Premier League joy as draw saves Penarth (From Penarth Times)

Premier League joy as draw saves Penarth

The last weekend of action for Penarth Cricket Club turned out to be a bit anti-climatic on the day, the 1st XI getting a draw at St Fagans while the 2nd XI lost at home to the Saints 2nds, however in doing so the 1sts have secured their position in the South Wales Premier League while the 2nd XI were already guaranteed promotion.

The 1st XI travelled to St Fagans knowing that they took a 10 point advantage over Abergavenny, the only side who could have put Penarth in the relegation positions. The maximum amount of points available to Aber was 22 meaning that 12 points would leave Penarth in an unassailable position.

Richard Skone won the toss and elected to bowl first on a very green looking wicket and it was looking a very sound decision as opening bowlers Peter Ingram and Graham McNaughton made the most of the track producing fine opening spells. McNaughton picked up the wickets of Hopkins (7) and Merihlaht (9) as St Fagans struggled to 58-2 off 19 overs.

There then followed a double bowling change that saw Skone and Lloyd Smith enter the fray, and to immediate effect. Skone removing Reynolds for 8 while Smith dismissed Williams for 0 both players caught by Jack Parkinson behind the stumps.

There then followed a bit of a purple patch for the home side as South African opener Simon Kuhn and captain Mike Hill built up a healthy but rather chancy partnership. Both players chanced their arm to great effect and rode their luck, but it all ended in rather peculiar circumstances.

Smith bowled a ball to Kuhn who was on 47 and the South African proceeded to sky the ball into the air not five yards from where he stood only for keeper Parkinson to spill the chance in rather calamitous fashion. The Penarth players thought they had missed a golden opportunity to dismiss the Saints best batsman, but it was not so. The very next ball Kuhn played a regulation on-drive to Peter 'Terminator' Edwards at mid-on but when the Penarth player threw the ball into Parkinson neither keeper or batsman was watching the ball and it hit Kuhn on the back of the head causing him to collapsed in a heap at the wicket. He was subsequently forced to retire hurt.

Parker replaced the injured batsman but lasted just 3 overs and scoring no runs before Skone removed his leg stump, Kuhn then returned but added just 4 runs before Skone bowled the swollen headed opener for 51.

Mark Thomas came on to collect the wicket of Hill for 24 before Ingram came back on with some venom to clean bowl Makinson who was clearly uncomfortable in the face of Ingram's speed. Lloyd Smith then picked up John for 4 caught by Parkinson but a fine innings of 39 not out from Franklin left the home sides total at 171-9 from their 55 overs. It was never going to be an easy total to chase on a wicket that was clearly under-prepared and proved to be more than a handful for the home side. And so it proved as Penarth made steady but cautious progress knowing that defeat was out of the question and Skone and Dave Ricketts got the score to 30-1 before the latter was adjudged lbw for 6 off the bowling of Makinson.

Lloyd Smith then added 9 before being caught and bowled by Franklin, and Richard Meggitt came to the crease. He and the skipper put on 51 for the 3rd wicket as the visitors pushed themselves into a favourable position at 11-3 off 34 overs, requiring 61 off 21 overs to win.

When Meggitt finally fell for 23 he was replaced by Peter Edwards who added just 2 before being bowled by Owen. Skone was then joined at the crease by James Docherty and the pair took the score along to 131 before the captain fell to Hopkins for an excellent 67. Docherty followed 2 overs later caught off the bowling of Hopkins for 11, with the score on 145 off 45 overs.

Penarth needed 27 runs off 10 overs with Robert Crimp and Jack Parkinson at the crease but when Crimp fell for 8 and was soon followed by Mark Thomas for 2 Penarth were at 160 for 8 off 52.

However news had now filtered through from Usk that Abergavenny had only managed a winning draw against Usk and had collected just 15 points, this meant Penarth required just 6 points to stay up. With 4 'bonus' points already in the bag for taking 4 pairs of St Fagans wickets and 1 'batting' point for reaching 150 runs Penarth had 5 points already.

It meant that if they were not all out they would collect a further 4 'draw' points if they could get just 2 more runs to take them within 10 of the home sides total to leave them 3 points clear of Aber and safe from relegation.

Skone passed the message on to his batsmen and Parkinson who finished with a gritty 9 not out and McNaughton 3 not out secured Penarth's place in next season's Premier League.

Meanwhile at Penarth the 2nd XI contested a game in which both sides knew they were certain of promotion regardless of the result, however what was in line for the winning side was progression to the Premier 2nd XI as Division 1 champions. Unfortunately it was not Penarth's day and they lost by 66 runs.

An under strength Penarth seam attack struggled to take control early on Steve Newman produced a fine spell off 10 overs for 27 runs but no Penarth bowler was quite good enough to dismiss St Fagans batsman Huw Beaverstock who recorded a fine 100 before finally holing out off the bowling of Neil Stephens.

St Fagans scored 231-6 and Penarth never really looked like they were going to have enough to attain such a target. Penarth wickets fell in a steady stream and no real partnerships were ever built. Beaverstock rounded off a fine day by taking 5 Penarth wickets as the Saints took the title.

This weekend see the club play in a friendly at Croesyceiliog, any one interested in playing should contact Jack Parkinson, while Sunday sees the annual St Fagans 6-a-side competition.