Wanderers slip to defeat

CARMARTHEN Wanderers slipped to defeat on Saturday (Aug 17) as they were beaten by league leaders Swansea in a low scoring encounter.

With rain in the air, Swansea were invited to bat first and their hosts restricted them to 133-9 in their 50 overs.

However, the Wanderers were unable to reach their target as they were bowled out for just 70.

Brad Wadlan and Jake Roberts got the visitors off too a good start as they shared 43 runs for the first wicket.

Owain Binding made the breakthrough as he bowled Roberts on a score of 17 and Iestyn Scourfield then bowled Wadlan on a score of 36 to leave Swansea on 60-2.

Thirteen more runs followed before Adnan Ghori was stumped by Ifan Knott off the bowling of Ian Hughes.

Steven Mills was then brought on to bowl and he trapped Gareth Hayden leg before before also bowling Nathan Jones for a second-ball duck.

That left Swansea struggling on 88-5 but Connor Miles and Thomas Haden shared 28 runs for the sixth wicket.

Miles had made a patient score of 25 but was then ran out by Liam Rogers as the visitors looked to put more runs on the board.

Gareth Thomas then had Haden stumped by Knott on a score of 12 before Thomas took the catch to dismiss Callum Jenkins and give Robbie Crawford his first wicket of the day.

Thomas then bowled Mike Hayden as he finished with figures of 2-16 and in doing so, took his 100^th Premier League wicket.

That left Swansea on 119-9 but Ioan Webber finished unbeaten on 12 to see Swansea to their total.

Despite the low score the Wanderers knew they would need to bat well if they were to stand a chance of winning the game but they soon found themselves in trouble.

Leighton Walters was bowled by Adnan Ghori and Steven Mills was bowled by Brad Wadlan as the hosts slipped to 14-2.

That became 24-3 when Wadlan caught and bowled Owain Davies.

Swansea continued to pick up wickets and next to fall was Gareth Thomas after being bowled by Jake Roberts.

Wadlan then trapped Darrel Griffiths leg before and Connor Miles bowled Owain Binding to leave the Wanderers reeling on 37-6.

Robbie Crawford and Ifan Knott then looked to get their side moving as they shared 31 runs for the seventh wicket.

Crawford top scored with a knock of 20 but he couldn’t go on as he was caught by Ioan Webber off the bowling of Gareth Hayden.

Osian Webber then bowled Liam Rogers for a duck before Hayden bowled Knott on a score of 10.

Hayden then brought the game to a close when he had Ian Hughes caught by Miles to leave Carmarthen all out on 70.

Swansea’s win saw them gain promotion to Division 1 while Carmarthen remain fifth after their seventh loss of the season.

On Saturday (Aug 24), Carmarthen travel to second from bottom Newport Fugitives while Swansea are at home to bottom side Panteg.