Match Report vs Llantwit Fardre Centurions 30th June 2026 @ Bryn-y-Don, Dinas (Skipper Jack, report Iwan)

Some rain through the afternoon caused some concern the game would go ahead, but come the evening, the weather had cleared just in time and dried up enough meaning the game could go ahead – all that was needed was for both teams to turn up. This is where the casual name may have been taken too literally.

With Katy Perry and Lewis Capaldi both having concerts on in Cardiff (Neither giving any thought for the Casuals’ fixtures), traffic was worse than normal on the routes to the ground. This meant that the stand-in skipper (Jack) was delayed in reaching the ground as was Iwan (who had the kit) following some car trouble. The final hurdle was the car park being taken up by a number of trailers for some filming and having to park in the hedge or on the path (with help from the security guys).

Thankfully, Dan stepped up as the stand-in-stand-in skipper to complete the toss – wisely choosing to bat as we only had 6 players there at that time. With the kit and the keys to the building held up in traffic, the team were resourceful in getting stumps (Greg C’s recent purchase), a makeshift scorebook and pencil (Patrick’s kids’ book) and Dan had a ball (luckily), meaning the game could start against the odds albeit a bit later than slated. The game reduced to 18 overs a side.

Will and Greg P opened the batting in damp conditions, meaning the ball often refused to run to the boundary. In the 3rd over the main point of contention from the game came as Will was given out LBW by Dan for 8 – the score on 22-1. Will was adamant he’d hit it, while Dan did not hear anything and said it was plumb…the discussion persisted through the evening but was later resolved as an agree to disagree over a drink – play on.
Greg struggled to find his usual fluency in damp conditions, but the bowlers also struggled to find their radar a bit with a healthy amount of wides being bowled. With the score on 46, Greg was bowled looking to attack the bowler, out for 6. At this point, the rest of the team had arrived, so the boys had done their job hanging in to get a full line-up.

At the other end, Liam had found it similarly tricky to start, but after getting in he started to hit some nice shots all around and formed a couple of useful partnerships with both Greg’s. The 9th over was where we saw the first boundary (4) and the score was 52-2. Greg C joined Liam and made a useful partnership until Greg was bowled for 10. The score was 72-3 off 13 overs. Fresh from arriving and opening up the building, Jack joined Liam and decided to play some shots and try to push the scoring on a bit. 18 runs came off the next 3 overs, which also brought about the wicket of Liam, stumped for an innings top score of 29. The score on 84-4.

Rhys joined Jack in the middle and also tried to get stuck in, but was caught at backward point(ish) for 6 in the 17th over. Gareth entered the fray and looked to bat positively with Jack to try and finish with a bit of a flourish. After both batters getting some much needed boundaries, the final over saw plenty of action – from a weirdly delayed dive from Jack, to Gareth running down the wicket and missing the ball (his pre-loaded excuse of having bad/ sore thighs) the innings ended on 114-6 – Gareth being bowled on the last ball of the innings for 10 (Jack not out for 19).

Will – 8 (9) LBW Bwlr 1
Greg P – 6 (11) Bowled Bwlr 1
Liam – 29 (32) Stumped Wyatt
Greg C – 10 (23) Bowled Dunn
Jack – 19 (12) Not Out
Rhys – 6 (3) Caught Grey, Bowled Joyce
Gareth – 10 (5) Bowled Johns
Extras – 24

Total – 114-6. 18 overs.

Bwlr 1 – 4-0-20-1
Jack Th – 4-0-22-1
O Wyatt – 4-0-21-1
B Dunn – 4-1-21-1
D Joyce – 1-0-14-1
G Johns – 1-0-10-1

The general feeling was the total was not quite what would be defendable, however Will quite rightly pointed out to anyone who would listen that it was already getting dark, so after a quick turnaround and the second innings got under way.

Some excellent bowling from openers Dan (3 runs off his 1st over) and Gareth (a wicket maiden to start) was all that was needed to inject some encouragement and energy into the team, and there was a lot of effort in the field to back the bowlers up (even if it wasn’t aways executed). Another wicket for Gareth (bowling O Wyatt for 7) meant the score was 23-2 after 4 overs.

Dan and Gareth finished their opening 3-over spells with 0-15 and 2-12 respectively. Greg P and Nadeem were then introduced into the attack, both bowled 2 overs with figures of 0-16 and 0-15 respectively – S Johns was proving to be difficult to prise away from the crease. After 10 overs the score was 60-2 and the batters were steadily making progress towards the total, although the effort from the whole fielding side was helping to keep the batters honest and keep the game tightly contested.

Iwan and Patrick were then brought on, both opening with economical overs (conceding 4 and 5 respectively). The 13th over was where the pressure finally started to break the batters. A good catch at mid-on by Gareth saw S Johns removed off Iwan’s bowling on his penultimate ball of the over. This led to D Joyce joining W Grey in the middle – a man who had a reputation for being someone who could give it a whack. A cutter, along with an incredible catch from Greg P (dying on him, full dive, making sure to hold the ball off the ground throughout) saw the danger man removed for a golden duck, and 2 wickets in 2 balls. Patrick then followed this up with the wicket of in batter W Grey with another good catch from Greg P and at the end of the 14th over the total was 77-5 – game on.

Iwan was unable to complete the hat-trick, then went to other end of the scale bowling a full beamer at the head of the batter G Johns, who after looking like he had made the necessary move to avoid it, stood back up to hit him flush on the head (no helmet). After being checked and confirming he would continue, Iwan completed the over and was rightly removed from the attack. Iwan’s excuse was the ball had become too slippery at this point – luckily no-one made a big deal out of it (GBH was mentioned at one point) so Iwan didn’t have to feel too bad about it.
Jack brought on Rhys for an over (0-7) before throwing the ball back to Gareth for his 4th over which turned into a great bit of captaincy as Gareth clean bowled G Johns and J Isles in consecutive balls – the second hat-trick attempt of the night…which again was unsuccessful, and Gareth ran out of overs to try to go for the 5-fer.

Greg was brought back on to finish the innings, bowling C Mac and seeing the innings end on 100-8 – a 14-run win for the Casuals, with a complete team effort with everyone contributing both on and off the field – despite how it all started (belatedly and without equipment/ facilities).

Dan – 3-0-15-0
Gareth – 4-1-17-4
Greg P – 3-0-21-1
Nadeem – 2-0-15-0
Iwan – 3-0-14-2
Patrick – 2-0-7-1
Rhys – 1-0-7-0

R Lewis – 1 (1) Caught Greg P, Bowled Gareth
S Johns – 41 (31) Caught Gareth, Bowled Iwan
O Wyatt – 7 (3) Bowled Gareth
W Grey – 14 (13) Caught Greg P, Bowled Patrick
D Joyce – 0 (1) Caught Greg P, Bowled Iwan
C Mac – 2 (2) Bowled Greg P
G Johns – 13 (9) Bowled Gareth
J Baker – 2 (2) Not Out
J Isles – 0 (1) Bowled Gareth
J Thompson 3 (2) Not Out
Extras – 17

Total 100-8. 18 Overs.

Special mentions to James for his keeping (although his throwing with the gloves on needs work), Greg for his fielding especially that diving catch, and to the resilience of G Johns after Iwan bowled an errant ball straight at his head.

With the light disappearing, and the floodlights not existing, the team retired to the pub to enjoy some beverages and snacks, and to try to decide if Will did hit the ball Dan gave him LBW on or not. [Ed - he didn't hit it...]

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