Neyland Match Report
Llangwm vs Neyland. Duggie Morris Cup Quarter Final, Friday 22nd June 2007. Umpires: Les Hastings & Arthur Brady.
With the game having been rained off the previous evening, and showers again forecast for Friday, team selection for
this potentially difficult encounter away to second division leaders Llangwm proved a little difficult. Having spent 30
minutes calling round for additional players at 5pm, captain Andrew Miller was relieved to hear that Phil Davies was
having considerably more luck than him, and had 10 players available, so Miller agreed to forgo a free outing with his
family (sorry kids!) and make up the 11.
Neyland batted first and opened with Paul Murray and Lee Summons. Murray was quickly into his stride and drove and pulled
a couple of nice boundaries in the opening overs to get Neyland going, and Summons supported well. After bowling two overs
Chris Inward gave way to off spinner Andrew Harries, and he held a good return catch from Paul Murray. Murray had scored a
fairly rapid 24, but he was soon followed by Patrick Hannon, again removed by Harries, for 1. Miller joined Summons but
before long Summons also departed, having scored 11.
Miller and Jay Dunsford then steadied the ship a little, seeing off Harries who bowled well to claim 2 for 9 from his
four over allocation, before Jay Dunsford was run out. Miller turned the ball to backward square but when Dunsford called
for the single Miller found himself in no position to run a quick single, with his legs wide apart, and he is getting quite
old now after all. Dunsford turned back, gave up the ghost when the throw was made, watched the bowler juggle the ball for
some time, decided to run again and ended up just short.
Phil Davies then joined Miller and the pair had a very useful partnership for Neyland, first knocking the ball around the
wicket and then attacking the bowling in the last 5 overs. Davies hit three sixes out of the ground, and Miller even joined
in with a six over long off before he was bowled by the snarling Inward trying to make room for an expansive drive through
the off side for a very useful 27.
Davies was then joined by Stuart Phillips in taking the score to 120 at the end of the 20 overs. Phillips ended 6 not out,
and Davies top scored with 32 not out, an excellent innings which helped to push Neyland's total to at least 10 runs higher
than had seemed likely after 15 overs.
At the break Phillips recounted selling all his cricket kit a few years ago. Neyland were reasonably pleased with their
total on a damp wicket, but knew they were lacking a bit of bowling on the evening, so there still appeared to be everything
to play for.
Neyland opened the attack with Lee Summons and Patrick Hannon, against the Llangwm pairing of Gary Phillips and Chris
Inward. First ball of the innings Phillips lobed tantalisingly between bowler and mid off, and the second ball, a short one
from Summons, Phillips also lobed in the air to mid off where Andrew Miller took a good catch diving forward. A couple of
quiet over later Inward turned a ball from Summons to backward square leg. The ball flew from the middle of the bat but
Stuart Phillips dived to his right to claim a brilliant one handed catch.
Phil Davies replaced Hannon and new batsmen Jonathan Twigg and Andrew Harries struggled to make much impact on the scoreboard.
Harries did manage to hit one four off Davies over mid off, but was soon involved in a mix up with Twigg which saw him being
sent back and run out.
Daniel Chesmer then joined Twigg, and both batsmen occupied the crease for a significant period of the innings but Llangwm
were by now beginning to fall significantly behind the run rate. Summons finished a very good spell with 2 for 8 off 4
overs, and Davies was similarly miserly conceding only 9 runs from his four overs. Chesmer survived a number of chances,
including a drop in the deep from Andrew Miller, but Miller eventually removed Chesmer for 15 when Sean Hannon took a good
stumping.
The run rate was by now spiralling and Nicholas Koomen provided the third spin option of the evening for Neyland, bowling two
tidy overs for 12 runs. Twigg sstruck a couple of boundaries on the leg side but it was all looking far too late, and he was
then run out for 23 pushing for a hopeful second, but the return throw from Koomen was hard and accurate and Twigg was left
short. Miller finished his four overs with 1 for 19, and with only 4 overs of the Llangwm inning remaining the required run
rate had reached a fairly improbable 20. Patrick Hannon bowled the 16th over, removing R Brock for 7 and finishing with 1 for
11 off 3 overs. Jay Dunsford bowled the 17th over but his extra paced seemed to suit the batsmen with the left handed L Brock
in particular cashing in with a six and two fours, taking 16 from the over. Paul Murray made a rare appearance with ball in
and recorded the best figures of the evening with 2 for 5 from his single over. No doubt he will be asking questions as to
why he does not bowl every week! And Ashley Sutton bowled the final over of the innings, returning 1 for seven as he bowled
J Palmer with his last ball to round off a very good performance for Neyland.
The semi final draw has yet to be completed but Haverfordwest, Lawrenny and Carew are the other teams through to the semi
finals.