

Special day too for Steve

It was also a special day for Steve Murray who was making a welcome return to action this campaign after a four-year gap through work commitments. Steve was one of the lunch-pins of Neyland’s success story with innings of 51 and 27, plus a 2 for 16 bowling haul in the second innings. Everyone at the ground would surely agree with his selection as man of the match – and the recipient of a magnificently engraved cut-glass trophy organised by Richard Morris as his reward!

‘Taff’ enjoys his ‘man of the match’ adjudication

Making that man of the match choice was Jonathan ‘Taffy’ Williams, the popular all-rounder with Hundleton who had been invited to adjudicate this year. A very good rugby and cricket player ‘Taffy’ could have played at one of the top clubs in the county in his younger days but always wanted to play for his home village – and it was lovely to see him accorded the job – although his catching of china cups definitely needs some attention!

Deserved high praise for Richard on great ‘Ken Morris Memorial Cup’ season

The final of the popular Ken Morris Cup brought high praise for organiser Richard Howell, whose encouragement and enthusiasm saw all the matches played in the preliminary rounds and a competitive final played in the best of sporting spirits. He was ever-present, as usual, along with wife Rhian, son Jordan and parents John and Heather, and this 13th holding of the competition, especially in these difficult times, reflects the fact that he is such a great club man at Narberth.

Morris family were there in support

It is also good to report on the support given to the occasion by the Morris family because Ken's sons Richard and Gregg were there whilst Paul was unavoidably unable to attend because of family commitments elsewhere. Richard sorted out the magnificent trophies, as usual, whilst Ken’s grandchildren Michelle Morris-Quigley (Pictured above presenting umpires' and scorers' trophies), Jay and Chelsea Morris (pictured here separately), presented the other trophies.








 

Great work by the groundsmen

Also due a huge amount of praise were the groundsmen at the Lewis Lloyd Ground, who battled so hard to ensure a decent playing surface after so much rain in the area. On the morning of the match Bobby Simons was at the ground at 7.30pm to get the preparation under way and he was joined by the father and son duo of Mike and Matthew Johns, plus Alan Davies, who has recently been helping out after moving down from Barry. Well done lads – you did a brilliant job!


 

Ian receives a big compliment . . .

Ian Milsom was in attendance at the ‘Neyland Bubble’ as their team manager/covid advisor and he was engrossed in the play as well as chatting to anyone who would listen to him, like me as his former head of year in school!. He is another great club man who skippered the third time when it set out – and it was mentioned that a majority of the Neyland team had started out under his coaching. He also does a lot of work on the Neyland ground – and was another proud dad on the day.



 

. . . As Ben’s commitment matches his father’s!

Ian’s son Ben Mathias-Milsom was playing for Neyland and scored 8 and 13 not out, to the evident delight of Milsom senior. But a lot of other players on both sides wouldn’t know how tired he must have been after travelling back from Taunton overnight. Ben is contracted as an assistant groundsman at Glamorgan but is working on loan with Scott Hawkins for Somerset CCC – and on Friday evening they had a rain-interrupted 20/20 clash with Birmingham which inevitably ended late. But Ben wasn’t going to miss this chance and Ian’s comments on Twitter justifiably showed just how proud he was.



 

Brunch enjoyed – but Town president Stuart excelled in his culinary at Narberth!

Both teams enjoyed the now-traditional pre-match brunch, with Neyland eating out at the Neyland Garden Centre and Haverfordwest enjoying their grub at their clubhouse. For Haverfordwest, president Stuart Williams and cricket secretary Roger Thomas were included in their ‘brunch bubble’ but sadly the latter was unable to attend because he was supposed to be having his gas boiler serviced but the man failed to show. Messrs Williams and Thomas still manage to attend the game, however, in the guises of coach and first-aider and it appears that Mr Williams took with him some cold faggot, sliced beetroot and onion sauce sandwiches – now doesn’t that sound tasty?!!



 

Great catches on both sides

There were some terrific catches taken on both sides, with Matthew Vaughan, Paul Jenkins and Dean Flood excelling for The Town.
For Neyland, Phil and Nathan Sutton pouched important catches whilst16 year old Aidan Rees not only bowled well but took a blinder as Haverfordwest opener David Haynes managed to play the worst shot of the day to the worst delivery bowled  and young Aidan ran in from the deep for a perfectly judged catch. A real prospect that young feller!

Callum shows his enthusiasm behind the stumps

In a thoroughly enjoyable game one of the highlights for me was the genuine enthusiasm of Neyland’s opening batsman/wicketkeeper Callum Power as he gave loads of encouragement to his bowlers and fielders throughout both Haverfordwest’s innings. He didn’t score as many runs as he would have hoped in his role as opening bat but with the gloves on he was a bundle of energy and was very much involved in three run outs of vital opposing players.- and his joy was evident in each. So well done Cal – and keep up the good work.