SWCA Division One

Ammanford (148-2) beat Skewen (144) by eight wickets

Ammanford plumped up their 34-point cushion at the top of SWCA’s first division with the easiest of victories over Skewen at the Park on Saturday.

Winning the toss, Skewen took what appeared at the time to be the bold step of batting first against the runaway league leaders.

They might have suspected at five for two that they had made a slight error of judgement.

At 42 for four they were sure of it.

Matthew Fisher flaunted his immense versatility by opening the bowling with seam, and he and his skipper Alun Evans took two wickets each, before Fisher turned to spin to bag a further two.

He ended with four for 27, while Evans took three for 31. Jeff Evans was his usual tight self with two for eight and Sam Jones mopped up the other wicket.

Skewen were all out for 144 in 46 overs, giving Ammanford a further four overs batting should they need it.

They didn’t.

Rhys Davies and Rhys Culley got the home team off to a great start with an opening stand of 60 before Davies was out for 22.

Culley was joined by his skipper who clubbed 32 runs off the first 12 balls he faced.

Culley was out after 28 overs for 50 with just two runs needed to win.

Evans finished with an unbeaten 61, taking his season’s average to 167.

He has already scored 501 league runs and been dismissed just three times.

It was now that Skewen’s decision to bat didn’t seem like such a stupid option after all. Had they fielded first with Evans in this mood they could have been chasing 400.

The eight-wicket victory yielded 23 points for the league leaders.

Next week they travel to mid-table Maesteg.