Hitting 18 is no fun for Rimmington and co

LLANDUDNO’S players must have woken up this morning hoping that what happened in their match against St Asaph yesterday was just a bad dream.

Unfortunately, their nightmare was a very real one and something the squad and captain Jack Rimmington must still be scratching their heads over.

For the leaders of the North Wales Cricket League premier division, champions in six of the last eight seasons, to be bowled out for 18 is rather amazing.

No doubt Rimmington would have been laying down the law to his team, the batsmen in particular, following their incredible capitulation at Elwy Grove Park against a side that were nearer the bottom of the table than the top going into the clash.

The Llandudno scorecard makes for painful reading – 2, 1, 2, 1, 0, 2, 3, 0, 0, 1 and 5 not out says it all really. And don’t forget the one extra!

The amazing thing is that they were only chasing 92 to win, a score you would have put your mortgage on them getting as the openers went out to bat. But cricket has a propensity for throwing up freak results and yesterday was one of those occasions.

For the record, St Asaph made 91 batting first and it was only 25 from Grove Venter and the wagging of the tail that prevented the hosts posting a shocking score too. Rimmington led by example with 4-19 and at that point, he and his men were surely thinking nothing could go wrong.

And okay, the batting was atrocious but some credit has to go to the St Asaph bowling attack of David North and Matthew Hulse, who took 5-13 and 5-4 respectively.

However, as bad a performance as it was, Llandudno stay top because Mochdre’s game at home to Denbigh was cancelled and Menai Bridge in third place lost to Pontblyddyn.

Marcel Frenzel (76), Glenn Chambers (58) and Mark Neath (51) all struck half-centuries as Pontblyddyn amassed 241-7 declared in 50 overs. And although Tim Coggan hit 54 in reply, Menai Bridge, thanks to 5-42 from Richard Davies, fell 77 short.

Connah’s Quay’s Martin Burger registered the premier division’s highest score of the day with a superb 101 in his side’s 221-9 declared against bottom club Llay Welfare.

But Llay batted valiantly and despite being nine wickets down at the close were only 20 runs short of winning the match themselves. They had to settle for a losing draw in the end.

Northop were surprise 55-run winners at Mold who were all out for 95 chasing 151 for victory. Mold’s fate was sealed by a brilliant spell of bowling from Andy Poynton as he finished with figures of 8-37. The game between Brymbo and Bangor was cancelled without a ball being bowled.

Only one game was possible in the first division and that saw Pwllheli move closer to the top two with an emphatic eight-wicket triumph at home to Halkyn.

South African Seate Letshela and Nadeem Rehman both took four wickets for the hosts as Halkyn were bowled out for 76 with only Duane Williams (33) providing any resistance.

Letshela (46) and Rehman (18) impressed again with the bat as Pwllheli claimed a 24-point haul to pull away from Llandudno seconds.