South Wales Premier League Cricket

Swansea beat Ammanford by seven wickets.

Ammanford ended their 2013 campaign on a dismal note fully in keeping with the rest of their season when they lost at Swansea by seven wickets on Saturday.

Ammanford captain Alun Evans won the toss at St Helen’s and tried to infuse some confidence in his batsmen by deciding to take first knock.

Openers Rhydian Harris and Matthew Roberts began brightly enough with a stand of 35 before Roberts was out for 18.

Skipper Evans joined Harris and these two took the score past the century mark before Evans was run out for 38.

Harris (53) soon followed, and the usual narrative of this miserable season fell into gear with a steady procession of batsmen returning to the pavilion.

Gareth Slade (19) and Craig Maloney (14) managed to reach double figures, but the total of 179 in 49 overs did not appear to pose too great a challenge.

And so it proved. Swansea set a blistering pace to their response with an opening stand of 102 in just 17 overs.

Glamorgan’s Nick James (53) and Dwayne Bachelor (47) were eventually dismissed as spinners Matthews Fisher (1-17) and Roberts (2-39) slowed down the rate.

The remaining runs did not however pose any sort of problem for the Swansea middle order where Ashley Pass (22no) and Gareth Hayden (20no) took the home side to victory and safety in the table with seven wickets to spare.

This means that the champions from 2012 are relegated to the South Wales Cricket Association where they last played five years ago, when they left it as champions to join the newly formed Premier League.

They are joined in relegation by Cardiff, oddly enough another club who have held Premier League champion status.