Three games played as teams jockey for early positions

 
Venue: Neyland Community Hub
Umpires: Chris Stapleton & Jonathan Willington
 
The Men’s Indoor League began in earnest on Monday evening as all six teams in the first division played in the new set-up, which follows the format used in the national finals, with 12 overs per team (rather than the county’s previous ten), with no more than three per bowler, rather than the previous two.
 
There were three competitive battles, with wins for Llanrhian, Hook and current champions Neyland A, all umpired by Jonathan Willington and Chris Stapleton, at the Neyland Community Hub.
 

Pembroke B (96 for 5) lost to Llanrhian (97 for 3) by three wickets

 
Pembroke’s newly-promoted B team decided to bat first against Llanrhian but were totally reliant upon opener Ceri Brace as he finished up on 61 not out as the rest of his side contributed only 20 runs between them as there were 15 extras as second top scorer.
 
Brace struck two fours and two sixes as he faced 41 deliveries but Will Davies was run out early for 2 and Andrew Hay was out ‘hit wicket’ for 4 alongside Charlie Perkins (0) and Ryan Williams (8) against tight bowling by Daf Williams (1 for 11 in three overs), Karl Davies (1 for 13 in 2) and Billy Clarke (2 for 11 in 2) with Llion Williams and Matthew Bennett as the other tight bowlers.
 
Llanrhian  also had a poor start as Daf Williams and Billy Clarke could only muster 3 apiece but Karl Davies sensibly anchored the innings to finish with 38 not out in two visits to the crease (25 balls) and he was supported by Iwan James (retired on 26 from 24 deliveries).
 
Llion Williams (10 not out) also chipped in at the end so that although Bennett departed without scoring it was left to Davies to return and hit the winning runs with an over to spare - and three wickets still in hand despite the bowling of Charlie Perkins (2 for 7) and Brace (1 for 20).
 

Hook (109 for 5) beat Pembroke A (70 all out) by 39 runs

 
Hook celebrated their first win in the top echelon with a margin of 39 runs as they batted first and reached a reasonable 109 for 5 and then restricted a Pembroke A side without some key players as they struggled to only 70 all out in 10.1 overs.
 
Hook suffered the early loss of Liam Miller (run out for a single) and skipper Aled Phelps (9) and Callum James (3) soon followed but opener Harry Makepeace and No 5 Bradley Flood batted well before Makepeace retired.
 
Charlie Holder only managed one run but Messrs Makepeace (49 from 41 balls, including two fours and two sixes) and Flood (two sixes in his 23 from 14 deliveries) took Hook to three figures, although their cause was helped by Pembroke gifting them 23 extras as Wood (2 for 31) and Callum Davies (only 11 runs in 3 overs) were the pick of the Pembroke bowlers.
 
Billy Wood (15) and Luke Butler (19) got Pembroke off to a steady start but Archie Hillier-Wood came and went alongside Billy Clarke, and although Sam Davies (12) and Callum Davies (14) reached double figures they were unable to raise the pace to the required tempo, with only 4 extras.
 
Harry Makepeace completed a man of the match performance for Hook with 2 for 9, assisted by talented teenager Charlie Holder (2 for 5) as James, Flood and Phelps also kept things tight.
 

Neyland A (130 for 4) beat Pembroke Dock (66 for 5) by 64 runs

 
Neyland A fielded a much-changed side against Pembroke Dock but the current champions cruised through by a huge margin as The Dock were unable to restrict the Neyland batters and then were always behind in the resulting run chase.
 
Lewis Page (10) and Gregg Miller (10) formed a different opening pair but gave their team a solid, if unspectacular, start before Dai Davies and skipper Sean Hannon really raised the run rate before retiring.
 
Ross Hardy was dismissed for a rare duck but Joe John struck a strong, undefeated 27 before becoming the third retiree and it was left to Davies (31 not out) and Hannon (a very quick 40 before he was caught behind) to take Neyland to easily the best score of the night as ‘Mr Extras’ also chipped in with 13 as Neyland only hit three boundaries but showed their speed between the wickets with 30 threes.
 
Of the Dock bowlers the only successes came from the father and son duo of Nick (1 for 34) and Rhys Daley (3 for 35).
 
In sharp contrast to the earlier run flow, The Dock had contributions from Jake Davies (11), Adam Phillips (14), Rhys Daley (16) and George Smith (16) but it was slow going as Jack John (1 for 7 in two overs), Ross Hardy (1 for 13 in 3), Lewis Page (1 for 17) in 2), Dai Davies (1 for 7 in 2) and skipper Hannon (1 for 19 in 3) maintained the pressure.
 
Batsmen Nos 5 and 6, Tom Grimwood and Nick Daley had little time to make any impact and so Neyland were winners by a massive margin to get another season off to an excellent start!