Neyland travelled to Cresselly without three regular first team players, with Paul Murray still recovering from the previous week's incident, Ashley Sutton playing rugby, and Gary Lloyd also unavailable. But Nick Koomen was back and the depth of the side these days still allows optimism in such circumstances. It was a dry day but pretty cool and the outfield, though looking as good as always in Cresselly, was soft and fairly slow. Cresselly batted first and in the first over Cresselly captain Phil Williams got a leading edge off Henry Durrant's delivery which sent the ball looping into the covers. It appeared as though he was going to get away with one as it looked to be dropping just short of Patrick Bellerby but his sprint was followed by a full length dive to take the ball inches off the floor, a brilliant catch! The Neyland team celebrated joyfully, albeit a little too vigorously for Durrant who later complained that amongst all the hand slapping someone had put a finger in his mouth!
Damien Arthur came in at 3 and was just beginning to get into his stride when he firmly flicked a delivery from Patrick Hannon off leg stump and Henry Durrant took an excellent catch high to his right at backward square leg of the bowling of Patrick Hannon, a just reward for a good opening spell. Unfortunately Henry was unable to sustain anything like this level of catching ability for the remainder of the match.
Iwan Izzard came in at number 4, and appeared to have a clear preference for the leg side. Durrant was bowling well, and continued to contain the Cresselly batsmen. After a couple of quiet overs Izzard got hold of a couple from Hannon and hit the cow corner boundary, but the introduction of Nick Koomen from the clubhouse end swung the game dramatically in Neyland's favour, as he swiftly removed Izzard (caught by Scott Jones), Nick Davies plumb lbw a couple of balls later and in his following over induced an outside edge from the dangerous Simon Cole and Gregg Miller grabbed the catch at slip. This devastating spell left Cresselly realing at 60 for 5 in the 20th over. Matthew Morgan was the one batsman standing, and also scoring most of the runs, but in the 29th over he departed to a sharp stumping from Sean Hannon, giving Koomen his 4th wicket.
This brought Nielsen Cole and Cresselly new recruit Mike Shaw together, and they set about rebuilding the Cresselly innings against Koomen and Andrew Miller. Shaw had recently moved to the area and set up a dental practise in Milford Haven, and only the previous day he had removed one of Neyland captain Gregg Miller's teeth - Neyland were hoping this was not a sign of things to come!
Shaw played a number of firm shots towards long off, while Cole was happy to settle in and pick up the odd single and 2 for a period. In the 34th over Shaw picked up a full ball from Koomen and deposited it over long on onto the clubhouse roof, and put another through the leg side for 4. Cresselly had moved past the 100 mark and were looking to accelerate. Koomen completed an excellent 4-22 spell, and Nathan Banner was introduced at the clubhouse end, and after a boundary in his first over and a 6 in his second he removed Shaw for a very useful 29, caught by Patrick Hannon. Lyn Richards struck a quick 13, including one 6 off Banner before he again claimed his revenge, having Richards caught by Andrew Miller at short third man. Andrew Miller then removed Nielsen Cole, caught behind by Sean Hannon for 22, and had Steffan Jenkins caught by Nathan Banner at cow corner second ball, to close the Cresselly innings in the 43rd over, 137 all out.
Gregg Miller opened the batting alongside Scott Jones with Lyn Richards opening the bowling from the clubhouse end and Sam Harts from the far end. Miller soon demonstrated his desire to look for quick singles, and the pair set about compiling a useful opening stand given the modest total being chased. Jones was a little unlucky to pick out the fielders with his best shots, with Nick Davies making a couple of excellent stops for Cresselly in the field, and in the 9th over Jones was well caught by Phil Williams off the bowling of Sam Harts for 6, with the total on 24.
Nick Koomen joined Miller and almost immediately drove Harts to the cover boundary for 4, before settling in nicely. A significant split opened in his bat and he called for a replacement, only to reject it a few over later in preference for another, but this did not seem to distract him as he and Miller went about building a match winning partnership. Miller survived a couple of significant run-out opportunities (as usual), but also played a number of nice cover drives and worked the ball all around the wicket. He did manage to have his cap knocked off at one point, as the ball hit the top of his pad and ricoched up onto his head, but there was no danger of him losing another tooth today. Koomen and Miller all but brough Neyland home as they both reached half centuries, and Neyland reached 123 for 1 in the 40th over (with 47 overs available in all). Having smashed Steffan Jenkins to long on for 4, Koomen appeared set on repeating the feat but with a 6, but didn't quite get hold of it and was caught by Izzard off the bowling of Jenkins for 56.
Patrick Bellerby scored a quick 9 runs before he was caught behind by Nielsen Cole, again off the bowling of Jenkins. But it was all too late for Cresselly as Gregg Miller batted through the whole innings for the second week in a row to bring his side home, adding 59 not out to the 61 not out he had scored a week earlier.
Match Scorecards:
