Date: 29th Mar 2024
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COLWYN BAY BUCKLE DOWN TO THE BUSINESS OF SURVIVAL

Date: 12th August 2016

COLWYN BAY BUCKLE DOWN TO THE BUSINESS OF SURVIVAL

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

...................... the view from Penrhyn Avenue.

More or less everyone who was in a position to judge these matters reckoned that Colwyn Bay were ready to return to the Premier League in 2016. Some even talked about a finish among the élite and, who knows, that may yet be achieved. There is still something like a third of the season to go.

But it is nevertheless a comment on the strength of the division that Sion Morris’s side are currently tenth in the table and that their match against Birkenhead Park on August 27th is already being seen as vital in the Penrhyn Avenue side’s hopes of maintaining the status they won less than 12 months ago. One win in the last eight matches tells its own story.

“We’re struggling a little bit,” said Morris, his analysis both dispassionate and acute. “Confidence has been low. I knew the standard was going to be good but I wasn’t expecting it to be this good and for us to play as badly as we have.

“You can’t bully teams in the Premier League. I thought we’d be in the middle band of clubs but we’re in the bottom group. There are at least two smaller leagues within the Premier League, maybe three,  and the teams at the top know how to win games.”

“Everybody’s strong, especially at the top of the table. Two years ago I thought we were nearly ready to go up and last year we were ready but it’s been a huge struggle for us to get results. And we won that league by a hundred points.”

As so often in Premier Leagues, it is the batting which is exposed in struggling teams. Colwyn Bay lie tenth in the table, 42 points off the bottom yet 27 shy of ninth-placed New Brighton, not because their bowling is weak – both left-arm spinner Paul Jenkins and seamer Shrikant Mundhe have taken 36 wickets – but because they have found it hard to post totals.

“The batting is letting us down,” said Morris. “We’ve got nobody who is getting runs consistently and we’re not even getting in games. We’ve hardly scored more than a hundred in the league over the last six or seven weeks.

“The bowlers are doing a heck of a job and the batters are just not backing them up. We had a good win in the Ray Digman semi-final against Rainhill on Sunday, so hopefully we can take that on.

“Knockout success can be really helpful and is linked to league success. One of the reasons we won the Welsh Cup and got to the final of the Digman last year was that we were riding the crest of a wave. We were bullying teams on Saturdays and that was allowing us to play the same brand of cricket on Sundays. It would be nice if we could win a trophy because we’re in the final of the Digman against either Formby or Ainsdale. ”

And when the big games come around in either league or cup, Morris is hoping that his big players, like Jordan Evans respond to the challenge. 

“Jordan hasn’t played for us much this season but he got 50 out of 93 on Saturday and 153 not out on Sunday. He’s home for a month now, so we are hoping he can help us win a couple of games.”

 

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