At the weekend we published an article about Pembroke not having a scorer for their local derby with Pembroke Dock and in the interests of balance we did try to contact their captain several times that evening and spoke to him the next afternoon, along with another regular member of the team.
 
We had no intention of denigrating the club, where I once played for well over a decade but have had other complaints this season and still believe that two scorers should work together to ensure correctness of scores.
 
However, we have received a letter of explanation from the club’s secretary and in the interests of fair player are more than happy to print it below:
 
“It’s been brought to our attention as a club that an article has been shared on the Pembrokeshire Sport website, and subsequently via Social Media channels, relating to umpiring and scoring of local league cricket matches (http://www.pembrokeshiresport.co.uk/clubs-need-to-take-responsibility-for-umpiring-and-scoring)
 
Whilst we generally agree with the sentiment of this piece, we find it difficult to understand why our club, Pembroke CC (PCC), has clearly been referenced as a “guilty party” following our derby game with Pembroke Dock CC (PDCC) on Saturday, when in fact we understand this is an issue across multiple teams within the county.
 
This has shone an unnecessary negative light on our club at a time when we are looking to improve and grow, including looking into grants of which the key decision makers have seen and commented on said article. 
 
We all enjoy and look forward to seeing the write-ups on Pembrokeshire Sport, but on this occasion we feel the need to respond.
 
We would also like to raise the following points from the day itself:
 

• We have invested in a club tablet this year so that we can score through PlayCricket, as per county guidance, and we were advised that the PDCC scorer would be scoring live via this system. This meant we could not score at the same time via our tablet as two people cannot score the same game at the same time via this system.
• The PDCC scorer was situated in a small, enclosed shed near the boundary. Given that PDCC had already stated that the changing rooms would be closed on the day due to COVID concerns we were not sure/comfortable whether sending several of our players back and forth to share this shed space with the PDCC scorer was appropriate.
• At no point before, during or after the game was this issue raised by either PDCC or their scorer. If help was required we would happily have provided it given the above points were satisfied. In fact, our club captain actually purchased a drink for the PDCC scorer after the game to thank her for her efforts on the day.
• On the umpiring points, we also purchased drinks for the PDCC umpire on the day who helped umpire both full innings which was greatly appreciated by the club.”