Match Report vs Dinas Powys 17th May 2026 @ The Common (Skipper Dan, Report Cheese)

As the team arrived at the Common, it was much as expected – a sharp wind blowing straight down the wicket. The pitch itself was split into two distinct halves: one end clearly favoured the bowlers, the other the batters.

The skipper’s decision at the toss was academic – win or lose, we were batting (Dan standing in for the late skipper Steveo - won the toss, and continued to captain for the rest of the match). With a short tail in positions 9, 10, and 11, it looked the right call.

Cheese & Liam were sent out to gauge the wicket and set a solid platform. This lasted 4 overs until Cheese was caught in the covers. In stepped the Bandit and straight away looked comfortable on a pitch that was anything but.

The pitch claimed its first victim with on that kept low and the bandit was back on the bench before he could get going. Benedict joined Liam and period of stability started although the partnership was dominated by Benedict though not from the what of trying from Liam though all his best shots unerring finding the fielders.

Benedict managed to tickle a good ball behind and was caught then Ned & the Grinch followed quickly and suddenly the casuals were 69-5 off 17 looking for a partnership to get us to a defendable score.

Liam was the one constant through out the mini collapse and needed a partner to rebuild, Gareth joined Liam and got to drinks with no further loss. The partnership started slowly with hundred up in the 25th over. In fairness the partnership never got into overdrive, they occupied the crease as required and smashed away the hittable bad balls and rotating the strike with well run singles.

At 131 off 32, Gareth & Liam had dug the casual out a hole and with 5 wickets in hand we were ready to launch with 54 balls remaining a target more than 180 seemed possible. As with all big partnerships once one goes the other seems to follow quickly & 131 for 5 turned into 154 for 8 with both Liam & Gareth getting out trying to move on the score and Granville hitting a quick fire 8.

As with most casuals’ batting innings, there had been calls to get on with it and usual verbal diarrhoea from the tail. Well, here was their chance, 30 balls to get 26 runs and get to what seems unattainable 180. So, with most times when given a chance to build a mini-innings the tail crumbled and added 7 run in 16 balls, lets hope the 7 to 10 missed runs would not come back to bite us!!

E Stewart – 13, caught
L Forster – 39, caught
J Beaumont – 5, bowled
B Watson – 22, caught
E Stagg – 5, bowled
M Davies – 0, bowled
G Ludkin – 42, caught
H Ahmed – 8, bowled
S O’reilly – 2, caught
G Day – 2, lbw
D Lewis – 2, not out

As always with playing against Dinas remove the top three and you are the game regardless of the score.

This is exactly what Dan & Goff gave us 36-4 off 12 overs; getting the ball to swing & jag removing three bowled while Dan’s c&b reads regulation in the book was anything, but a steepling catch made harder by calling ‘me’ and getting run into by Hasnat who was motoring in from Mid-off.
With a great start it was important to keep taking wickets and keep the pressure on. Gareth & Granville were the 1st change, although the later was accomplished, the former was elusive with some close calls & a number of no balls!! (Granville had two wickets chalked off for no balls).

At drinks Dinas had moved on to 80-4 and starting to look comfortable with boundaries coming more regularly, finally Granville managed to keep his foot behind the line and took 3 quick wickets to swing the game back in the favour of the casuals all bowled by bring the ball back down the slope. So 80-4 after 20 became 85-7 after 23.

Unfortunately, none of these wickets was the No.5 (first team opener) who had survived to get 40*, the game settled into a tactical sparring match between our skipper and the increasing flamboyant set batsmen. There was only going to one winner in this game of cat ‘n’ mouse and Dinas moved to 135 – 7 off 33 overs and looked set to take the win with 28 off 42 the remaining calculation.
But then with another twist as Bendict was on the right side of an obvious lbw decision and Cheese bowled the 10 with a full toss. The calculation swung back in the casuals favour with one more wicket to get and 24 to get off 22.
Cheese made no impact after 4 balls at the no 11 so 24 off 18.

Dan was asked to change ends and finish the game. Which he did, the no.5 came out swinging and bang, bang the game finished with 4 balls to spare and Dinas won by 1 wicket.

Thank you to Andy Munn for scoring the game.

D Lewis - 7.2 overs, 1 maidens, 32 runs, 3 wickets
G Day - 8, 1, 40, 1
H Ahmed - 6, 0, 29, 3
G Ludkin - 6, 0, 10, 0
E Stewart - 8, 2, 19, 1
E Stagg - 2, 0, 12, 0
B Watson - 2, 0, 11, 1

A couple of items to note the opener that smashed a dead ball for four and gobby git of a teenager who gave a lot chirp but failed to back it up, I would have loved to beat them just for those two!!!

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