Northern had to play second in the table Talygarn who had been making big scores for fun.
With Jimmy Vaile once again late, this time due to getting the day wrong, Barrie Willacott was promoted to open alongside Russell Palmer but his opportunity came to nought as he was LBW facing his first ball. This brought Gareth Jones to the crease who was determined to seize the opportunity and he and Russell started well against the openers and the runs ticked over. Unsurprisingly Gaz was setting the pace. The first controversial moment came off the last ball of the opening bowlers spell when a full toss clipped Russ’ bails but following a short delay Brett Clarke umpiring called the no ball.
This led to a bit of needle for the next few overs and Gareth smashed Northern’s first six of the season before chipping a return catch back to a bowler for 34. Ashish Chatap came in determined not to hole out cheaply and he set off where Gareth left it before Russ was bowled for 20 by a great delivery from the wily Talygarn bowler.
Steve Norman came in and proved a useful foil to Chatap before he holed out and Jimmy saw the innings to a conclusion as Northern posted their biggest total of the season clinching maximum batting points on 121.
Talygarn would have gone into their innings undaunted as they’ve hit bigger scores in almost every game this season but Northern had a full bowling attack to try to counter. The reply really was an innings of two halves as the score was around 75-0 when sixth bowler Ashish Chatap finally broke the partnership as he bowled the opening batsman Palmer for 41. From here he and Clarke really turned the screw and some economical bowling pushed the run rate up and up. When the score rose to 44 with 4 overs remaining, 2 from Ashish and one each from Gareth and Ashley Chedzoy made the task look impossible. Northern took a safety first approach spreading the field and Baz picked up a direct hit run out and shared another with Gaz. Gaz also held a catch from Ashish and Chedzoy completed his spell with a wicket last ball. It was left to Gareth Jones to bowl the last over with 26 required and despite a slogged four getting them past 100 Talygarn fell 18 runs behind.
An excellent performance from Northern both with the bat and ball and in the field and a lesson that one wicket can change an entire innings.
R Palmer Bowled Young 20 B Willacott LBW Rosenberg 0* G Jones Caught Griffiths 34 A Chatap Not Out 22 S Norman Bowled Griffiths 6 J Vaile Not Out 11 A Chedzoy D Jones D Perkins D Manley B Clarke Extras 28 Total 121-4 O M R W Rosenberg 4 0 23 1 Young 4 0 13 1 Prosser 4 0 15 0 Fry 1 0 11 0 A Griffiths 4 0 35 2 M Morant 1 0 19 0 Palmer Bowled Chatap 41 Marant Ct (G.Jones) Chatap 23 Evans R/O (Willacott) 10 Prosser Bowled Chedzoy 7 Rosenberg Not Out 7 Griffiths R/O (G.Jones/Willacott) 3 Williams Not Out 0 Fry Jones Shoab John Extras 12 Total 103-5 O M R W G Jones 4 0 20 0 A Chedzoy 4 0 23 1 D Perkins 2 0 18 0 R Palmer 1 0 14 0 B Clarke 3 0 12 0 A Chatap 4 0 13 2 bat bowl catch runout stumping play TOTAL G Jones 49 12 5 5 10 81 A Chatap 27 32 10 69 R Palmer 25 -5 10 30 J Vaile 16 10 26 A Chedzoy 10 10 20 B Clarke 9 10 19 S Norman 6 10 16 B Willacott -10 15 10 15 D Jones 10 10 D Perkins 0 10 10 D Manley 10 10 Man of Match - G Jones