Pembroke County Cricket
Division 2
Whitland 2nds 102-6 beat Llechryd 98 all out.
Still searching for their first win of the season Llechryd travelled to bottom side Whitland 2nds in a determined mood and eager to stop the rot but it just never happened.
The visitors who were not at full strength were put into bat on a lively track and opening bowler Connor Bowen blew away the Llechryd top order with the superb figures of seven wickets for only 9 runs from his 12 overs. Only Dewi Davies with 20 ever looked settled. The game looked like it could be heading for an early finish but Llechryd did find some resistance in the bottom order with skipper Graham Keen leading by example with 26, Peter Gregory 13 and Rich Connolly 12 adding some late runs. However the innings eventually came to an end on a disappointing 98 all out.
Whitland looked to finish the job early with some big hitting and looked to be sailing to victory but first change bowlers Mike Godfrey (4-27) and Andrew Fletcher (1-25) tried to claw the game back. A slight middle order wobble from the hosts did give Llechryd a glimmer of hope but they eventually passed the total for the loss of six wickets. The other wicket taker was veteran left armer Peter Betteley.
Martin Thomas top scored for the Borderers with 32 and he was backed up by Hywel Bevan on 25 and Jack Bowen with 17.
Next up for the Teifisiders is a home clash with Carew and with Llechryd now well and truly in a relegation dogfight their performances will need to improve but they face another tough task against the runaway leaders this Saturday.
Division 3
Llechryd 2nds 99 all out lost to Pembroke Dock 101-3.
Llechryd were set another tough challenge against the division leaders and promotion hopefuls, Pembroke Dock. The visitors won the toss and asked Llechryd to bat on a quick outfield and dry wicket and the hosts got off to a decent start. They were 75-2 at the 20 over mark and had the opposition in a spot of bother, especially as their opening bowlers had used most of their allocated overs and the change bowling were taking some punishment.
Llechryd could not however maintain this pressure and collapsed to 99 all out in the 34th over. The main run getters were Ollie Roberts who top scored with 41, Scot Thomas who made 14, Duncan Blackburn with 12 and 14 yr old Tomos Tomkinson contributing runs and keeping well behind the stumps, replacing his youth coach Rob Mansfield with the gloves.
For Pembroke Dock it was spin bowler Scott Griffiths who did the damage removing Roberts and Thomas and going on to take two further wickets in the lower middle order, ending with figures of 4-6 off 8 overs. Nic Daley also picked up two wickets for 24 runs. The Dock pacemen were generally kept at bay by some resilient top order batting by Llechryd who restricted John Camani and Ben Wood to a wicket a piece, 1-27 and 1-24, respectively.
The Dock chase got off to a slow start with the Llechryd attack making some early inroads and keeping things tight in the field. At one point in the match the visitors were in trouble at 16 for 2 and struggling to get the run rate moving, however captain Nic Daley held the chase together ending on 57 not out, as the Dock chased down the total for the loss of 4 wickets.
Richard Davies took 2 for 31 off 7 overs and Scot Thomas 1 for 19, before having to be removed from the attack due to a groin strain. Fourteen year old Dafydd Davies bowled a fine spell of five overs and picked up a wicket for 16 runs and he was unlucky not to return better figures.
This Llechryd side contained four under 15 players and a few players coming back into cricket and some notable performances were recorded by several members of the side against decent opposition. Dafydd Davies and Tomos Tomkinson impressed and there were grafting shows with the bat from Duncan Blackburn and Rob Mansfield.
Division 4
Burton 2nds 173 -8 drew with Crymych 297-4
Talented Crymych batsman Sam Kurtz hit a ton for the Preselimen as he and his team mates romped to a welcome win after a difficult few weeks.
Number three bat Kurtz has struggled for runs in recent times but his class was always going to shine through at some stage and he made the most of the excellent batting conditions at Burton to reach a fine century.
Opener Richard Thorne is another fine batsman and the Crymych captain chose the same afternoon to register his first big knock for some time and he got his team off to a flier with a superb stand with Kurtz and he eventually reached his half century as did tail ender Ioan Davies who hit a brisk 55 not out.
Another to make an impact was middle order bat James George and he made 39 and Harry Jones chipped in with 36 not out as the Crymych innings ended on an impressive 297-4.
Burton were always going to struggle against such a formidable total to chase down but they made a decent fist of it with Ian Betterley hitting 37 and Dan Ridge 35 but it was the bowling of star man Kurtz which proved to be their undoing as he took 4-32 and they eventually gave up the ghost and finished on 173-8.
Dafydd Wright picked up a couple of wickets in his spell of 2-40 as did Ioan Davies with 2-38.
