Champions St Asaph win Clash of the Titans and throw Premier title race wide open
NORTH WALES CRICKET LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION
ST ASAPH (12) 231-6 MENAI BRIDGE (3) 229-10
It’s official – the Premier Division title race is well and truly still on!
St Asaph cut the gap to five points today after inflicting a first defeat of the season on a Menai Bridge outfit which had won all of its previous 16 games.
The Anglesey visitors won the toss and elected to bat, a tried and trusted policy which had previously worked so well for them this summer.
When chief strike bowler Jason Foulkes suffered a recurrence of a niggling injury after delivering just a single over and was unable to continue with ball-in-hand, Saints had problems.
Enter former first team regular David North, who has been sensational with bat and ball for the seconds this season, to turn his arm over.
Three quick strikes from right-arm seamer North reduced the islanders from 68-1 to 82-4.
Openers Jack Gower and Dion Holden had scored 32 and 22 respectively.
Robbie Jones and skipper Gethin Roberts then steadied the ship with a stand of 55 for the fifth wicket, the latter departing for 29.
Jones went on to make a stoic 80, Menai being bowled out in the last of 50 overs for 229.
North returned marvellous figures of 4-31 off 8.2, including the vital scalp of Jones, Gareth Goodson taking 2-27 from 10 and Danny Ryan 2-46.
Despite being unable to bowl apart from that one over, Foulkes executed two run-outs, while wicket keeper Nathanael Scott took five catches.
In reply, Saints lost Mathew Ryan early but then Jurie Norval and Scott put on 75 for the second wicket.
Norval went for 40, but Scott and Dan Evans (28) went on to add another 62.
When Scott was finally out for 79, passing 700 league runs for the season, Asaph were 174-6 and some way from victory.
However, the heroic Foulkes (36 not out) and Danny Ryan (17 no) concocted an unbroken match-winning stand of 57 to guide the champions to 231-6 with four balls to spare.
Gethin Roberts took 2-36 and Ashley Wood 2-51 for the table-toppers, Saints lifting the points 12-3.
St Asaph secretary Gareth Williams said after the game: “We definitely feel that batting down the order proved key for us, but the Saints bowling and fielding performance (on a sweltering hot day) was a major factor in our victory.
“David North showed today what a top performer he has been for the club over many years and when he was called up to play once again for the first team today he proved skills count, particularly when Jason went down injured again after bowling one over. As Fergie said ‘it is now squeaky bum time’ in the title race.”