The Beamer

A newspaper cutting on John Cole helping Cresselly win the Bowl It reads like a who’s who of local cricketers with some of the finest players to grace our grounds having their names emblazoned on it. They say their is no I in team, but no matter who wins this year’s Harrison-Allen, all 22 players on the pitch will be hoping they are the star of the show; they will be wanting to lift the John Cole trophy. They will want to be named Man of the Match. Brilliant batting and brilliant bowling together with the odd brilliant catch all helps in being named as the trophy’s custodian for the next 12 months but who was the man who had a trophy named after him and why was a trophy named in his honour in the first place? John Cole was a Cresselly legend. Born and bred in the hamlet of Pisgah just a stone’s throw away from the Cresselly cricket ground it was inevitable he would gravitate towards the summer game. A butcher by trade, he was born in the same room that his son...

We’re at the back end of the season, just five league games to go and a couple of cup games for good measure and we’re still no clearer who is going to win what. Cresselly are hot on the heels of Carew in division one although the Rooks still occupy pole position while at the other end of the spectrum, Pembroke would require a miracle to stay up given they’ve not won a game all season and who will go down with them depends on whether Johnston can string another couple of wins together. If they don’t Kilgetty and Lawrenny will survive the drop. Llangwm look odds on favourites to win division two although it’s been known for them  to slip up in positions like this in the past while Narberth should also go up although Llechryd have found a bit of form and may have something to say about that. At the bottom, Stackpole have only won once so they look certs to drop down and Llanrhian may go down with them although Haverfordwest seconds and Whitland seconds are not out the wo...

A bit of rain and batsmen don’t know what to do. We had a week of the wet stuff leading up to last weekend’s games and the highest score we got in division one was Cresselly’s winning score of 139 as they beat Haverfordwest by four wickets. Of all the divisions, only Scott Arthur of Cresselly seconds raised his bat for a century, while Saundersfoot’s Yannik Parker came mighty close with a score of 97 against St Ishmaels’ seconds in division four. Without doubt that was the most exciting game of the weekend with Tish falling two runs short in pursuit of the Foot’s 186 all out which was the highest team score recorded on the day. It was a weekend for bowlers however with no fewer than ten of the county’s grenade throwers taking five wickets or more. If a five-for is the equivalent of a century then that’s an impressive return. Even when the Pembrokeshire basks in the most run friendly of conditions, I’m not sure we’ve had that many batsmen score tons over a weekend. The w...

In a game between Lamphey and Pembroke Dock the other week, the home side (Lamphey) were batting and doing quite nicely, pottering along for the loss of a wicket or two when a lad celebrating his 17th birthday came on to bowl. He bowled beautifully too, landing the ball on a line and length that was enough for him to snare five wickets for the loss of hardly any runs. Fortunately for the rabbits coming in at 9,10 Jack (I was number 10), Connor Carroll had to come off due to the ECB fast bowling directives. At 17, he could only bowl 7 overs in one spell and a maximum of 18 in one day. Given bowlers in division three can only bowl a maximum of 9 in a league game his bowling for the day was done. Him coming off weakened the visiting attack and strengthened the hosts’ hand and helped Lamphey gain a narrow win in a low scoring game. It’s a scenario that happens across the county every week. Young bowlers come on and a few overs later they come off. It matters little tha...