Teetering on the edge...
7:20am Thursday 4th September 2008
PENARTH'S 1st and 2nd XIs are left teetering on the edge of relegation after a disastrous weekend of cricket action.
Nick Morgan's first team fell to a 43 run defeat at the hands of St Fagans.
Morgan won the toss and put the visitors into bat and Penarth made a good start with Peter Ingram dismissing Richard Kaufmann for 9.
However, it was not to be for Penarth and a 155-run stand between Tom Mehrilat (103 not out) and Simon Halliday (66) started to take the game away from Penarth.
When Amar Singh finally dismissed Halliday things did not improve and a quick fire 26 from Mike Provis in partnership with culmination of Mehrilat's century saw St Fagans finish on 233-2.
The Penarth reply didn't start well and despite starts from Peter Docherty (17), Dave Ricketts (36) and a magnificent innings from skipper Morgan (76) they were only able to amass 191 runs before they were bowled out in the very final over.
In places it looked as if Penarth were mounting a real challenge to the visitors' total, but a constant stream of wickets including two comical run outs always kept a check on progress.
The side's future still rests in their own hands and a victory at Panteg on Saturday will ensure safety and confine their opponents to 1st division cricket next season.
The 2nd XI had an even more disastrous weekend as they lost on Saturday and Sunday. Andy Prickett's team travelled to St Fagans on Saturday and fell to a 7 wicket defeat.
Penarth batted first and were skittled for just 115 runs; top scorer on the day was number 10 batsmen James Collins with 17.
In the St Fagans reply there were wickets for John Clogg, Dave Stevens and Matt Jones, but the Fags were never in danger of losing the game.
On Sunday things went from bad to worse as they lost again, this time to Abergavenny, by 68 runs. It started quite well for Penarth as they restricted the visitors to 192-8 from their 50 overs.
But yet again the batsmen completely failed and Penarth were left floundering on 56-8 as the new ball pair of Jon Denning and Nathan Byrne took 4 wickets a piece in a torrid opening spell.
Tom Parkinson dug in and produced the innings of the day for Penarth scoring 30, but when he fell with the score on 108 to give Byrne his fifth wicket it looked like defeat was a certainty.
However a 121 ball innings from Prickett and a 40 ball innings from Peter Hardwick saw Penarth hang on for a draw as they finished on 124-9.
The Third XI's final game was a victim of the weather but the 4th XI finished on a high and also just missed out on promotion as they finished 3rd in the league.
Penarth scored 254-8 with the highlight an opening stand of 126 between father and son combination of Andy Jones (108) and his son Rob (28).
An impressive bowling display from Penarth saw the visitors skittled out for just over 100.
On Sunday the Under 15s capped a magnificent unbeaten season as they won the League final against Llantwit Major by 7 wickets. A full report will appear next week.