Pwllheli Cricket Club News

Moore shines as Pwllheli loose in last over

With 164 points between the two teams before this game, St Asaph were undoubted favourites and were probably pretty confident of a resounding victory.  It was puzzling therefore that upon winning the toss, the home side chose the slightly negative approach of fielding first.  7 balls later, with Ben Jones already back in the pavilion, it was looking like this was going to be a very short game!

Robert Cooper appeared to be in little trouble but when he was given out LBW (again) after scoring 20 with Rowlands and Rehman already not having troubled the scorers greatly, the score was 38 for 4 and we were already planning what to do from about 5.00 onwards!

The much in form Chris Moore had other plans however and soon set about the task of showing the St Asaph team that Pwllheli could bat.  Unfortunately, second head coach Neil Williams and Nabeel Mansoori (sadly playing his last game for the club) were keen to prove that we could not and the score was 56 for 6 when Rhys Griffiths strolled to the middle.

Poor Rhys had not batted for many weeks and I think its safe to say that his weekly net sessions did not inspire a lot of confidence so he was keen to prove that he could bat.  For many overs his solid and stylish defence frustrated the home bowlers and allowed Chris Moore to begin accumulating runs at the other end.

Sadly, a straight ball eventually did for him and it was time for the great Pwlhelli hopeful Adam Williams to enter the fray.  So many times the hero of this season with both bat and ball, the remaining two Pwlhelli batsman settled down for a long wait before being required to bat.  Adam had been mentioning he was keen to open the innings so we were as surprised as he was when, after scoring only 4, he was back in the pavilion!

If there is ever a man for a crisis – then its skipper Gower!  Strolling to the wicket with a season average of 14 (or 13.9 according to second head coach Williams who really did have an average of 14!), you could see the look of panic in vice skippers Moore’s face who was having no trouble at all against the accurate St Asaph bowlers.  Hasty instructions to “stay in” were well heeded by the skipper who proceeded to do exactly that.  A few hefty blows from Moore and he reached his 3rd fifty in 4 matches.  Hasty instructions from Gower to “keep going” were issued!

Intelligent batting from both players insured that the score 160 after 45 overs to get the third batting point and then it time to think about what to do – do we declare to get double points or keep going for more runs?  We chose the latter and Chris Moore was out next ball for a very fine 85 runs!

Simon (I used to open) Owens was the last Pwllheli batsman and he did his job well by missing the remaining 5 balls of the over.  Gower took the attack to the St Asaph bowler who had previously called him a c*** after a not too successful defensive prod and hit 11 from the penultimate over which left Owens to miss 5 more deliveries before hitting the final ball for a lovely straight 4.

177 for 9 declared at tea – a million times better than we had hoped for but probably still not enough runs we thought.

The St Asaph opener obviously had a prior engagement and proceeded to hit 14 from Ben Jones first over bit it wasn’t long before the Pwlhelli hero Moore was back in the action running a good 20 yards to take the second best catch of the season to dismiss him. Rehman was introduced to the attack and got a wicket with his very first ball and we were in with a shout.

The home sides middle order set about their task with some sensible batting and although we were still getting wickets through Owens and Rehman their score was ticking along.  Gower shuffled his bowlers, second head coach Williams pulled a hamstring and was back in the slips and with 5 wickets in hand, St Asaph only needed just over 4 runs an over.

The introduction of Adam Williams for a second spell was a smart move and he soon bagged 2 wickets.  The introduction of opener Jones for his second spell was a far riskier decision but he also picked up a crucial wicket and things were getting tight now!  And then it happened again – a couple of dropped catches which if only we had held on to would surely have seen us home for a memorable victory.

5 runs needed, the final over and the last pair in the middle – a single and yet another streaky edge and the game was over.

In the bar afterwards, a surprisingly upbeat skipper Gower: “Unbelievable!  We really must be the unluckiest team in North Wales – this is the third or fourth time this season we have got so close against, on paper, stronger opposition.  I think this performance shows that we really can compete with the best teams in this league and begs the question, once again, how on earth are we second to bottom in the league?  Another great team performance – a wonderful recovery when batting and solid fielding showed a brilliant team spirit and will to win – keep it up next game and we will certainly win.  Rhys – your round?”