DOLGELLAU  190 for 9 beat CONWY  138  by 52 runs 

Readers North Wales League, Division 1 DOLGELLAU came out on top, defeating visitors Conwy by 52 runs at the Marian on Saturday.

Asked to bat first by Conwy captain Dan Davies, Dolgellau totalled 190 for 9 from their 45 overs, before dismissing Conwy for 138 in 35 overs.

Jack Williamson and Dave Jenkins opened up for the hosts, having a good partnership of 62 in 16 overs, at which Williamson was caught and bowled from the first ball of Shaun Davies' nine over spell.

Williamson struck 6 fours in his knock of 36.

It became 75 for 2 five overs later when Jenkins skied the ball to be caught by the bowler Blake Stocks, for 26 with four boundaries.

Number three Lafras Van Vuuren and Morgan Yorke added 31 for the 3rd wicket; Yorke bowled by Stocks for 9.

In the 34th over Lafras was caught by Guto Davies off Evan Williams for his side's top score of 40, putting on 35 runs with Sion Francis. Lafras hit 7 fours in his 52 ball stay in the middle.

Francis and Jaco Oosthuizen moved it on to 165, Callum Jones running out Oosthuizen following an excellent piece of fielding on the river side boundary.

Stuart Evans was caught Stocks, bowled Williams, before Francis' innings of 31 ended, bowled by Guto Davies, 5 boundaries in Francis' stay at the crease; 170 for 7.

Rob Humphreys departed at 178, lbw to Patrick Jelley who also bowled skipper Jack Williams as the overs ran out.

Dolgellau's innings closed on 190 for 9, Richard Rees and Sam Jones the not out batters.

Jelley finished with 2 for 42 from 9 overs, Stocks 2 for 35 from 9, Evan Williams 2 for 14 from 7, Shaun Davies 1 for 31 off 9 and Guto Davies 1 for 31 from 8 overs.

Tom Plank was the other bowler used, 0 for 34 from 7 overs.

In reply, Conwy's innings was given a brisk start by Evan Williams and Shaun Davies, having an alliance of 36 in 5.4 overs.

Jack Williams achieved the breakthrough by having Davies well caught in the slips by Lafras; Evan being on 27 at the time.

In the 10th over Evan was out for 38, attempting a pull shot, only to see the ball trickling into the stumps, the bowler Jack Williams.

Evan struck seven crisp boundaries in his 26 ball stay.

Dan Davies, at number 3, was joined by Toby Watson, Dan scoring the bulk of the runs in a 39 run partnership for the third wicket which included 23 runs from the 12th over.

However, from 90 for 2 Conwy went to 91 for 5. Watson was bowled by Jack Williamson who also had Jelley lbw followed by the big wicket of Dan Davies for 32, bowled by a sharply spinning delivery. Dan hit a six and 5 fours from his 39 balls faced.

At this juncture there were still 25 overs left in the innings, but the later batters found it hard to get any fluency against the economic bowling of spinners Lafras and Williamson, who sent down 18 overs in tandem.

It took 15 overs for Dolgellau to take the last 5 wickets, Conwy finishing on 138.

Number six batter Callum Jones was undefeated on 11 as he saw the 5 wickets fall.

Stocks bowled by Lafras, Plank run out by the quick thinking Lafras from a leg side wide, Guto Davies taken at slip by Lafras off Jack Williams for 12, Graham Heath bowled by Yorke and Matt Freestone caught Stuart Evans off Yorke to bring an end to proceedings.

Dolgellau's 52 run success earned them 13 points to Conwy's 2 points.

Lafras Van Vuuren was outstanding with the ball, bowling 9 overs with 3 maidens, for just 11 runs, taking 1 wicket.

Jack Williamson was nearly as frugal from his nine overs, claiming 3 for 17.

They were supported by Jack Williams 3 for 42 from 8 and Yorke 2 for 40 from 5, Francis bowling 4 overs for 17 runs. The match ball was sponsored by Llion James, Dolgellau.