Harrison-Allen Bowl Quarter-Final:

 

Mills blows Cresselly away after Davies and Kiff destroy their batting

 

Cresselly (87 all out) lost to Llangwm (90 for 1) by 9 wickets

 
Venue: Pill Parks, Llangwm
 
Umpires: Chris Stapleton & Jonathan Williams
Scorers: Sara Jeffrey & Cerys Jenkins
 
 
An outstanding team performance with bat, ball and in the field saw Llangwm join Saundersfoot, Burton and Lawrenny in the semi-finals of the Harrison-Allen Bowl as they inflicted a heavy defeat on Cresselly to leave the last four of this Blue Riband event without one of the three current ‘big guns’ in their opponents, plus Neyland and Carew, a rare event, over the past two decades.
 
And make no mistake, this victory was on a par with Saundersfoot’s demolition of Neyland at the same stage – with Llangwm restricting their visitors to 87 all out in 21.3 overs – and then reaching their target for the loss of only one wicket in less than half the time allocated!
 

Noah and ‘Kiffy’ get amongst the Cresselly batsmen

 
Llangwm skipper Noah Davies got the first part of the evening right as he won the toss and asked Cresselly to bat first and reduced their batting to rubble as he bowled his six overs for only eight runs, including a rare maiden at this level, whilst removing Charlie Arthur (caught behind by Luke Brock), Tom Murphy (a second-ball duck) and then Alex Bayley as the No 4 looked to be redressing the balance but hitting the ball straight to Steve Inward after belting a big six and a boundary en route to 16 in 14 deliveries.
 
Cresselly had already lost opener Dan James  to Steve Mills and at 26 for 4 they looked shaky, to say the least.
 
Opener Phil Williams stood and watched this at the other end and had just a single from his first 14 balls but then  helped launch a mini-revival as he and Neilson Cole launched something of a comeback in a stand of 45 where Williams struck a six and four in his 26 from 52 balls but was adjudged lbw by Ollie Davies, making a welcome return from injury.
 
It was the start of another low spot for Cresselly because Matthew Kiff claimed excellent figures of 4 for 28, including a hat-trick from the last two balls of his first over and the first ball of his second, with a cracking catch by James Lewis, running back at mid-wicket before taking the ball over his shoulder, and including Cresselly keeper Neilson Cole for a typically gritty 24, including two boundaries in 33 balls faced.
 
Steve Mills appropriately cleaned up the visitors’ innings with three balls left to finish with figures of 2 for 16 as skipper Davies took the catch off Mike Shaw, leaving with Llangwm looking to reach a target that was less daunting than they might have expected at the start!
 

Mills missed and the mayhem began

 
Cresselly knew they needed a similarly blistering start in their defence of such a small score but from the very first ball Mills was dropped off a ‘dolly’ at mid-on off Charlie Arthur and the in-form opener, who had scored centuries in his two most recent league matches, showed his gratitude by smashing the ball to all corners of the ground.
 
Steve Inward (14)  helped Mills with  three boundaries in 14 balls faced before T om Arthur claimed a deserved wicket, caught by his namesake Charlie, but Matthew Kiff stroked two fours in his 14 not out as Mills hit six fours, including two massive pulls late on, the second taking him to a half century in only 34 balls and easing Llangwm home in only 10.3 overs.




 

The revised draw for the semi-finals is as follows:

 
Saundersfoot v Llangwm (at Carew) on 16^th July
Lawrenny v Burton (at Kilgetty) on 17^th July
 

SCORECARDS:

 
Cresselly Batting:
Phil Williams lbw b Ollie Davies 26
Dan James b Steve Mills 1
Charlie Arthur ct Luke Brock b Noah Davies 1
Alex Bayley ct Steve Inward b Noah Davies 16
Tom Murphy b Noah Davies 0
Neilson Cole b Matthew Kiff 24
George Davies ct Jamie Lewis b Matthew Kiff 5
Tom Arthur ct Steve Inward b Matthew Kiff 0
Christian Phillips not out 1
Ollie Arthur b Matthew Kiff 0
Mike Shaw ct Noah Davies b Steve Mills 5
Extras 8
Total (all out) 87
 
Llangwm Bowling:
Noah Davies 6-1-8-3; Steve Mills 4.3-0-16-2; Ollie Davies 6-0-34-1; Matthew Kiff 5-0-28-4
 
Llangwm Batting:
Steve Mills not out 52
Steve Inward ct Charlie Arthur b Tom Arthur 14
Matthew Kiff not out 14
Extras 10
Total (1 wicket) 90
 
Cresselly Bowling:
Charlie Arthur 3-0-21-0; Tom Arthur 3-0-17-1; Mike Shaw 1-0-17-0; Christian Phillips 2-0-16-0; Tom Murphy 1.3-0-17-0