Cricket Scorers Feature:

 
 
At 21 years of age Teagan Cartwright is an experienced scorer for the first team at Cresselly Cricket Club despite being the youngest regularly in this important role amongst the clubs ibn the first division of local cricket.
 
She also plays for Cresselly Ladies and enjoys that aspect of being a playing member after she started out from the age of 11 as the only girl in the junior team and played right through to Ormond Youth Cup time.
 
By then she was also playing ladies’ cricket and told us,
“I try to bowl a good line and length because accuracy is important and picked up a few wickets in last season’s Skelfayre Cup Final, where we lost narrowly to Burton Ladies. We were actually ahead at tea but in the final innings we couldn’t get Finola Scale out and they won in the last over.”
 

Started scoring after a request from ‘Sir’!

 
It was in 2016 that Teagan set out in the scoring stakes when she was year ten pupil at Greenhill School, where Cresselly players Neilson Cole and Phil Williams were both teaching – and Neilson, who was the Cresselly skipper at the time, asked if she and her sister Casey would help out because they didn’t have on at the time.
 
She readily agreed but said she wasn’t sure how to do it; and Neilson told her not to worry because that weekend they were playing Whitland and Ann-Marie Jenkins would be a great help.
 
“In theory that was fine,” said Teagan with a chuckle, “but the game was called off because of rain and our next match was at Llanrhian, who didn’t have a scorer!”
 

Great mentors around the county and soon experiencing her first Bowl final

 
She managed to muddle through, though, with the help of a couple of senior players and gives credit to other scorers around the county who have been great mentors, like Ann-Marie, Jayne Cole, Wendy Bradshaw and Julie Davies – and have a terrific camaraderie amongst them and good banter with the umpires.
 
“My first Harrison-Allen Bowl Final came at the end of my first season and I scored with Jayne Cole as we lost to Haverfordwest. We also lost in the Duggie Morris Final at Burton with John Laugharne but at least we reached two finals!"
 

Scorebook is a work of art – and she paints animal portraits too

 
“Like a lot of other experienced scorers I use a colour-coded system with a different colour for each bowler and I enjoy seeing the book looking a picture, perhaps because my other big interest is art, where I paint water-colour animal portraits.”
 
She puts them on her Instagram site and must be good because she already has 30+ commissions ready – and it gives her the chance to relax after her day’s work at Andrew Rees’s butchers in Narberth!
 

And finally . . .

 
Back on the cricket front, she is now adept at keeping the club’s electronic scoreboard up to date – and we in the press gang acknowledge how lucky we are that she readily helps us without getting frazzled and always with a cheery smile
 
She is also getting the hang of using an I-Pad to put the club’s score on the ‘Play Cricket’ app which fires it around the county and even further afield.

“Stefan Jenkins helped set it up for me and it is getting easier as I get more used to its complexities – so this year my aim is to try and keep putting it out live.”
 
Ask Teagan Cartwright about the players and she would be quick to praise the way that they treat her as part of the squad, including social activities – and it is appropriate that Phil Williams should tell us,

“Everyone knows how hard it is playing a game without a good scorer and so we are very lucky that Teagan stepped in to the gap when she did after Glyn Cole was ill and unable to do score.

“She does a smashing job and we would like to say thanks for all she does – and always with a smile!