Welsh Indoor Cricket Finals:

 

Neyland are Welsh champions – yet again!

 


Neyland are Welsh Champions yet again as they completely dominated the finals day, held in their home town at the Community Hub, and with Pembroke and Landore (Swansea) as their opponents in a round-robin format after the second Swansea club was unable to field a team, writes Bill Carne.
 
Neyland entertained Landore in the opening game and didn’t lose a wicket in chasing down their opponents’ score and after Pembroke had started with a hard-fought victory over the Swansea based team, who in the summer play in the main for Hafod CC, they failed to find any form in what was in effect the final against Neyland, who again won without losing a single wicket.

 
Their reward is now a long journey to Taunton, the home of Somerset County Cricket Club, for the four-team South-West zonal finals in early March, on their latest quest to make it to Lord’s again for the national finals. They will meet the Hampshire Champions on Sunday 8^th  March and then play the winners of Isle of Wight, Dorsetshire, Gloucestershire or Wiltshire, who will play prior to their games that day.

 
And then the winner on that day will travel to Lords on the 29^th March for indoor cricket’s big day – and hopefully it will be Sean Hannon and his squad from Neyland!
 
Umpires: Rob Bellerby & Huw Simpkins
Scorers: Sarah and Kacey Arran (Neyland) plus Ginny Davies and Bobbie Neale (Pembroke)
 
 
 

Match One: Landore (59 for 5) lost to Neyland (60 for 0) by six wickets

 

Landore clearly found the conditions at The Hub much different because the hall is much bigger and encourages stroke play, although their opening pair did move quickly to 31 in only for overs but then Patrick Bellerby removed key batsman Mughal with the assistance of a good catch by Dai Davies, and partner Rahimi was run out to ramp up the pressure.
 
From there, accurate stuff from Patricks Bellerby and  Hannon, Joe John and especially Davies saw Landore batsmen come and go so that only ‘Mr Extras’ managed double figures and they were shot out for 59!
 
Then Bellerby and Davies showed their opponents how to utilise the extra space with judicious running between the wickets so that there only three boundaries as they raced to their target, aided and abetted by 17 extras
 
Landore Batting: Alima Mughal 22, Tom Davies 10*
Neyland Bowling: Jack John 1-12, Patrick Hannon 0-12, Patrick Bellerby 1-17, Dai Davies 1-7
Neyland Batting: Patrick Bellerby 21*, Dai Davies 22*
Landore Bowling: Mohammed Uzair 0-20, Vian Kumar 0-17




 
 
 

Match Two: Landore  (98 for 5) lost to Pembroke (99 for 2) by four wickets

 

Landore clearly did learn something from their initial experience because they batted better against Pembroke as openers Maghul and Rahimi both reached the retirement requitement of 25, despite some good fielding by Luke Butlers’ boys, other than careless attempted run outs which earned an extra run – and another too-large quota of extras as bowlers found controlling the swing provided by the new ball – and Sam Davies also added a little cameo to take the Swansea champions to a challenging total.
 
But Pembroke openers Luke Butler and the in-form Gareth Long soon settled until Butler went for a risky single and Pembroke’s ‘Mr Reliable’ was run out – but Long reached his retirement score, which included two sixes as the total was boosted by 21 extras as bonus,
 
Jack Harries sensibly adopted the anchor role when he and Callum Davies came together, with the latter hitting two boundaries,  they showed great judgement in reaching their target with two balls to spare of their 12 overs, taking them to their second Welsh Final in as many years!
 
Landore Batting: Alima Maghul 27,  Amir Rahimi 28*, Extras 27
Pembroke Bowling: Callum Davies 1-26, Krunal Patel 0-18, Jack Harries 1-24, Jay Sutherland 0-20
Pembroke Batting: Luke Butler 12, Gareth Long 27, Jack Harries 15*, Callum Davies 21*, Extras 21
Landore Bowling: Vian Kumar  0-11,  Mohammed Uzair 0-16, Alim Mughal 1-28
 
 
 

Match Three – The Final: Pembroke 39 all out lost to Neyland (40 for 0) by six wickets

 

Pembroke had recently ruined Neyland’s long-held unbeaten record and were expected to provide another strong challenge, but the large crowd in the viewing gallery were soon witnessing a superb Neyland performance with the ball, where Pembroke collapsed under pressure, and were on their way to Taunton!
 
Pembroke could not have made a much worse start as  Butler ran himself out for a single and Long managed only the same score as he struck a Patrick Hannon delivery to Jack John – and another mortal blow arrived soon afterwards as Jack Harries, who looked more settled, was neatly stumped by Sean Hannon to earn his twin Patrick a second wicket – and Pembroke were in dire straits at 11 for 3 and with their main scorers back in the hutch.
 
Callum Davies, caught by Bellerby off Davies, and Jay Sutherland (a second stumping by skipper Hannon earning Bellerby a wicket) and at 24 for 5 it was almost all over.
 
Krunal Patel had been at the other end, watching for a while for a while and he showed his typical fighting spirit as he at least made the score a little more respectable  until at 19, he was run out.
 
Neyland’s openers Bellerby and Davies duly prevented any other batsmen going to the crease on the day as they took only 4.5 overs to reach their target and skipper Sean Hannon received the trophy from Martin Jones, the County Club vice-chairman – and although Pembroke were understandably disappointed, they showed typically good sportsmanship and deserve every credit for reaching this stage and at least came Welsh runners-up to a highly experienced, motivated and extremely talented Neyland team!
 
Pembroke Batting: Krunal Patel 19, Jack Harries 10
Neyland Bowling:  Jack John 0-8, Patrick Hannon 2-7, Patrick Bellerby 1-8, Dai Davies 1-13
Neyland Batting: Patrick Bellerby 22*, Dai Davies 13*
Pembroke Bowling: Callum Davies 0-19, Krunal Patel 0-7, Jay Sutherland 0-13