Neyland Match Report
Neyland vs Narberth. League, Saturday 19th July 2008. Umpires: Richard Merriman & Glyn Pawlett.Heroic Fightback Saves Neyland
Neyland kept alive their title aspirations with a memorable finish at the athletic club that will have those present talking about it for weeks to come. 6 wickets fell in the last 3 overs to leave Narberth 6 runs short of a victory that at one stage seemed odds on.
Narberth’s skipper Ritchie Adams won a vital toss at the outset and invited the home side to bat on a track that although relatively hard certainly had some moisture in it and looked like it would provide assistance to the opening bowlers.
This initial prediction turned out to be true as openers John and Murray were put on the back foot for the initial 10 overs with the ball beating the bat on a regular occasion. Murray was the first to go, adjudged by umpire Merriman LBW for 9 with the score on 21. This brought skipper Miller to the crease who proceeded to get off the mark with a square drive of the highest order. At the other end John was starting to get into his groove with a number of well run 2’s alongside what has now become his customary walk down the track “hoick” over cow corner. At the 20 over mark, Neyland's score stood at 53-1, this was soon to become 53-2 as John played all round a straight one from change bowler Quartermaine that saw umpire Pawlett raise the finger and later comment “probably taking middle stump half way up.”
This setback was quickly overcome as first Jez Charles and then young Sutton carried on the form he had shown the previous week against the league leaders, and alongside Windy who by now was playing some exotic shots around the outfield saw the run rate increase dramatically with a mixture of boundaries and some very well run singles and 2's.
Miller brought up his half century with usual gusto. Opening bowler Ben Quartermaine returned to the attack but his first over went for ten runs as Miller was by now in full flow, the first five balls all resulting in 2's, followed by some very heavy breathing. He quickly made his way to 79 before falling 21 short of what would have been a deserved century. Sutton perished when he couldn’t quite clear the fielder at mid off for a sublime 24. Greg Miller came and went in quick fashion following an unfortunate run out before Dunsford and Davies landed a few blows each before the pair of them had their stumps rearranged in the hunt for quick runs. It was left to the final partnership of Shannon and Gaji to scamper the last few runs which saw Neyland end up with a score of 189-8, some 30 runs more than was predicted at the half way stage.
The teas were once again of the highest order and perhaps the highlight came from skipper Miller who responding to a question about his favourite love song replied with an answer from well out left field by quoting “bring your daughter to the slaughter” by Iron Maiden – quite what wife Kate and the local constabulary makes of this choice is as yet unknown.
The second innings began with Patrick Hannon and Dunsford taking the new ball and it was soon apparent that Narberth were certainly going to have the best of the conditions, however that didn’t stop Dunsford snaring opener Davy Johns with one that lifted. Marc Hughes and skipper Adams then put together a handy partnership as the Neyland bowlers struggled a little bit with the unresponsive conditions and the surprising sunshine that had made an appearance for the day.
However as he often does, Gary Lloyd managed to trap the dangerous Hughes plumb in front and Kyle Quartermaine, bowled by Jeremy Charles, soon followed him. Neyland's thoughts of wrapping up the tail were quickly dissolved as Tom Richards and Adams went about chasing down the total with some good running and boundary hitting that brought them within touching distance of a victory that would ease their relegation worries.
Yet, if there is one quality that this Neyland side have is its ability to fight for every last run, and a long hop from Davies to Adams was snaffled by John at midwicket that started a spiral of events that saw Davies picking up 3 more wickets in quick order that left the away side needing 7 to win off the last over with 3 wickets left. Bowler Charles certainly didn’t let his skipper down as he clean bowled Ian Hughes and had Richard Howell neatly stumped by Shannon. This brought Tom Bevan to the crease needing 6 to win from 4 balls. This soon became 6 to win off the last, as Charles gave nothing away and all of a sudden Neyland fancied their chances of pulling a victory out of the bag that had seemed improbable some 15 minutes before. Alas the final breakthrough couldn’t be made and a remarkable game had reached a conclusion that on the whole was fair to both sides.
So at the end of a pulsating fixture Neyland picked up 19 points and closed the gap on Haverfordwest to 31 points, with Whitland and Carew close behind as well.
League table following the winning draw at home to Narberth:
