South East Wales Cricket League Division Three - Crumlin 1st XI (307 for 9) beat Monmouth 1st XI (275-8) by 32 runs

MONMOUTH Cricket Club suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday as they travelled away to last season’s Conference winners Crumlin in Division Three of the South East Wales Cricket League.

Monmouth, sponsored by JD Wetherspoon, won the toss at Rhiw Field and asked the hosts to bat first on a green looking wicket. The decision seemed to be a positive one as two early wickets for seamer Tej Saran (3-65 off nine overs) saw Crumlin slip to 27-2 before man of the match Simon Veall (202) arrived at the crease. The former Blackwood man batted superbly with his brother Ieuan Veall (39) to take the score to 170 before the partnership fell just after the drinks break thanks to the bowling of Wales under 14 youngster Ben Davies (3-47 off nine overs).

A clutter of wickets then saw Monmouth in the box seat as the hosts slipped to 180-8 which looked very gettable on the small, yet picturesque ground. However, Simon Veall had other ideas and, in a masterclass of how to bat with the tail, rotated strike expertly whilst punishing the Monmouth bowling attack. His innings of 202 consisted of some 21 fours and an incredible 15 sixes before he was eventually bowled in the 43rd over with the score already at 300.

In truth, Monmouth did not help themselves in the field as not only were too many runs leaked through poor ground fielding, but Veall was dropped four times during his mammoth innings. Despite the onslaught there were wickets for Alim Hansraj (1-47 off nine overs) and skipper Ben Turner (1-65 off seven overs) plus catches for wicket-keeper Jon Despontin, Alim Hansraj and Ben Turner. 

In the end the Crumlin innings closed on 307-9 leaving Monmouth facing a big run chase but certainly not an impossible one on a small ground and with some in-form batsman.

In reply, despite losing Matt Jones early Monmouth were well in the chase for most of their innings as Henry Breeze (49) and Adam Roberts (112) took the score to 133-1 at the 23-over half way stage before Breeze fell to Ross Jollife (1-47 off six overs). This brought the hard hitting Tej Saran (52) to the crease and he and Roberts put Monmouth within striking distance of their target before Saran hit a full toss off man of the moment Simon Veall (4-45 off five overs) straight to deep square leg.

With their tails up, Veall struck with his next two balls to complete his hat-trick in what was a truly remarkable match for him. The clutter of wickets left Monmouth reeling as they slipped from a promising looking 221-2 to 235-7 by the 38th over when Roberts was undone for 112 by a Veall slower ball which put an end to his 111 ball innings consisting of 15 fours and two sixes. A 40-run partnership between two under 14 players Ben Davies and Ben Pilot took the score to 275-8 at the end, but ultimately Monmouth fell 32 runs short to the delight of the home fans watching on. Despite the disappointing defeat Monmouth picked up nine points and remain in second place in Division Three. Improvements will have to be made though as they face another tough encounter next week, hosting Cardiff based Whitchurch Heath at the Monmouth Cricket Ground with a 1pm start.