With perfect conditions at Bryn Road, Tondu welcomed the visit of Ponthir. Skipper Tom Jenkins won the toss on what seemed like a perfect batting surface. Matthew Richards and Richard Gregory opened the batting and the Ponthir bowling and fielding made it difficult to score runs early on. Richards started to find his feet and began to score runs freely, which was a surprise to all his team mates as only twenty minutes ago he didn’t even have a bat. Sadly Richards had left his bat at home in the kitchen where he had spent the previous evening cover driving satsumas into the washing machine off the bowling of his girlfriend who if truth be told wasn’t completely invested in the spell. With Richards hitting boundaries with regularity, Gregory was getting slightly bogged down. Who would have thought all that was needed to wake the batsman within was a ball popping up off his pad and hitting him in the head. Runs began to flow. Meanwhile, Richards decided to check whether the splice of his bat was knocked in and dollied one up, falling in the forties again.

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This brought Josh Raikes to the crease. Richard Gregory ended that tale. Railkes, run out first ball with a direct hit. Tom Jenkins came to the crease needing to add some stability to his team’s innings. Patiently waiting for the bad ball, Jenkins began to find the boundary more and more often. Dropped twice by the opposition, it seemed as though this was his day for runs. Gregory got trapped LBW and the returning Callum Smeaton came in to bat. Smeaton and Jenkins put a much needed partnership together, getting 33 and 27 respectively. Josh Banks came and went without troubling Tatchell who was living the futuristic dream, scoring on an ipad with a live feed to the play cricket website. Leyton Willams came in with the order from his skipper to make sure we get to 200. He tried to score all the required runs off one ball by hitting it into space and despite the ball coming down with snow on it, the Ponthir fielder held firm. Tim Woolls and Josh Tatchell added some needed runs along with Kieran Davies, with Tondu stumbling to 186 all out with two overs remaining.

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Leyton Williams and Josh Tatchell opened the bowling for Tondu and it was Williams who struck first with a cracking delivery beating the batsman all ends up and bowling him. Butler and Hardman started building a partnership for Ponthir. A bowling change brought on Tim Woolls, it didn’t take him long to dislodge both batsmen. Leyton Williams’ was using the tactic of bowling so far down the leg side the chances of the batsmen dislocating a hip quadrupled and one such victim top edged one high behind the wicket with Matthew Richards underneath it, taking over wicket keeping duties for the first time this season. At this point crows were beginning to gather on the umpire’s arms. The captain decided a change was needed. Tom Jenkins was to have more spells than Harry Potter on this sunny Saturday, with part one about to start. All too often the Ponthir batsmen were casting their own counter-spell……’ Expelliarmus full tossius!’……..and the ball disappears. The groundskeeping staff would like to convey their appreciation to Master Potter for keeping their wicket in such pristine condition. Harry decided to bring himself off and bring on the soon-to-be man of the moment, Ellis ‘Freddo’ Major.

 

Woolls struck again and it was evident that the opposition had resorted to just trying to see the left-arm spinner’s spell off. Ryan started scoring runs quickly for Ponthir before he was caught from the bowling of Major. The returning Tatchell took a well deserved wicket before Major struck twice with two wickets clean bowling the batsmen. In between all this action, Harry Potter re-appeared a couple of times to check the batsmen could still hit full tosses, it was evident this was not to be young magician’s day. One wonders what an aspiring magician has to do to get a spell nowadays. He did take a very difficult catch which he reacted well to, managing to react quickly to take it at the second attempt, often more difficult than the first. With Jarvis becoming a problem for Tondu at the tail, the visitors were edging ever closer to their target but with only one wicket left, the position was still precarious. With Potter feeling the pressure he erupted on the umpire for calling a no-ball when he finally took a wicket but the umpires decided the full toss to the ribcage was illegal. He finally turned to Callum Smeaton and the change was to prove pivotal as the bowler took a catch from his own bowling to win this exciting contest for the home side. With skipper Harry Potter celebrating with gusto along with the rest of the players, you could see how much it meant to Tondu to win this tight game by 10 runs.

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Tondu 186 all out (43 overs)

Matthew Richards 41, Callum Smeaton 33

Harold 3-41

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Ponthir 177 all out (42 overs)

Ryan 36

Tim Woolls 3-13, Ellis Major 3-23

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'Men of the Match'

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No way to separate the performances of Tim Woolls and Ellis Major who were both superb.