Pwllheli Cricket Club News

Catches are held in impressive win at Northop

After being delayed by a police diversion through Mochdre after a serious accident at Colwyn Bay which closed the A55 at Junction 19, Pwllheli's early batsmen struggled to get going against the impressive Northop opening attack of Haupfleisch and O'Halloran. When both openers fell the score had only reached 39 and it was already the 17th over. No.3 Rehman was also extremely watchful for his 27 as the green wicket was proving a considerable help to all the home bowlers. It was left to a fine knock from no.5 Ben Jones with an undefeated 43 to steer Pwllheli to a decent total of 148 from their 40 overs, the crucial stand being 63 runs for the fifth wicket with wickie Paul Gower who scored a valuable 20. Jordan Evans was the home side's most successful bowler grabbing 3 victims for 19 runs from his 7 overs.

Northop started off strongly knocking 25 from just 5 overs before Nicholas Butterworth took a crucial stunning catch at mid-on to remove the potentially dangerous Jordan Evans. The home side progressed more steadily after his dismissal but still reached 69 for the loss of just 3 wickets and looked to have a good chance of chasing down the target. But spinner Rehman induced some rash strokes from the middle-order and coupled with some excellent catching saw 4 wickets fall for 2 runs leaving the home side struggling. Rehman finished with 3 for 19 and Ben Jones 3 for 28 whilst Paul Mawer was miserly conceeding just 16 runs from his 10 overs as the last 7 wickets tumbled for a mere 26 runs.

With Bangor and Dolgellau both losing, Pwllheli are now 4 points clear in second place and go into the final two games of the season with their promotion fate well and truely in their own hands.

In the bar afterwards...skipper Michael Hughes... "a nightmare journey but thankfully not a nightmare ending. If there ever was a time when the saying "catches win matches" was true , this was it."