Record breakers

On a day of high scoring, Guilsfield broke a club record for a run chase to secure an unlikely victory in Shropshire Division Six.

With a superb looking track, visitors Column decided to bat first with youngster William Stanford-Davies hitting a chance-less 111 as his side set an imposing 262-4.

It wasn’t looking good in reply, with the village falling to 26-4, but skipper Dave Lewis (94) and Gary Griffiths (58) forged a 137 fifth-wicket partnership to give them a chance. Lewis was then joined at the crease by David Williams (57) and the pair put the village on the edge of victory with another strong stand before the winning runs were knocked off with four balls to spare.

Further up the leagues, Newtown put up a fight against Division One leaders Pontesbury despite only managing 137 after batting first.

John Anthony (43) and Tom Foulkes (34) made decent knocks, but the rest of the batting backbone struggled.

There were two wickets apiece for Tom Anderson and Dave Anthony, but Pontesbury made it home in the 35^th over for a four-wicket win.

Welshpool eased their early season woes with a hard-earned 12-run victory over fellow Division Two strugglers St Georges.

Chris Proctor (pictured courtesy of Gary Williams) top scored with 34 as Welshpool set a reasonable target of 166, but it was Rob Anderson (4-14) and Matt McWhinnie (3-13) who did the damage to restrict the visitors to 154 all out.

Father and son duo, Keith and Ieuan Griffiths, had a weekend to remember as both Montgomery teams picked up vital wins.

Youngster Ieuan (pictured below) hit a magnificent unbeaten 115 as Montgomery beat Shifnal Thirds by 74 runs in Division Two, while Keith scored a match-winning 45 not out as Monty II beat Much Wenlock in Division Five.

The first team are now second in the league after posting 253-6 for Shifnal III to chase, with Aaron Ruff-Cock top scoring on 77.

In reply, Shifnal III’s finished on 179-8 with youngster Tom Hughes the pick of the bowling attack as he took 3-33 off nine overs.

Montgomery II restricted Much Wenlock to 115-9, with skipper Dave Jones taking 4-26 off eight overs. Rob Yewdall took 2-25. Special mention must be given to Kofi Davies for claiming his first wicket in senior cricket, while Sam Davies made his debut as youth team players (including Morgan Matthews) continue to be given an opportunity to shine under Jones’s captaincy.

In reply Montgomery got off to a terrible start, slipping to 26-5, but a partnership between Griffiths senior and Jonathan Williams (12) steadied the ship.

Richard Jones (10no) joined Griffiths at the crease to smash a winning four to take 20 points.

Ian Hancocks hit 66 and Sam Brown smashed 48 as Newtown II beat promotion chasing Wellington Fourths. The hosts posted 192-5 before Dave Wilkinson (3-41) lead the Newtown attack to restrict the visitors to 187 in a real nail-biter.

Llanidloes are firmly in Division Seven pole position after another win continued their faultless start to the season.

The bowlers made runs hard for Ellesmere II to come by with their target of 125-4 easily caught by the Llani batsmen. Rob Davies remained unbeaten on 57 for the six-wicket win.

Welshpool II’s mixture of youth and experience suffered a 44-run defeat in Division Eight at Much Wenlock II who had set 164-6.