Neyland Match Report
Neyland vs Herbrandston. Harrison-Allen, Wednesday 3rd June 2008. Umpires: Les Hastings and Gelly JamesThe second round of the county's blue riband event saw Neyland taking on the village of Herbrandston on a glorious day in west Wales. The pitch itself was in excellent condition and wouldn't have looked out of place on the county circuit, a real testament to the groundstaff who put the hours in to make it so. The locals must have thought that it was a big game as skipper Windy Miller turned up a whole 25 minutes before the game.
The toss was won by Herbie and saw the run machine Scott John and his partner in crime Paul Murray walk to the crease, after facing two scoreless hostile overs, the mercurial duo put on 6 in 4 overs before John attempted to play a calypso like shot to a straight one and saw his stumps rearranged and faced the long walk back to the pavillion, this traumatic event for the home crowd was softened by the arrival to the crease of Gregg Miller who had recently been seen talking to the New Zealand number 11 on how to score runs.
Miller played a number of classy shots alongside Phil Sutton and the score progressed to 50 off 12. The demise of Sutton saw Windy enter the fray and he was the victim of what can only be described as a "massive cock up" that saw both the Miller siblings at the same end while the bails were whipped off at the other. Needless to say Gregg felt under pressure to make up for this and to be fair to him, he continued to build tidy partnerships with both Durrant and Summons before falling to a handy 37.
Now was the turn of Lee Summons to turn the tide in the style of king neptune with some Dwain Chambers like straight hits that turned the momentum for the home side and ended the innings on 117-7 off the alloted 22 overs.
After a rousing speech in the changing room by a number of the lads, among them Henry "von dutch" Durrant, saw Herbie collapse to 50-8 and a seemingly easy victory, however Leigh Marchant had other ideas and with shots worthy of Shahid Afridi brought Herbie within reach of an improbable victory and a massive cup shock, however some tidy catching from Paddy Hannon and some good death bowling by Tom Richards' lover saw herbie fall 12 short of their total. An away draw agianst Narberth / Burton awaits the newly christened "Neyland Jackals" ps. special mention to Phil Davies who wore a quick one in the genitals off the pace merchant Bennett - this author wonders how much "dominating" he will be doing this week after that!!
Lee Summons leaves the arena after his swashbuckling innings which took the game away from Herbrandston.