THE visitors arrived in Tywyn to be greeted by a stiff breeze, but otherwise fine conditions, with some cloud cover, so it seemed like a good day for bowlers if they could keep their line. And so, on winning the toss, Tywyn’s captain Dave Jenkins chose to bowl first, with the hope of dismissing Aberaeron cheaply, writes Alex Pitchford.

The home side were elated when they made the breakthrough in the second over, with Jacob Jenkinson trying to cut a short ball from Jaco Oosthuizen.

It lifted sharply and found the edge to be taken cleanly by keeper Liam Thomas. Tywyn were rightly happy to get Jacob early, as he has had a very fruitful start to the season with the bat.

Fellow opener Dave Floyd was joined by Ollie Evans and the pair batted carefully through tricky opening spells by Joe Williamson and Jaco. Dave like a stone wall and Ollie slightly more aggressive, the pair managed to progress the score well enough.

Farhan Ahmed also bowled economically, and when Jaco completed his excellent 8 over spell, including 3 maidens, for only 13 runs, then the total was still a modest 61-1 after 16 overs.

The batters knew that they had to push things along and were successful in accelerating the scoring until Dave eventually fell caught by Johirul Ahmed off Michael Allen for 41 in the 29th over. A great partnership of 131, with Ollie on 68, setting a platform for the middle order.

It was an ideal scenario for Steffan Rees to free his arms and capitalise with positive play, which went well until he was caught by Joe Williamson off Johirul Ahmed for 10. Alex Pitchford then looked to be forceful, but failed to make much contact with the ball off an over from Williamson until he was too late on a pull shot and gifted a looped return catch.

A 200+ total was looking like a challenge, with the score on 152-4 after 33 overs.

However, captain Hywel Rees had other ideas, and relishing the opportunity, with many batters remaining, to go after the ball.

He was seeing the ball exceedingly well and timing excellently to find the boundary on a day where others had struggled.

Ollie was also looking to push on, with perhaps one eye on a first century for Aberaeron, but found himself mostly at the non-strikers end as Hywel was mostly hitting fours rather than singles.

The pair managed to get the total to 222 without further loss, when the innings ended with Ollie on 99 (from 97 balls with 7 fours), just failing to get bat on a leg side delivery to complete the 100.

This great knock, along with Hywel’s 37 of 20 balls (4 fours and a six), left the home side seeming a little dejected as the players went off to enjoy the tea break, knowing that was a tough ask on the slow outfield.

The visitors were pumped for the return to the field, clearly on the attack with many fielders around the bat. Steffan Rees took the first over and started with a maiden, keeping the pressure on Tywyn’s openers, Dave Jenkins and Jaco.

Josh Roper, at the other end, immediately found his radar, and Jaco, trying to break the shackles, went after him but skied the ball to Ifan Risho, who took a clean catch after a little back peddling at mid-on. Steffan struck in the next over, skittling Dave’s stumps with a well directed full in-swinger.

Aberaeron were fully pumped now and looked to press the advantage with Steff and Roper probing at the new batter’s defences.

Joe Williamson played a few nice strokes for 7 until he hit uppishly at Roper who snaffled the return catch. Johirul Ahmed was timing the ball lovely over the covers and mid-on until he edged a ball into the slips that was parried by Hywel to then be held by Ollie in a scramble between him and the gully fielder, to become Roper’s third wicket having scored 23.

Michael Allen played carefully with intent until he pulled a hamstring running a quick single, after which he seemed motivated to score quickly or get out for a sit down.

Paul Hughes, bravely playing through a knock on the head he received from the ball whilst umpiring, took a few balls to find his line, but after that was painstakingly accurate, perhaps spurred on by a wicket that had shown plenty of lifting balls, which he knew would help his style. He was not wrong, and soon found the splice of Michael’s bat.

A full stretch dive forwards from Alex Pitchford fielding at short point took the catch to complete the dismissal for 5.

The next of Hughsie’s victims was Liam Williamson, Hywel Rees taking a catch comfortably at first slip on the last ball of his over. In the next over, Jon Tolhurst who had been batting solidly at the other end for his 14, went after a short ball from Liam Regan and struck it firmly, but Liam leapt to his left to take a great diving catch.

At the start of Hughsie’s next over, new batsman Farhan Ahmed stuck the ball cleanly and looked to see if there was a run but instead, to the astonishment of all, found the ball in Alex’s hands, who, still standing at short point, had taken a reaction catch.

Hughsie very excitedly informed everyone that this was a hat-trick opportunity and the fielders crowded around Ed Hughes who calmly defended the well-directed delivery.

Ed and Simon Jenkins resisted for a while until Simon gifted a comfortable catch to Jacob at extra cover off Ifan’s only over to end the match. It was an emphatic victory for the defending Town & Country WWCCC champions who are currently top of the table.

This was set up by the excellent 99* from Ollie Evans, who was awarded man of the match by his teammates, and sealed by the very tidy bowling spells of Josh Roper 3-14 off 8 and Paul Hughes 3-21 off 7, supported by some outstanding fielding throughout the innings.