CRICKHOWELL had to suffer their third heavy defeat in as many weeks, this time losing to league leaders Goodrich at home by 155 runs.

Crickhowell won the toss and invited Goodrich to bat first and with Joseph Bowker back in the side, Crickhowell caused some early problems for the league leaders.

With Ben Bowker removing Jackson for 22 at the other end, Goodrich also lost Sam Griffiths caught behind for 6 by Hywell Price off the pace bowling of brother Joseph and it might have been very different if Crickhowell could have sharpened up their catching. With two or three half-chances going down, there were also three or four more that could have been expected to ‘stick’, which would have made a big difference. As it was, Joseph Bowker finished with 1-32 off his ten overs and brother Ben 1-60 off 8. Nick Francis replaced Ben and bowled his usual tight line and length taking 2-26 off his 10 overs. But with shout after shout for lbw being turned down, it again seemed that the cricketing gods were not looking down favourably on Crickhowell, which also seemed to be in stark contrast to the good fortune that Goodrich would experience later, when they bowled. Justin Francis also bowled well taking 3-53 in his spell.

It’s true that Crickhowell were bemoaning their luck at teatime, with Goodrich eventually posting 250-7, but in truth they were architects of their own down fall with poor catching and when the lead dust had settled on the scorer’s pencil, Crickhowell could look back on nearly 70 extras conceded with O’Brian top scoring for Goodrich with just a modest 38.

After tea, Crickhowell’s batting performance was more hapless than hopeless with most of the appeals for Goodrich being answered in the affirmative. There was also the curious incident of a run-out-cum-stumping that wasn’t and then was, with Ben Bowker eventually being given out by the umpire at the bowler’s end after his intervention over-ruled the square leg umpire. It seemed that most of the watching throng and the players themselves were bemused, as this eventuality seemed to sit outside their current cricketing experience, largely because it also sits outside the laws of the game! When your luck is out it seems to be out by some distance, but with four lbw dismissals on top of this peculiar occurrence it would be easy to forget that Goodrich are in fact a very good bowling side and Crickhowell even with that dose of bad fortune, are still looking a fragile batting outfit. Again they failed to get a batting point and were all out for 95 even before drinks. At least skipper Nick Francis could hold his head up high as he finished on 53 not out to add to his earlier good bowling performance. Hywell Price also revealed a glimpse of his potential, hitting a quick-fire 16 before being snapped up in the gully by Griffiths taking a very sharp catch off the pace bowling of Provis. Bradford finished with immaculate figures of 5-18 runs in 10 overs and Provis picked up another wicket to finish with two, but conceded nearly 50 runs in just 5 overs in doing so. O’Brian and Abell also had a wicket each for Goodrich, as they took maximum (25) points from the game.

Crickhowell are now in bottom spot in the table with just 16 points from three games, with Goodrich consolidating their position at the top with 94 points from four games.

At least Crickhowell have already played two of the best sides in the division and can now try to concentrate on taking points off the clubs closer to them in the league.

They will need to concentrate on the basics, by bowling a more consistent line and length and not helping the opposition in the form of ‘gift wrapped’ extras, and in terms of batting, especially with an inexperienced and young looking lower middle order, the senior players will need to start spending time at the crease and batting out their overs.

It’s true that luck always plays a part too in sport, and in this game there was very little on show for Crickhowell, but as the golfer, Gary Player once observed, when he was accused of being ‘lucky’ he noted that the harder he worked and practiced, the luckier he became!