Kington 155 all out lost to Crickhowell 156-8

CRICKHOWELL cricket supporters this season have suffered more lows than highs, and after losing a crucial local derby the previous week down at Cwrt-y-Gollen, they turned up at home, for the visit of league leaders Kington, who hadn’t lost a game all season so far, more in hope than expectation.

After all, Crickhowell’s cricket couldn’t get any worse, could it – and they could hardly expect to beat the top-of-the-table side could they?

But skipper Nick Francis won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first and Joseph Bowker promptly took a wicket in his first over grabbing the scalp of Ben George for a duck, smartly caught behind by wicketkeeper Wallace.

George had scored a century in his last outing, so a four-ball duck here was a massive blow to the visitors before the game had really got going. Protheroe and Fenwick-Lofts then started to build a partnership for Kington and had 41 on the board in quick time, before Bowker struck again with Cornock taking the catch to dismiss Fenwick-Lofts for 25.

This though, brought the dangerous Green, who has one of the best strike rates in the league, to the crease. Francis had brought himself on to replace Ben Bowker, from the Post Office end and in his first over he trapped Green lbw for two. This was another massive dent to the league leaders, who looked a little below par, and Crickhowell were playing with much more belief. Joseph Bowker grabbed two more wickets in his ninth, over with Francis taking a smart catch in the slips to remove W Morgan, and then, clean bowling Stokes for 0. Kington found themselves on 67-5 in the 17th over, but Protheroe was digging in, and he and Kent moved the score onto 90 before Francis struck three times in as many overs, with Cornock taking the catch to dismiss Kent, Ben Bowker taking the catch to bring Protheroe’s belligerent knock to an end and Ollie Morgan being trapped lbw to give Francis 4-35 in 12 overs. Joseph Bowker finished on 4-28 in his spell, and Kington were eight wickets down and still hadn’t achieved three figures. To Kington’s credit, Lloyd (24) formed two partnerships with Jones and Duncan Morgan, against the second string bowlers of Price and Ben Bowker, to see his side up to an unlikely 155 all out with Ben Bowker eventually picking up the last two wickets to finish with 2-50.

Crickhowell though were more than happy to have bowled the league leaders out to gain full bowling points and chasing down just 156 for what would be a welcome but unlikely victory, represented a good afternoon’s work so far.

After tea, Crickhowell’s reply got off to a nervous start with the first three batsmen all falling to lbw shouts, with Lyster-Binns (1) and Christie (0) going cheaply and Kerrison for 14 but not before establishing a decent partnership with Cornock (24) for the third wicket to see the side up to 60 in the 17th over.

Cornock was then stumped and Francis looked to push the score along, hitting a four and six but then lofted a catch to cover and the spectators knew that if Crickhowell were going to gain a famous victory here, it would be done the hard way.

Joseph Bowker then put a good innings together of 34 to stake a claim for ‘man of the match’, before Green got one to lift sharply off a good length for the keeper to take a very good catch standing up. Parker (5) and Wallace [2] then tried to recreate the ‘run out’ fiasco, of last week, and with both back in the hutch debating who was at fault, Crickhowell found themselves eight wickets down and still some work to do to seal a win. Lawrence Watts was joined by Tim Price, and little by little they edged their team closer to victory.

Whilst Tim Price was eyeing up the Post Office at ‘cow corner’, Watts was busy sorting the good deliveries from the bad and stamping his authority on the situation. Both finished unbeaten on 20 not out to claim, not only that unlikely victory, but three extra batting points to make the tally for the game 23. This win was some consolation for losing the local derby the previous week but the team will now need to show some consistency if they want to stay out of the drop zone.

Next week Crickhowell (now in 6th position on 131 points) travel to Brockhampton who are down in 9th place, but only 10 points behind. Glangrwyney are now bottom of the table on 105 points, with Woolhope on 128 points and Dales on 123 points making it still very tight at the bottom. At least a win over Kington, who remain the league leaders by just one point, should give Crickhowell a much needed boost and give them the confidence to play their way out of trouble.