It was a busy week in the Willow League, with the preliminary round of the Cup competition as well as League action taking place.
Cardiff Casuals were involved in a cliff-hanger with Cardiff Bay Barbarians. Batting first Causals rattled up 119-4, thanks mostly to Manish Vyas (34) and M Smith (36no) with extras contributing 29 s is quite common in the Cup format. The wickets were spread one apiece for Jones, Nareem, Mogridge and Dart. The BaaBaas reply was given a flyer by Darren Mogridge, but lost momentum when he had to retire on reaching 40 in the 12th over. It all came down to the final over, with just 4 required Kim Swain held his nerve with the ball, finding the stumps of last man with 3 deliveries to spare, with Mogridge stranded at the non-strikers end on 44no.
Elsewhere Eclipse Print were continuing a miserable run of Cup form, despite some good League form, as they completed an 11th straight Cup loss. Dan Clayton and Dominc Cain both smashed 40 as Rhiwbina posted an imposing 152-4, Luke Bonelle grabbed 2 of the wickets. Alistair Collyer gave the innings good momentum with 38 at the top of the order, but wickets fell regularly, with Lewis, Davies and Townsend all picking up a pair, as Print were bowled out for just 102.
There were plenty of runs too as Cardiff Cavaliers posted 157-8 against Consmen Andy Steadman retired on 41no, and there were contributions in the 20’s from both Graham Chapman and Nigel Adams. Pushing for extra runs meant a total of 5 run outs in the Cavaliers innings. The Consmen reply was held together by 28 from D Martin, 31 from Richard Saunders and 22 from Parker. A hefty 32 extras kept Consmen interested but they eventually fell 29 runs short, closing on 128-7.
In the final Cup match British Airways raised 127-8 thanks to Chris Davies (24) and R Humphries (28) at the top of the order. Scoring slowed later on as Chartered Trust’s Craig Mohring (2-5), Phil Dooley (2-11) and Jon Griffiths all bowled well to restrict the final total. Steve Mohring led the run chase, top scoring with 44, and with a hefty 36 extras boosting the total Trust ran out 6 wicket winners with 3 overs to spare.
In League action Cavaliers and Consmen met again. D. Martin’s 61 the key to Consmen’s 144-6 (Jimmy Marchant 3-25). Andy Steadman’s 69no lifted Cavaliers to a second win, this time by 8 wickets.
South Glamorgan Education suffered a rare reverse as their 124-7 (Nick Allen 32, Simon Tomlinson 31, Dooley 2-7) was easily overhauled by 4 wickets on the back of an unbeaten 72 by Trust’s Obaid (Jack Lansdown 2-18, Tim Wegener 2-27).
Rhiwbina struggled to reach 98-6 against British Airways (Dominic Clayton 23, G Kunalan 20, Chris Davies 3-16) but turned in a superb fielding performance to drop BA for just 74 (John Davies 3-1, Clayton 3-14, Kunalan 2-5) after Davies (25) and Jason Owens (21) had given BA a good start.
GE Healthcare scored just 62-9 (Ian James 15, Simon Riddick 13, Gordon Stephenson 12) as Eclipse Print’s Brian Condon (4-7) and Mike Williams (2-3) were virtually unplayable. Williams’ 39 anchored a rapid Print reply, despite Dave Powell (3-15) and Robin Collier (2-6) as Print won by 5 wickets with half their overs to spare.