Dafen (206-8) beat Llandysul (68) by 138 runs
DAFEN Welfare entertained Llandysul at Dafen Park on Saturday in what was the first time the teams have met in the league. With currently just the one point separating them in the league table, Dafen were also seeking to secure their first win of the season, after previously being held to three draws.
Despite recent weather the pitch was dry and well grassed and looked to be a ‘bat first’ wicket, as it proved when Dan Vaughan won the toss for Dafen and opted to stick his side in first.
The wicket was never perfect but had some pace and bounce to encourage bowler and batsman alike. Matthew Evans and Nicky Davies fell early, but Jon Randell looked good for his 26 before driving to mid off. Dafen were creaking on 50-3 and needed Kelvin Bartle and Ieuan Rosser to rebuild.
Bartle fell for 25 but Rosser moved on until he too was dismissed for 42. This left Dafydd Nicholas (48no) and Gareth Hughes (38no) to finish the pursuit of 200 and the fifth batting point, which they achieved, with Dafen closing on 206-5.
This usually proves too much to chase in Dafen, and so it proved, when from the first over Scott Phillips’ pace yorked Llew Hughes. From here on in it was a battle for survival for Llandysul.
The next few wickets produced some questionable catches, but not before Ben Edkins traded punches with Matthew Evans, hitting 4 boundaries in 7 balls. The diving keeper Vaughan then caught him at the second attempt, after he had spilled his original effort. Then Edkins edged, caught Vaughan’s gloves and was taken by Nicholas at first slip. Finally Llyr Morris edged to Davies at second slip, but off an Evans no ball, only to repeat the edge two balls later when Davies parried and caught at the second attempt. In amongst this Andrew Edwards was bowled to give Evans four wickets and leave Llandysul wobbling on 29-5.
From then it was attrition to claim the final five wickets; Chris Hudson replaced Evans and picked up two, Bartle one from the other end before Evans returned to finish things off and have outstanding figures of 6-39. Llandysul closed on 68 all out.
So Dafen moved from one to 26 points ahead of Llandysul and into fourth place, next week brings a visit to Gowerton for the Llanelli side.
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