Leaders in tight cup clash (From South Wales Guardian)

Leaders in tight cup clash

6:20am Wednesday 24th June 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

Ammanford exited the League Cup on Sunday – crashing out to Ynysygerwn.

The top two teams in the first division produced an exciting match which went all the way to the final over, an outcome which had seemed very unlikely at the outset.

Losing the toss, Ammanford were invited to bat by their Neath Valley hosts.

They contrived to manage their most calamitous start to the season – four of their front line batsmen were back in the shed for just 36 runs after eight overs.

Three of them fell to Ynys opening bowler Matthew Price.

It was left to the ever-reliable Steffan Jenkins (31) and newly-promoted Rhys Culley (35) to achieve a semblance of respectability as they took the score past the century.

The only other partnership of note came from last wicket pair John Jones (18no) and Tom Maynard (13no).

An early glimmer of hope flickered as Ynys lost two quick wickets with the score barely past 20, but Kelvin Bartle (70no) and Gareth Davies (49) provided sufficient ballast to the Ynys response to see them safely home in the final over.

That the four wicket victory took so long was due to some fine bowling from Alun Evans (2-27) and Craig Maloney (3-52), while Matthew Fisher’s nine overs yielded a meagre nine runs.

Ammanford can now concentrate on the Welsh Cup and defending their league title.

• Print
• Email
• Share