England 2 Wales 0

posted by John Winn

The prospect of an all Welsh final in the Village Cup, a red kite flown by me in a recent blog, disappeared yesterday when both teams from the Principality suffered defeats. In Pembrokeshire local outfit Carew were never really able to force the pace against the attack of North Yorkshire visitors Sessay although 58 for 2 off 20 overs looked like a platform from which 150 might have been possible. Sessay, winners in 2010, had prepared well, bringing forward the start of their Saturday league game against Driffield II so they were able to spend Saturday night in Cardiff. The fruits of this good planning were shown in some very tight bowling and Carew were dismissed for 133 in the 39th over.

Sessay got off to a bright start against some undisciplined bowling from Carew who conceded almost twenty runs in wides and victory was secured as early as the twenty first over with seven wickets in hand. This was described on Carew CC Twitter feed as 'an edgy nip and tuck game', tongue in the cheek there methinks. To their credit the vanquished were generous in their congratulations and wished the winners well in the final.

Sessay's opponents on September 4th at Lord's will be Kent side Sibton Park CC who beat the other Welsh contenders, Miskin Manor CC in a much closer match the result of which was in doubt until the last few balls. The home side batted first having won the toss and must have doubted the wisdom of that when they were 23 for 3 in the ninth over. Things did not really improve and the scoreboard showed 96 for 8 with just nine overs left. The extra fifty runs that were added for the last two wickets were to prove decisive.

Miskin got off to a disastrous start. 0 for 2, 6 for 3 and 8 for 4 tell the story but a recovery left 14 to win off the last two overs and 10 off 8 balls but in the end Manor fell 9 short and faced the long journey back to Pontyclun empty handed.

To tidy things up South Northumberland beat Chester Boughton Hall in the National Club Championship Quarter final and will play Ormskirk in the semis at Gosforth on August 28th. In the Under 17 one day competition Somerset lost to Surrey by 6 wickets at Taunton Vale. Surrey will play Durham in the final at Kibworth CC, Leicestershire on August 21st.