Cale and Furneaux guide Bronwydd to victory

JAMES Cale’s well-constructed innings of 97 was a large contributing factor to Bronwydd’s 69-run victory over visitors Gowerton in division one of the South Wales Cricket Association.

Gowerton won the toss and elected to bowl first and the decision seemed to be a good one as the Bronwydd innings got off to a poor start as they lost three wickets for only 16 runs.

Carwyn Jones steadied the innings for a short while but the innings turned in the home team’s favour when skipper Oli Furneaux joined Cale.

The pair put on 160 before Gowerton took another wicket. Both batted with great skill and composure and after Cale was out three short of a deserved century, Furneaux went for 58.

The scoreboard had little time to settle as Phillip Howell (22no) and the recently-married Meirion Davies (23no) took the score to an impressive 242-6. Will Collinson and Chris Mason took two wickets each for bottom club Gowerton.

The large crowd settled down to tea and after the restart Bronwydd made early inroads into the Gowerton innings, who found themselves at 2-2.

Similar to the Bronwydd innings, their opener Matthew Mason, a former Wales Minor Counties player, stayed solid and with Tomas Davies (29) took the score to 82.

Mason was out for 54 but Rhodri Owens with 46 kept the game interesting. He was unable to find a partner to push towards the large target, however, and with James Dickson taking 4-14 the Gowerton innings finished 69 runs short of the target on 173.

The league season is now at the halfway stage and Bronwydd sit in sixth place in the 10-team division one.

The game was sponsored by Bob and Mo Jameson and Richard and Kay Massy (family of the late Eifion Cuke and Joan Longman).