Pwllheli Cricket Club News

Bershams one batsman makes Pwllheli suffer!

The moral of this game is: Catches Win Matches!

Asked to bat first of a slow, flat pitch wicket, Pwllheli made the most of the fact that for the first 6 overs Bersham only had 7 fielders with openers Ben Jones and Robert Cooper  rattling through to 46 runs.  The introduction of the remaining 4 fielders seems to have little effect and Jones soon reached his second consecutive 50, with Cooper not far behind with his.

Unfortunately Jones mistimed when on 64 and lobbed a simple return catch to the bowler.  Rob Cooper was soon back in the pavilion (although not out) suffering from a strange attack of cramp to his finger which meant the scoring was left to Aziz and Rehman.  Both batsmen struggled against some tidy bowling which and the run rate was slowing dramatically - when Aziz was out (LBW again!) skipper Gower instructed the inform  Chris Moore to go ahead of the by now recovered Cooper.

This plan worked initially with Moore stoking the ball to the boundary but one shot too many meant that it was time for Cooper to return to the middle.  Unfortunately he didn’t last long and the remaining Pwllheli batsman was seen scurrying around looking for bats, pads and anything else they thought they would need.

As it turns out – they were not needed as experienced second head coach  Neil Williams and Rehman (who had finally started to hit the ball) took the score past the magical 200 – including a trademark huge straight 6 from the second head coach – and on to 219 allowing Gower to declare after 45 overs for the maximum 10 batting points.

After tea, fielding warm up did not go well and we should have realised then it was not going to be our afternoon!

Regular opening bowlers Owens and Jones struggled to find their normal line, and in the case of Jones, their length as well, and the scoreboard was ticking at an alarming rate.  It took a smart catch from Gower, standing up to the pacey Jones, to remove the Bersham skipper but runs were still leaking at an alarming rate.

The introduction of spin from Rehman and big swing from Williams helped slow the runs and both were soon amongst the wickets – however, the catches were still going down.  Some were hard and some, unfortunately, were very simple!  2 wickets apiece from Rehman and Williams and then 3 from surely next weeks opening bowler, Moore, meant that the one Bersham batsman was made to struggle for his runs.

In a last ditch attempt to snatch victory, Gower turned to the experienced second head coach Williams who with a mixture of cunning slower balls, and even slower balls, proceeded to baffle the batsman – at least for his first two deliveries!

The winning runs were scored with 9 balls to spare – so close and yet so very far!

In the bar afterwards, skipper Gower reflected on what could have been: “We lost a game we should never have lost.  In fact, we lost a game we should have won!  Bersham had one batsmen and we let him off the hook too many times.  If the catches had been held we would have walked the game.  Still, catches apart, the team played well again – 220 runs was a good performance and whilst a couple of our bowlers were a little off their best form we still did well to make Bersham take 54 out of their 55 overs getting the target – remember we did it in only 45 overs.  Next week against top team St. Aseph will be interesting! – I cant believe Rhys has gone without getting a round in!”