Western Telegraph Match Report, 19th July 2006.
Neyland Match Report
Whitland vs Neyland. League fixture, Saturday 15th July 2006. Umpires: Les Hastings & David Loosemore.The home side won the toss on a very hot day in Whitland, with little breaze, and invited Neyland to bat first. Gregg Miller and Paul Murray opened on what appeared a good day for run scoring, and Whitland opened with the experienced Mark Lee and the young I Scourfield. Lee struck immediately as Gregg was clean bowled without scoring.
Andrew Miller then joined Murray at the crease, and runs were difficult to come by as Scourfield bowled full and very straight from the road end and Lee swung the ball away prodigiously at the other end. After 5 overs there were only 6 runs on the board, but A Miller and Murray then began to find their stride, and the score progressed to 38 for 1 off 11 overs. Whitland then made the first bowling change of the day as Paul Webb replaced Scourfield.
The change paid dividends immediately as Webb induced Murray to drive the ball straight back to the bowler and Webb took the simple catch, dismissing Murray for 23. Paul Miller then strode to the crease on a rare appearance for the first team, filling in for the absent Dilys at the last minute. The brothers were not together long though as in Webb's second over Andrew missed a slow straight one and was bowled for 19. After driving a boundary off Lee, Paul followed Andrew back to the clubhouse as, attack-mided as ever, Paul advanced down the wicket to Webb only to hit the ball straight to midwicket, giving Webb his third wicket in as many overs. Neyland were struggling at 47 for 4 after 16 overs.
Scott John then joined John Jones, reuniting the partnership that had served numerous Neyland junior sides so well in the past. This intimate knowledge of each other's games has obviously paid off for Jones, as he never looked like being run out by Scott, which is quite an achievement. It rested on the shoulders of John and Scott to try to revive the Neyland innings and they began well as Jones crashed two full tosses from leg spinner Meyrick Rowlands for four through the off side. Webb then bowled two consecutive maidens, and Rowlands found his line and length, but the batsmen remained patient, picking up the odd singles and waiting for bad balls. Scott him a couple of boundaries through the leg side of Rowlands, but in the 30th over with the score on 90, Scot John was bowled, another victim for Webb in his tenth over. In the 32nd over Webb claimed his fifth victim as Phil Sutton was well caught by Mark Lee for 1, and in the 34th over, Webb's last, he claimed the important wicket of John Jones. The previous over Jones had hit Rowlands for six over square leg but when trying to repeat the performance off Webb Jones picked out Raf Williams, an enourmous New Zealander patrolling the square leg boundary who Jones had somehow failed to spot. Jones top scored for Neyland with 40 runs, including two sixes and four fours. Thankfully this brought to an end Webb The Destroyer's spell, and he recorded figures of 12-5-27-6!
Jay Dunsford, coming in at number 8 began to conterattack, pulling Raf Williams back over his head for four and playing several nice drives, but at the other end the wickets continued to fall as Sean Hannon was lbw to the returning Scourfield for a duck, and brother Patrick doing little better, being bowled by Scourfield for one. Gary Lloyd stayed a little while longer to support Dunsford, and finished on 4 not out. But just as Dunsford looked to be taking Neyland to a decent total he was bowled by Williams for 26, including four fours, bringing the Neyland innings to a close on 139 in the 43rd over, 15 balls early. Hence Neyland went to tea more upbeat than they had at one point thought likely, but knowing that Whitland now had 47 overs to reach what was a fairly modest total.
As usual Whitland served up a fine tea, and the jam and cream scones were particularly well received.
Neyland took to the field in positive mood to defend their total, but knew they would have to perform well from the start if they were to have a chance of preventing a Whitland Victory. Gareth 'Harvo' Phillips promised to stay off the Magners for the rest of the afternoon in order to score for Neyland, but some of the less charitable members of the squad believed this had more to do with the chance to get close to the young lady who was scoring for Whitland than in any true desire to immerse himself in the scorebook.
John Jones and Patrick Hannon opened the bowling against the experienced Whitland pair of Dai Lee and Paul Webb, and the innings opened with two maidens with Webb being dropped behind off the second ball of the afternoon. Dai Lee drove a little loosely on occasion, and Webb did not look in the best of form, and in the seventh over Jones made the initial breakthrough having Lee caught by Scot John in the covers for 12, and Whitland stood at 16 for one.
This brought Paul davies to the wicket in a very fruitful partnership for Whitland, albeit a slow moving one, in which the two left handers edged Whitland towards the Neyland total as if it were a test match. Webb was particularly slow, though not through a lack of trying, but he really struggled to time the ball at all, and was dropped for a second time by the usually safe Jones at square leg. Davies played very cautiously except to anything very full on or outside off stump which he smashed through extra cover. Most of these shots were in the air but were powerfully struck and just avoided the Neyland fielders. After fifteen overs Whitland stood at 35 for one, and Jones (9-3-27-1) and Hannon (7-3-12-0) gave way to Gregg Miller and Gary Lloyd. Miller bowled well but had no luck in his spell of five overs for 26, while Gary Lloyd applied the brakes to the Whitland scoring at the road end. Davies did play one truly remarkable shot off Lloyd which is worthy of note here. He attempted to sweep but actually made contact with the ball with the back of the bat on the follow through behind his head, lofting the ball out in the direction of point for a single. This was not a shot that anyone in the Neyland team could remember having witnessed before but they got a second chance to see it later in the innings when a second Whitland batsman reproduced Davies' effort. It did not look like it was going to be Neyland's day.
Scott John took over from Miller to give spin from both ends and though the Whitlan batsmen failed to impress they were doing just what was required from a Whitland point of view and steadily advancing the score.
By the time Webb was eventually out for 28, caught by Jay Dunsford off the bowling of John, Whitland had reached 96 in the 33rd over, and looked to be all but home and dry.
Ed John came to the crease and the left hander drove a Gary Lloyd leg break to the boundary for four but was bowled through the gate trying to repeat the effort. Matthew 'Titch' Davies then joined Davies and instantly made his mark on the game. During the indoor league match which secured Neyland the title earlier in 2006 Titch had been involved with five run outs which effectively ensured Neyland victory. And in this match he started where he left off in the indoor league, by running Davies out when Davies was on 54 and looked to be taking Whitland to victory. This gave Neyland a glimmer of hope and when Titch was then caught by Murray off the bowling of Lloyd for a duck, and Colin John was excellently caught by Scott John down low at silly mid-off from another Lloyd leg break, again without scoring, Neyland started to scent an improbable victory.
Neyland were now buzzing in the field and Mark Lee was run out for another duck by a direct hit from Andrew Miller, leaving the Whitland innings in tatters at 111 for 7 in the 39th over. However the crucial thing from Neyland's point of view was that this brought to an end Gary Lloyd's 12 over spell, giving him figures of 12-2-24-3, and his last 13 balls had yielded 3 wickets for 2 runs.
S Morgan and Raf Williams were at the crease and Jones returned to the attack to take over from Lloyd but there were few runs for Neyland to play with and Morgan took 7 off Scott John's over, followed by 6 of Jones' and a further four off Scott's next over, leaving Whitland on the verge of victory at 128 for 7 after 42 overs, needing a further 12 runs off 5 overs (including 2 overs not used by Neyland).
Captain Andrew Miller took over from Jones in a last throw of the dice and Morgan adged just over the head of Scott John in the covers and then Gary Lloyd dropped probably the easiest catch of his exceedingly long career, blaming the sun. Neyland also had a confident shout for a stumping turned down in an eventful first over from Miller. However in the following over Scott lofted a full toss to Morgan who dispatched it over extra cover for six, and Whitland secured the final two runs required for victory off Millers second over to leave Neyland to contemplate a very disappointing second league defeat to Whitland in the season.
Despite the close finish in the end there was no getting away from the fact that Neyland had simply not scored enough runs on a beautiful Summers day. This was something that was true of most of Neyland's innings this season, and would have to be improved if a top five finish was to be achieved.