CRICKHOWELL’S game against Dales in Leominster on Saturday was eventually curtailed by the weather, which affected much of the Marches Cricket League programme.
Crickhowell lost the toss for the first time this season and were invited to bat first. Ben Bowker partnered Wallace again, up front, but went without scoring adjudged lbw off the bowling of Gore in the second over.
Wallace went soon after for five caught behind off the same bowler and Kerrison, back from an ankle injury, battled hard for 23 before also being adjudged lbw this time off Jones.
Unfortunately he also picked up a back injury, which meant that he would be unable to take any further part in the game.
It was down to Lilley and Francis to start to rebuild and see the side through to treble figures. Lilley was timing the ball well but was out on 37 caught at mid-off by Breeze off the bowling of Privett. Francis though was in good form again with the bat, but was running out of partners.
Joseph Bowker (9), Callum Tew (0)and Lawrence Watts (12) all hung around for a while whilst Francis piled on the runs at the other end and it looked like he was heading for that elusive first ton of the season. He was eventually out for 96 and this was the third time this season that he fell tantalizingly close to three figures.
Phill Bowker and Hywel Price managed to remain not out at the end to deny Dales a further bowling point and Crickhowell’s final score of 237 showed a good return after a stuttering start and meant that they gained maximum batting points.
In reply, though, Dales showed some intent, having looked at the forecast and hearing that other games close by had already been abandoned.
Batson (35*) in particular got after the bowlers and hit seven boundaries and with Crickhowell a man down in the field, Dales were playing much better than a side languishing at the bottom of the table.
In rain affected games though, when the first innings has been completed, there needs to be 20 overs bowled to calculate a result using a modified Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
When the rain came after nine overs, Dales score of 56-1 saw them in a relatively strong position but when the umpires ruled that the game could not be completed, and no result achieved, it was Crickhowell who had the better of the points, bagging five further points for the abandoned game on top of the five for batting.
For Dales, they had four bowling points to add to their five also, so could be pleased with a reasonable return for a game that might have gone ‘either way’ but eventually fell foul to the weather.
Dales are still routed to the bottom of the table on 35 points for the season whilst Crickhowell now have 84 points in 6th position after seven games.
Crickhowell though, now have a run of three homes games in a row, but all against opposition in the top half of the table, so they will be hoping that the run of injuries the team is carrying can clear up quickly, and they can get 11 fit players onto the field.