Cricket

Run ends for depleted Dolgellau

Corwen (88 for 2) beat
Dolgellau (84 all out) by 8 wickets

DOLGELLAU were only able to muster eight players to send to Corwen for their Bank Holiday Monday fixture, which was especially disappointing as the team has been on a good winning run recently.
The result of the match was an inevitable defeat for Dolgellau, their first since 3 July, although the majority of the players that did go stuck to their task very well.
Dolgellau decided to bat after winning the toss and could only make 84 in 29.2 overs on a drying wicket, in the face of some good work by the Corwen bowlers.A score of 84 for 7 was effectively 84 all out.
Captain Robert Humphreys stepped in to open the innings with Jonathan Mills, whose regular opening partner was late in arriving. Humphreys did a good job for his side top scoring with 42, which included seven boundaries, as he tried to forget that he only had seven more batsmen.
Humphreys and Mills’ partnership was worth 43 in 10 overs, before Mills was trapped in front to Nathan Aldridge for 16. Phil Leeds joined his captain, making 9 until he popped a bat-pad catch up to Aldridge at short-leg off spinner Will Roberts, to make it 61 for 2 in 18 overs.
Another 23 runs and 11 overs later Dolgellau’s stay at the crease was over as five wickets went to Aldridge and Roberts.
Bryn Fogden was caught by Harry Pooler off Aldridge, Greg Smithies could not repeat his Saturday knock and was caught behind by Carl Green off Roberts without disturbing the scorers. Humphreys was also caught by the keeper, this time off Aldridge for his valiant 42, while Aled Owen was adjudged lbw to Roberts, and Ken Evans wase Aldridge’s fourth victim bowled, leaving Dion Jones on 3 not out.
Aldridge’s productive spell yielded 4 for 20 from 10.2 overs and Roberts claimed 3 for 24 from 11 very good overs. Two other bowlers were Josh Maynard 0 for 19 and Jason Jones 0 for 13 both having 4 overs.
When Corwen batted they lost an early wicket as skipper Aldridge was out lbw to Leeds without scoring with the total on 5.
Thereafter opener Kevin Sharp and Matt Duckworth batted sensibly, not taking any risks as they knew they had plenty of overs. The stand was worth 69 runs, with a few minor scares, but nothing that seemed to worry the experienced batting pair.
On the total of 74 keeper Smithies was able to stump Sharp, who was standing out of his ground, with the bowler being Fogden. Sharp had contributed a stoic 20 to his side’s cause and was out with only 11 more runs required for the victory.
Duckworth was more forthcoming as he made a good undefeated 48 with 2 sixes and 5 fours, while Maynard, 4 not out, came in at the end to hit a winning boundary. Corwen reached a winning 88 for 2, although the eight men of Dolgellau did keep them waiting until the 32nd over.
Leeds bowled very well, only giving away 10 runs for 1 wicket from his 12 overs, six of them being maidens, but with no other regular bowlers in the side things were always going to be very difficult .
Mills, bowling with a shoulder injury, had a tidy spell of 10 overs for 25 runs and Fogden took 1 for 8 from 1.1 overs at the end. Three other bowlers were tried, Smithies 4 overs for 19, Humphreys 3 overs for 13 and Dion Jones 1 over for 9 runs as Corwen earned an 8 wicket victory giving them 9 points to Dolgellau’s 1.

Pictured: Dolgellau’s Rob Humphreys was top scorer for Dolgellau against Corwen with 42.