Match Reports
1st XI | 2nd XI | 3rd XI | 4th XI |Sun 22nd June
Ton-up Russell stars against Waterwheelers
Waterwheelers
185-7
Bridgend 186-4
Jamie Russell’s all round individual brilliance blew the Waterwheelers, led by Town favourite Paul Minchington, off the park.
Russell, known to many as Squirt, proved to be the ultimate all rounder by taking 4 wickets and scoring a century, and wait a minute, did I mention he also kept wicket?
On a sunny but very blustery day, Minchy won the toss and decided to bat. His side was made up of former Tondu players and a few current Town players, including 3rd team skipper Liam Weller.
As in the “golden days” as Minchy described them (referring to his days as Tondu 3rds skipper) he opened the batting with Kris Epton and Phil Meredith, who built a solid opening partnership before both fell in quick succession.
Meredith rolled back the years with a classy 49, before picking out star fielder Jonny Ling with a simple painful catch at point for 49. With openers gone, Liam Weller, and former Town superstar Tim Bushell, went about re building the innings.
Weller played his typically cautious innings, before opening up with some glorious attacking strokes eventually falling for 27. Bushell, despite looking comfortable, never really found the fluency to score runs quickly and ended playing the supporting role for both Weller, and his replacement, another Town player Alex Frew.
Weller was dismissed by Russell, with his first ball after swapping the gloves for ball. Russell, then went onto claim a further 3 wickets in 5 overs to finish with 4-14.
Frew tried upping the run rate, and with some success due to some sloppy fielding and a dropped catch by Ling, before being bowled by Rhodri Hopes with the first ball of his second spell, for 25.
Wickets fell reullarly during the last 10 overs, but Bushell, once a quality bowler, who posed batsmen of all abilities problems, stayed strong to finish 16 not out, as the Minchy select XI posted a useful 185-7 from their allocated 40 overs.
Town’s bowlers all contributed to the attack. Hopes 1-17 off 5, Iwan Jones 1-36 of 5, keeper, come Bowler Iwan Bunston 0-8 off 5 overs, whilst his dad Alan Bunston went for 29 off the same amount of overs. One - nil Iwan!!!
Thanks to Russell, this was never going to be a problem. He and Ling opened the batting, as Russell set about taking the risks with big hitting from the word go.
However, on just 1, Russell was put down off his bowling by Frew, just as Russell did to him earlier in the day, but that drop proved costly.
Ling also played his shots, before falling to Town team mate Liam Callaghan, who trapped the webmaster LBW for 19.
In cricket there is a saying ‘one brings two,’ and this was to be the case next ball. Chris Brett took a risk by going for a suicidal second and was run out for just 1. It was at this point that Minchy rallied his troops, and believed that if they got Russell out, his side would win. But this was not to be the case.
Bunston junior came to the crease and after a slow start, and guiding Russell to his century started to play his shots and ended up finishing on 34 not out.
However, it was Russell who stole the show. Wherever the ball was pitched, he dispatched it to the boundary with ease. The classy knock of ‘pinch hitting’ at the top of the order included 13 boundary fours and two sixes, scoring 113 of his teams 186 runs.
His classy innings was brought to an end by young spinner Morgan Parry, who had him caught out in the deep. By the time he was dismissed though, Town were effectively home.
Bunston senior joined his son at the crease, but fell fairly quickly and cheaply to the youngster Parry. Therefore Iwan won the battle of the Bunston household two - nil over his veteran father. Parry despite giving away several years of experience to the older players in the team, proved to be the pick of the bowlers finishing with 2-21 from 4 overs.
It was left to the skipper Robert ‘Carrot’ Thomas to steer his side home to a comprehensive 6 wicket victory over the Waterwheelers. But this day may be just remembered for one person only.....Jamie Russell!
Well done lads!
Friendly XI Scribe