South East Wales Cricket League Division Four - Cardiff CC Conference First XI (164) lost to Llanarth CC First XI (170-4) by six wickets

FOLLOWING last weeks victory over Radyr, Llanarth travelled to Cardiff in a confident mood looking for the back-to-back victory that would take them clear of the bottom of the table.

An early start of 12pm was agreed to allow the majority of the Wales football match to be viewed post cricket, while requests to start later than normal so all could watch England Rugby whitewash Australia fell on deaf ears.

Cardiff won the toss and chose to bat and Dave Lomax (2-30) gave the Trees a great start by removing both openers, one to an incredible catch at point by Andrew Spencer who stuck out a Mr Tickle-like left arm to pouch a rocket. However Ricketts and McAndrew settled the home team and progressed the score to 74 before A Spencer (3-33) found the edge of the former to have him caught behind by Tom Vaughan. 

The Cardiff middle order couldn’t cope with the spin of Chris Powell (4-42) as he took four quick wickets to see the innings subside to 101-7. McAndrew (64), though, was proving troublesome but some of that trouble was self-inflicted by Llanarth as they dropped him four times in an innings total of six dropped catches. That profligacy enabled Cardiff to add some useful runs down the order and although the final score of 164 all out was well within the Trees scope, in truth, the total should have been under 100.

Post-tea Llanarth’s reply didn’t start well as Ed James departed for a single but Mark Baxter (33) and Lomax (70 not out) made slow but assured progress, taking the score to 75, before Baxter missed a straight one and walked off looking for the hole in his bat that the ball must surely have passed through. When Vaughan and Elis Willbourn both departed for ducks the score had slipped to 90-4 and Cardiff were sniffing a chance.

Enter skipper Dennis Heath (38 not out) who took the match by the scruff of the neck and, in conjunction with Lomax, counter-attacked wonderfully as further runs came at a useful lick. In a bid for a break-through Cardiff tried to use their youngsters but no mercy was shown as the last rites were delivered in a flurry of boundaries with Lomax capping the victory, by six wickets, with a smartly biffed maximum.