Match Report vs Ponthir
8th June 2025 @ Ponthir (Skipper and Report Steveo)
It’s been a while since we journeyed to one of our
favourite grounds and the distance is none the shorter, especially
for those like Little Liam who resides so westerly of our
eponymous city. He must have left just after dawn (who she?
-ed) for he was the first to arrive and was sat in his car
waiting to eagerly greet yours truly – the 2nd to arrive,
and unusually prompt, vc/ skipper for the day!
On the pitch there was an enthusiastic tournament of junior
cricket being held by our sociable club hosts. Each arriving
Casual duly made the jokes about “are they the opposition?”
and “hope they move the boundary ropes out / keep the
boundary ropes in” depending on whether it was a batter
or bowler speaking.
The 1pm start was becoming an ‘approximation’
but, as we turned up in dribs and drabs, it didn’t seem
to matter much. The facilities at Ponthir are a credit to
the community and with the excitement of the expected TEA
to come even the darkening skies could not dampen the enthusiasm
of the assembled Casuals. Pleasing to see Bryn and Naren (both
now sporting face-fuzz) back in the team, especially when
we seemed to be yet again low on numbers in the run up to
the game.
Your gallant VC called heads and won the toss (fast becoming
the only part of the game he excels at) and elected to field
first, which happened to suit both captains. The Ponthir team
were a mix of callow youth, stripling lads and rotund gentlemen,
so a friendly and even game was in store.
Dan opened the bowling and went for a single of his first
delivery! Suitably motivated, he proceeded to allow no more
impudence and bowled a tight line, conceding no runs and even
taking a wicket with the last ball of his opening 5 over spell,
bowling Grant senior, their wicky, who only scored 2. Liam
the Nylon Pylon held up the other end with good figures, and
the opening bats struggled to get much away at all. The first
wicket had fallen for only four runs, and the second casualty
was a ‘retired dizzy’ , as the No. 3 bat spent
so long reaching and spinning to hit Pylons deliveries that
by the time Dave came on to bowl, he literally couldn’t
face any more, had a funny turn, and left the field of play.
The spin twins, Dave and Paul, both bowled well, Dave getting
the wicket and Paul the maiden, each going for only 20 and
19 respectively. Paul was unlucky to not get a wicket, with
some going aerial and others teasing the stumps, although
Pablo later revealed this all to be part of his very cunning
plan, to keep the low scoring batters at the crease! Well
done Pauldrick!
It has to be said that our fielding was ‘adequate’,
even though both Dave and O’Reilly were rather static;
Dave for all the usual reasons and the skipper cos he had
pulled a muscle ( or ‘a fat’). Having also broken
his spectacles, yours truly was about as useful as a chocolate
teapot, although one valiant effort was made to hobble in
a wide circle to chase a ball that hung in the air for quite
a while, before a despairing hand was flung out to merely
tickle the ball as it fell to the floor. Oaths were sworn,
though milder than they might have been ( no C* word!)
The sky was displeasingly cloudy throughout and a few spots
of rain were felt, but thankfully nothing settled in. The
bowling continued well with both Syed and Naren matching the
previous bowlers, but Syed getting the reward of both a maiden
and a wicket. O’Reilly took a couple of overs ( mainly
as respite from fielding) and got the best batsmen of the
day, Buffery (on 68), with an excellent catch behind by Bryn.
It should be noted that Bryn was particularly useless behind
the sticks, dropping several dollies, but he still looked
like the best keeper the casuals have ever had! Of course
the ‘drops’ were barely even slim chances, and
he had great game with the gloves, saving many potential byes.
The pitch was not easy to bat on, and some balls died whilst
a few popped up, so nothing easy to stop. With the score creeping
up Rob O and Rob S came into the attack ( 5 and 2 overs respectively)
and Mr Cricket took 2 wickets, one a lovely c&b. Finally
the openers Dan and Liam returned and saw out the batting,
with few runs being added as the final pair prodded around
but couldn’t add more than 20. Ponthir ended 141 for
6 wickets (and 1 retired).
Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets Wides No Balls Econ rate
Dan Lewis 7.0 4 4 1 0 0 0.57
Liam Warren 7.0 0 34 0 3 1 4.86
David Thomas 5.0 0 20 1 1 0 4
Paul Stephens 5.0 1 19 0 4 0 3.80
Syed Saffiulah 4.0 1 19 1 1 1 4.75
Naren Marugonda 3.0 0 20 0 3 0 6.67
Rob Owens 5.0 0 9 2 1 0 1.8
Steve O'Reilly 2.0 0 6 1 0 0 3
Robbie Sayer 2.0 0 5 0 0 0 2.5
Fall of Wkts: 4-1 S Grant; 60-2 J Gladwin; 75-3 L Davies;
107-4 P Buffery; 117-5 R Clay; 119-6 D Rowlands;
Name How Out Bowler Runs 4s 6s Balls
Simon Grant† b Dan Lewis 2 0 0 18
Paul Buffery ct Bryn Wilkes b Steve O'Reilly 68 11 0 92
Declan Sims retired not out 6 1 0 16
James Gladwin b David Thomas 4 0 0 20
Lewis Davies b Syed Saffiulah 5 1 0 10
Richard Clay b Rob Owens 12 1 0 31
Tomos Grant* not out 17 1 0 38
David Rowlands ct & b Rob Owens 0 0 0 2
Ethan Duke not out 7 0 0 15
Finally, it was time for TEA! A warm glow displaced the chill
of fielding as we headed into the comforting embrace of the
well-appointed club house, in this much improved facility.
Bar open, cricket on the huge TV, and two tables spread with
the long-anticipated comestibles. Home at last! We tucked
in to the suitably beige display of sausage rolls, pork pies,
sarnies, chocolate fingers, crisps, etc with the contented
peace of mind that WMC wasn’t there to hoover up the
table so we could take our time before returning for the second
plate ?
Full of stodge, Liam and yours truly then padded up to lead
the charge in the second innings. I moved myself to opener
in part to give Keeper Bryn a rest and also cos I didn’t
anticipate running anything, so a swish at the openers seemed
a good idea. Overall, it went to plan, with Liam not falling
until the 8th over (to a simple caught behind ). He was probably
still admiring the lovely 4 he had just dispatched, and the
slight loss of concentration did for him.
What did for O’Reilly in the following over was an opening
ball by a lanky youth, some absolute rubbish slow n low pie
that was heading for a second bounce just inside the crease
and then onto the stumps. I think I heard cries of ‘first
senior wicket’ or some such nonsense…
We hadn’t quite seen off the ten overs I was hoping
for but now Bryn was able to set about the task, along with
the biffer Rooopert, aka Robbie aka Leo Sayer. Whilst I took
advantage of the excellent shower facility I expected Rob
to destroy some bowling, but alas by the time I had cleansed
my nether regions he had joined me back in the changing rooms,
a swift but short-lived 13 off 11 balls inc 2x4’s. Bugger!
Is this a classic Casuals collapse on the horizon we wondered?
Moustachioed Bryn twirled his whiskers and set about to ensure
he would keep things going as long as he could. This proved
to be a delightful and controlled innings, including 6 x 4’s
and some good running between the sticks. Partnerships flourished,
as first Naren and then Syed added to the total, before a
good ball finally bowled Bryn on a truly worthy 51.
Still requiring 28 we were all too aware that quick wickets
could come, but the team battled on, with Rob O seeing off
the tricky balls while Syed added to his accumulated total.
Rob finally fell to a good ball that hit top of off, bringing
in ‘Slasher’ Warren who hacked away for 8 off
15 balls, bringing us to within a couple of the total with
overs to spare. Next ball to Syed went straight through him,
and rolled towards the keeper, which made Syed relax somewhat
and plant himself like a spring bulb in fresh soil. It is
fair to say that the running style of Liam and Syed are not
a wholly related species and whilst Pylon has a very loud
and commanding voice, Syed has a cloth ear and a rather more
hesitant approach to leaving his crease. Thus it was that
the Nylon Pylon thundered down to the other end, only to face
a confused ( distraught? terrified? implacable?) Syed, who
had presumed the keeper had pouched the ball when in fact
the lofty Liam had spied it rolling through his legs. There
ensued a brief conversation ‘of sorts’ at the
far end, amply supported by encouragement from the umpire
who tried to quietly suggest some sort of resolution. Liam
finally realised that Syed wasn’t convinced of the opportunity
to run, so he flung all his limbs into a whirling dervish
attempt to repeat his journey in reverse and get back to his
end of the wicket. Which he did, concluding in a full length
dive of magnificent proportions, landing on his back, bat
across the line, which gave him the perfect view of the umpire
saying “I’m giving him out” in reply to
the lusty appeals of the entire opposition. The delighted
bowler suggested that he should be given for “stupidity
alone” but the decision was of course based soley on
the objective opinion of the umpire (yours truly dear reader)
that lamentable Liam had just failed to win the race with
the ball. Hilarious.
This brought on Dan and the truly worrying thought that
we might lose three wickets ( Dan, Paul and Dave to bat) without
further runs but fear not dear reader, Syed understood the
assignment and ate the next ball with a fine shot to the boundary!
Thanks for padding up Dan! Casuals win by three wickets!!
Fall of Wickets :
23-1 Liam Forster (Steve O'Reilly-12*); 25-2 Steve O'Reilly
(Bryn Wilkes-2*); 48-3 Robbie Sayer (Bryn Wilkes-12*); 58-4
Naren Marugonda (Bryn Wilkes-21*); 112-5 Bryn Wilkes (Syed
Saffiulah-20*); 125-6 Rob Owens (Syed Saffiulah-27*); 140-7
Liam Warren (Liam Warren-8*);
Name How Out Bowler Runs 4s 6s Balls
Liam Forster ct Simon Grant b Steffan Vickery 10 1 0 26
Steve O'Reilly* b Ethan Duke 12 0 0 21
Bryn Wilkes† b Tomos Grant 51 6 0 54
Robbie Sayer b Lewis Gladwin 13 2 0 11
Naren Marugonda b Lewis Gladwin 1 0 0 4
Syed Saffiulah not out 34 4 0 65
Rob Owens b Lewis Davies 6 0 0 24
Liam Warren run out (Lewis Gladwin) 8 1 0 15
Dan Lewis not out 0 0 0 0
Paul Stephens did not bat
David Thomas did not bat
A good all-round performance with some excellent bowling
and batting for once, and lots of contributions from all concerned.
Pleasant pint and chat to oppo afterwards, looking forward
to playing here again.
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