It's been quite a decent week for several of the crop of promising young Welsh cricketers, starting on Tuesday with another victory for the Wales Minor Counties team in their Championship match against Devon at Usk CC.
It's been quite a decent week for several of the crop of promising young Welsh cricketers, starting on Tuesday with another victory for the Wales Minor Counties team in their Championship match against Devon at Usk CC.
Batting first Devon made 257 with Dewi Penrhyn Jones, the eighteen year-old fast bowler from North Wales taking 5/59. Wales responded with half-centuries from young wicket-keeper Tom Baker as well as teenage spinner Kieran Bull, whilst captain Darren Thomas rolled back the years by making a fine 81 as his team secured a useful first innings lead of 59.
Devon fared a little bit better in their second innings, amassing 348 with Penrhyn Jones adding a further four scalps to his impressive match tally. This left Wales Minor Counties needing 289 and they were set on their way by a decent fifty from Aneurin Norman before the clatter of wickets halted their progress. But Thomas again played the perfect captain's innings as he drew on all of his experience to make an unbeaten 75 as his youthful side reached their target with eight wickets down to secure a deserved two-wicket win.
Over at Bristol in the back-to-back Second Eleven Twenty20 matches a youthful Glamorgan side met a full strength and vastly experienced Gloucestershire side which included both of their overseas players for the Friends Life t20 competition and almost all of their regular 1st XI team.
Gloucestershire duly won both games, but in the first match young batsmen Anuerin Donald (44) and Sam Davies (39) showed promise, whilst Ruadhri Smith - fresh from his experiences of a couple of List A games for Scotland in the Yorkshire Bank40 - returned impressive figures of 4-0-25-2, whilst in the second game, Greg Holmes, the son of the late Glamorgan all-rounder Geoff Holmes, made a composed 37.
