AMMANFORD suffered their third consecutive defeat in four matches played on Saturday (May 27) when they lost by four wickets in a low scoring match at Pontarddulais.
Captain for the day Rhys-Huw Davies won the toss and showed admirable faith in his team-mates by electing to bat first.
Unfortunately his faith was not repaid, as wickets fell with all-too-familiar regularity. The highest partnership was 49 for the 8th wicket between Rhodri-Huw Davies (32) and Tiaan Sparrow (24).
Earlier Xavier Clarke (20) and Saihaj Jaspal (19) had failed to build a significant innings despite having played themselves in.
Bont’s chief wicket-taker was their captain and former Ammanford star Matthew Fisher with 3 for 19.
Dafydd Davies, Sam Jardine and Jac Arrowsmith also picked up a couple of victims each.
Ammanford crumbled to 119 all out inside 40 overs.
The visitors got off the the best possible start when Fahad Sabir trapped Bont opener Gary Arrowsmith without a run on the board.
However, a half century stand for the second wicket between Cameron Herring (15) and Oliver Rogers (36) turned things firmly in Bont’s favour.
Ammanford’s bowlers stuck manfully to their task as Bont wickets began to fall, but they simply didn’t have enough of a total to defend.
An unbeaten 33 from Iestyn Rees sealed Ammanford’s fate, and Bont got home with four wickets and nearly half their overs to spare.
This defeat dropped Ammanford into the relegation zone along with Port Talbot Town. They have plenty of time to turn things around as they have in the past but an essential prerequisite to that happening is a drastic improvement in their batting.
Next Saturday Ammanford entertain Bridgend Town at the Park.
Ammanford seconds earn three wicket win
A superb batting performance gained Ammanford seconds a terrific three wicket victory over visiting Mumbles in a high scoring match at the Park.
Mumbles elected to bat first and built a solid platform thanks to top order runs from Joe Phillips (51) and Ben Jones (49).
A further 24 from Tony Dowrick enabled them to post a healthy total of 233 for 8 after their 45 overs. Iwan Matthews got a couple of wickets for Ammanford while the others were shared around evenly.
Despite a solid 40 from opener Callum Croft, Ammanford looked to be in trouble with wickets falling rather too quickly for the return in runs.
At 85 for 5 they looked to be heading for defeat, but a rearguard display from the lower order turned matters round.
Hadleigh Luff (25), Llyr Morgan (47), Hari Lloyd (33no) and Iestyn Jones (32no) showed remarkable resistance to turn defence into attack and enable Ammanford to overtake the Mumbles total with three wickets and 7 overs to spare.
Ammanford thirds lose thriller with Clydach
Ammanford thirds lost an absolute thriller by just one wicket at Clydach.
Batting first, Ammanford reached 147 for 9 from their 40 overs, thanks to a backbone knock of 68 from opener and captain Steve Hagget.
Paul Crocker did most of the damage for Clydach with 4 for 11. Defending their total, Ammanford’s bowlers took regular wickets, and the game was in the balance until the very end as Clydach scored the winning run with their final pair at the wicket.
Paul Crocker capped a good all round performance with 28, while Ammanford’s best bowler was George Williams with 3 for 21.
