Cricket: Colwyn Bay welcome back star man Cross

Jun 3 2010

COLWYN Bay hope to have all-rounder Gareth Cross back in action for this Saturday’s Liverpool Competition Premier Division visit to Wallasey.

Cross missed Monday’s 68-run victory over Prestatyn at Penrhyn Avenue as he was on Lancashire duty but is set to return this weekend to strengthen a Bay side boosted by a 24-4 Bank Holiday points haul against their rivals along the North Wales coast.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Colwyn posted a formidable 219-4 declared off 55 overs, with youngster Zac Gidlow hitting a personal best 86, Welsh international Sion Morris adding 63 and Caerwyn Williams 30.

Prestatyn put up some decent resistance in reply with Indian import Marripuri Suresh recording 47 and Steve Giblin 22, but the visitors were ripped apart by a stunning spell from their former player Will Hantam.

The South African all-rounder, who scored 902 runs and took 58 wickets for Prestatyn in assisting them to promotion from Division One in 2007, produced his best bowling for the Bay so far, snapping up 7-57 off 20 overs.

Bay skipper Graeme Jones was pleased with the overall outcome.

"It was a pretty solid performance – we did ok in most departments," he said.

"To score 219-4 in the light of our recent batting was a good effort. We made a solid start and then began to pile on the runs in the last 10 overs which I’d have expected us to do having wickets in hand."

Jones was especially pleased with the batting display of youngster Gidlow, saying: "It was a great knock from the young man, but I told him afterwards it was disappointing he didn’t get his 100 as tons don’t come along every day in the Liverpool Competition."

Hantam also came in for special praise from the skipper. "It was without doubt his best spell since he joined us," said Jones.

"To be fair it’s taken him a while to work out where he needs to bowl, but he produced a superb performance.

"I can only take positives from the game – the fact we scored over 200 for the loss of just four wickets and that our bowlers took 10 wickets on a pitch as flat as Colwyn Bay’s."

Meanwhile, it has been a fantastic week in the career of 15-year-old Colwyn Bay youngster Arthur Jones who scored three centuries inside five days.

Having scored his maiden ton (107 not out) for the Under-15s last Thursday, he went on to record his first ever senior century with a magnificent 129 in a 223-run opening partnership with Richard Stock (75) in Colwyn Bay 3rds’ 25-point win over Leigh 4ths on Sunday.

Not content with this, he went on to take five wickets to add to the five he nabbed for the under-15s with his accurate off-spin in 11.5 overs for just 33 runs.

To cap it all, Jones played for the Bay’s 2nd XI on Monday and scored yet another century, 102 not out this time and took four wickets, making a total of 338 runs and 14 wickets in the space of five days.