THE long awaited final of the Windy Corner Midweek t20 Cup took place on Friday 22nd August, with undefeated league champions Oriel Jones Bulls facing up to their closest rivals AMK Hurricanes, writes Arif Saad.

In both league fixtures between the two sides, Hurricanes had set imposing totals only to see Bulls chase them down to secure victory.

It was no surprise when tossing specialist Elgan Evans chose to bowl first and attempt to repeat the trick a third time.

Absences had led to a depleted Hurricanes requiring loan players to fulfil the fixture and Wes Roban of LAS joined Bedwyr Davies to form a powerful opening pair.

Wes laid into the bowling early on, Tomos Lloyd Jones and Andrew Jones unable to contain the scoring, despite good bowling, as he peppered the boundary- including sending the new ball out of the ground with an enormous six.

A change of ball helped to slow the scoring slightly as the hard new one had been flying to the boundary and Elgan Evans brought himself and Arlo Saad on.

Despite the changes, AMK continued at over 10 runs an over, Bedwyr turning the strike over and hitting the occasional boundary to keep the pressure on the bowling side.

Wes retired on 50* and Ryan Mackie Jones joined Bedwyr- hitting a quick fire 16 before being well caught by Osian Jones on the square leg boundary to give Elgan the first wicket.

Despite the setback, with 100 from 10 overs, Hurricanes were in a strong position to push on to a big total in a match reduced to 18 overs due to the poor end of season light. Rhys Barrels Evans came out at number four and surprised everyone as he went on the attack from the off- hitting over the top for three crunching boundaries.

Arlo came back strongly and had Barrels caught at mid off for 16.

Bedwyr soon followed as Leighton got the better of his dad, another attacking shot pouched by Twmps.

Beds’ 30 up top, along with Wes, had laid the platform for Hurricanes and Ceri Thomas and Ryan Doughty were the finishers - three sixes, two for Doughty, in a late burst that saw Hurricanes to an imposing 168/3 from their 18 overs.

Bulls opened their reply knowing that they needed to push from the off to keep with the required rate.

Regular opener Pants was joined by Mez Davies and both managed to rotate the strike and pick of one or two boundaries an over from the opening spells of Barrels and Ceri.

In the ninth over, with Bulls on track with the run rate, Rhydian Jinx found the breakthrough that AMK were searching for- bowling Pants for 25 with the score on 76.

Iestyn Evans came out at number 3 and immediately signalled his intentions with a crunching four to finish the 9th over at 80-1- Bulls just under half way to the target with 9 overs remaining.

Mez and Iestyn continued to find the gaps despite tricky bowling from Wes- AMK hampered by having only 8 in the field.

Mez accelerated to his retirement taking 17 from the 11th over to finish on 53*, having laid the platform for the Bulls.

Osian Jones, Bulls’ batter of the season, joined Iestyn with the score at 109/1, 60 runs required with 42 balls remaining and Bulls looking marginal favourites.

Ceri Thomas had kept his trump card up his sleeve, however, weekend leading wicket-taker Bedwyr Davies would bowl four of those remaining 7 overs- including the final over of the chase.

Beds had an immediate impact as he bowled Osian and had Elgan Evans caught by Ryan Kel in his first over- a huge moment in the match exposing the Bulls middle order.

Tomos Lloyd Jones joined Iestyn, the pressure back on Bulls with Wes and Beds in tandem giving little away.

The youngster had no time to settle and managed to progress in ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking.

When he lost the set partner Iestyn in Beds’ next over - bowled for a valuable 19- the momentum had shifted firmly in AMK’s favour.

Arif Saad joined Twmps and ran hard to push the fielders.

Twmps found a boundary in Wes’ final over to give Bulls ten from it and leave them at 144/4 with three overs to score 25 runs.

Scoreboard pressure told in the next over as Arif went for a drive on the up and Bedwyr snaked out a hand to hold an impressive and painful return catch.

At 146/5 and with Arlo Saad joining Twmps with Leighton Davies last man, Bulls were reliant on their young players to find the remaining 23 runs from the last 16 balls.

Bedwyr still had 10 of those and having picked up 4 wickets and only conceded 11 runs, AMK were in the driving seat.

Arlo got off strike from his first delivery, and Twmps thought he had a two from the next, however the eagle-eyed Emyr Evans spotted that the batter was well short of his crease as he turned for the second and a run was struck-off for a rare “one short”.

Two dots to close out the over meant that Bulls were on 148 and still required 21 from the final two overs.

Barrels was entrusted with the penultimate over.

Twmps took a single from the first delivery, before two wides (worth two runs and not rebowled to ensure that the match finished in daylight) left Bulls on 153, with 9 balls remaining.

Arlo pierced the offside to take a 2 then missed out on the next.

The final delivery of the over was struck into the leg side and with runs desperately needed, Twmps called for a risky second.

A wayward throw and the lack of fielders allowed the pair to attempt a third and, not learning their lesson, AMK attempted another run out and missed to allow yet another overthrow- an all-run four to close the over and leave Bulls 159/5 going in to the final over- 10 required for the victory but facing the in-form Bedwyr.

Twmps took guard and only found a single from the first. Arlo missed the second but took a single to get Twmps back on strike from the third. With 8 required, Bulls knew that boundaries were crucial.

The fourth was a dot ball from Bedwyr, using all his experience to not allow Twmps to free his arms.

He attempted the same from the penultimate delivery but this time Twmps got hold of it and pierced the off side gap to deliver the much needed boundary.

So, the match came down to the final ball, Bulls requiring 4 to win, AMK hoping that Bedwyr could deny Twmps a boundary. Beds found his trademark tight line and Twmps could not connect as well this time despite piercing the gap between the cover fielders.

Arlo and Twmps ran the second as the fielder picked up the ball and with nothing to lose, attempted a highly unlikely third.

The return throw was not on target, and the batters somehow managed to scramble the third to leave the Bulls on 168/4 from their 18 and the scores tied.

With evening drawing in and no precedent to guide them, the opposing captains shook hands on a tied match.

AMK Hurricanes and Oriel Jones Bulls shared the inaugural Windy Corner Garage Midweek Cup.Despite impressive 50s from Mez Davies and Wes Roban and an outstanding 4/22 from Bedwyr Davies, the umpires Emyr Evans and Daryl Davies adjudged Tomos Lloyd Jones as man of the match for a tight bowling spell in the face of the onslaught from Wes and his vital 23*, under immense pressure, to tie the match.

Thanks to the support of all the sponsors- Windy Corner Garage, J&E Woodworks, The Nags Head, Oriel Jones Butcher, AMK Book Services, LAS Recycling and Outback Outfitters- the cup final drew an end to a highly successful midweek cricket season in Lampeter.

Having started from nothing, nearly 80 players across the four squads have enjoyed social cricket with a good level of competition and plenty of laughs along the way.

Organisers Daryl Davies and Ceri Thomas take enormous credit for making the league a reality and thanks go to the non-playing umpires /scorers too- Wyn Post, Dai Thom, Chris Bola and Gulam Hussain.

All eyes will be on the pre-season draft, with squads being shaken up before next season.