Penn Street vs Briton Ferry

Briton Ferry 233-6 (R. Frankland 78, Devnald 49*; O. Andrews 3-36) beat Penn Street 71-10 (W. Spry 21, R. Fryer 13; J. Ridgeway 3-3, R. Norgrove 3-17) by 162 runs

Once again the Penn Street players and fan club made the 170-mile trip to South Wales to play Briton Ferry for our season opening Presidents match. Once again Ian and Jean laid on a delicious breakfast and then it was on the road to our first game of the season.

Glorious sunshine and cloud free skies (well almost) welcomed us at Briton Ferry and newly promoted club skipper Nick Loftus was soon out to greet his opposite counterpart to determine whether we would be batting or bowling. Toss lost and PSCC would take to the field and full driving license holder Paul Goodchild opened up with Jack Mendy to try and give the hosts an uncomfortable start to the day. Both started well and were unlucky not to get an early breakthrough whilst the Ferry openers were able to take advantage of a short boundary which bought fortuitous runs.

Eventually Goodchild got a breakthrough to halt the run count and with Tyler coming into the attack hoping to emulate his last visit to South Wales, perhaps more wickets would follow? A sloped approach to the wicket seem to put Tyler off at first but the calming influence of fellow birthday boy Bobby from the other end seemed to settle him and Tyler managed to find his rhythm.

With Fryer from the bowls end with his military medium accuracy, Penn Street managed to halt the steelworkers progress but it must be said fielding rustiness did let the bowlers down and perhaps the opposition’s total of 233 was 50 more runs than it should have been. Nevertheless our bowling flotilla was asking questions and Oliver Andrews came into the attack to take some quick fire wickets to help maintain confidence for the Buckinghamshire journeyman. Onto a tasty tea in the photo and trophy decorated Briton Ferry pavilion, and minds turn towards attacking a respectable early season total.

With the sun still beaming down on our players and a few a red noses on our loyal followers, young Mendy and Sempill opened the Penn Street batting account and had to put up with some aggressive opening bowling from Briton Ferry attack. Mendy was the first victim of their onslaught with a slightly unlucky LBW decision. Lander senior followed at 3 and unfortunately fell quickly after his arrival and Huw James a once regular for PSCC didn’t fair much better either.

The highlight of the Penn Street innings was Bill Spry’s entrance to the batting attack and he managed to steal a confidence boosting 21 runs to help salvage some pride for Penn Street. Bobby also hung around to support Spry as the visitors finished the innings with 71 runs.

A tough start to the 2013 season for PSCC, but heads should not drop and positives must be taken from the invaluable game time that was under our belts as we return to our regular fixtures back home. The small matter of Tyler and Bobby’s birthday at the turn of 12pm was on the agenda for all involved. I’ll let you work out whose 18th it was…