Hills Plymouth Cricket Club

Hills Plymouth second team hosted Swansea Civil Service, and were put in to bat. Things looked good for Hills with a fine opening partnership if 119 in 23 overs. Dai Fowler scored an excellent 78, including 3 sixes, before being caught by P Sutch off the bowling of B Novis. Fellow opener Dickie Bowen hit 2 sixes of his own in his innings of 71, finally being bowled by S Griffiths. Hills’ batsmen continued to pile on the runs, with a strong innings of 26 from Matthew Lewis ending when the batsman was bowled by S Griffiths. Jeremy Crocker fell to E Davies for 12, and Andrew Williams was caught by Sutch off the same bowler for 9.

Mark Chamberlain was unlucky to be run out on 11, then Griffiths claimed his third wicket when he bowled skipper Phil Lewis for 1. Robbie Wathen (8) and Aled Walters (5) remained not out at the end of the innings, which concluded on 221 for 7, a formidable target.

In reply, the visitors lost their first wicket in the third over, when M Tippet was caught and bowled by Andrew Hargreaves for 4. A determined stand of 49 for the second wicket was broken when Phil Lewis bowled A Crabtree for 27. When Lewis had opener S Jenkins caught by Andrew Williams for 14 the visitors decided that victory was out of reach, and played for the draw. Three more wickets fell – R Cleveland bowled by Jeremy Crocker for 7, M Holding (15) caught by Phil Lewis off Dai Fowler, and Jonathan Rees bowled by young Matthew Davies for 6. At the end J Lewis held out for 34, while E Davies remained on 13 not out

Hills won the day with 18 points to the visitors 6 points, but were disappointed not to seal the victory after their excellent batting performance