CRICKET – THE Bahrain Reza Hygiene Awali Camels kicked off their 30th anniversary tour with an emphatic victory over the historic Pontypridd Cricket Club.
The start of play was delayed as very localised rain drenched the former county ground. Determined work by the ground staff to clear the excess water enabled the teams to contest a 20/20 game.
Batting first, Pontypridd were startled by the accuracy and swing of Dave Starkie, who took the first wicket of the tour, third ball – a peach. Against consistently accurate bowling by Toby Haslam, Dave Hilton, and Herman Wagner, to name a few, the local team battled back, smashing boundaries and losing wickets in turn.
The Bahrain Rugby Football Club “Red Wall” was evident in the fielding of Cobus Grierson and Herman Wagner, who let nothing past.
If there was a turning point in the innings, it came by virtue of Fergus Shaw’s blinding catch at gulley off a full-blooded cut.
With the danger man now out of the way, Grierson, Tom Wooding, Huw Caffrey and Matt Rees stifled the batters’ efforts, leaving an under-par target of 103 for the Camels to chase.
Openers Dave Mason and Graham Hoar seemed to want to win in record time. Hoar played a fine pull shot to a half-tracker but lost his middle stump as the ball shot low. Mason hooked two boundaries to fine leg, the top-edged a third attempt.
Rees, the burly all-rounder, hero of so many Camels epics in former tours, tried to smash his first ball to cow corner, as the Camels were in trouble with three main batsmen back in the pavilion with only 23 on the board.
But these Camels bat deep, and were determined not to lose. Charlie Viles crashed four successive boundaries. Wagner kept the momentum up as the target approached.
With 30 or so needed in 10 overs, what should have been a stroll in the park became a gallop as Wooding smashed two mighty sixes and a couple of boundaries, retiring on 20 and leaving Grierson to finish the job.
The Camels needed just two to win with more than eight overs to spare, and it took Grierson just one ball – a mighty six, which scattered and delighted the sizeable crowd in front of the pavilion. A terrific start to this historic tour.
The Camels next face possibly their sternest test of the tour – the mighty Pentyrch CC. Thirty years ago, almost to the day, Pentyrch defeated the Camels in their first-ever tour match. In 2014, a century by Charles Forward in an epic partnership with Hoar led the Camels to a nine-wicket revenge win.
Talk around this proud Welsh town is very much about knocking that one on the head and repeating the famous 1995 victory as the rivalry lives on.
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