Star pair to the rescue as Ammanford give champs a fright
AMMANFORD fell to their first defeat of the South Wales Premier Cricket League season by just two wickets at home to St Fagans.
Put in to bat, Ammanford were soon three wickets down with just 27 on the board, before Glamorgan’s Billy Root and Dan Roberts steadied matters with a partnership of 62.
The partnership could have evolved into a match-defining effort had Root (24) not gone down the wicket and been stumped.
Roberts, well supported by Josef Davies (30), continued to bat well and was unlucky not to reach his half-century, being caught at mid-off for 47.
With wickets continuing to fall, Ammanford were all out for 171 in the penultimate over, probably some 30 short of what would have been a winning target.
For St Fagans, Ollie Sherwood took 3-30, while Mika Ekstrom, Thomas Bevan and Harry Donelan shared a couple each.
In reply, the reining champions lost a quick wicket to Roberts’s bowling, but soon settled down to chip away at Ammanford’s total.
Glamorgan’s Ruaidhri Smith (41) and captain Owen Morgan (61) caused the main damage, and at 1254 it was beginning to look like a cakewalk for the visitors. But Ammanford’s bowling and fielding slowed down the run rate, which in turn caused wickets to fall.
St Fagans reached their winning score with plenty of time to spare but only two wickets in hand. In the end it was an exciting climax, with Ammanford left ruing those extra 30 runs they could easily have amassed.
This Saturday Ammanford travel to St Helen’s to face a Swansea side in the most blistering batting form, having scored nearly 800 runs in just two league matches to date.
The closest match came in the Swansea Valley as Pontarddulais beat Clydach by one wicket.
Rhodri Davies (68) and Jonathan Hubschmid (54) helped Clydach to 237-9. It looked like being enough as Bont slipped to 186-8, but Jack Butler’s unbeaten 64 got the visitors over the line in the 49th over. Clydach’s Jo Farthing took three wickets.