BARRY Wanderers Cricket Club travelled to Llandaff Fields on Saturday to take on Lisvane CC 4th XI.

With the temperature in the high 20s, stand in skipper Neil Blundell won the toss and did not hesitate in opting to bat first.

In form opening pair Blundell and Pete Coleman set the tone of the innings from the off and it soon became clear it would be a long afternoon for the Lisvane bowlers.

Runs were to be found all around the ground and the aggressive opening partnership chalked up 71 runs after just 12 overs.

Blundell and Coleman continued to punish Lisvane in the full glare of the afternoon sun and as gratefully received drinks were taken in the 20th over, the Wanderers had put on 130 runs.

Coleman departed not long after, out caught behind for a superb 56.

It was at this point that Blundell upped the scoring rate significantly, ably supported by Rami Guni in the middle.

The bombastic Blundell peppered the boundary at regular intervals and reached his century in the 31st over with 31 overs gone with the score on 208.

Ram was out for a fine 36 but this was the Blundell show yet again.

Despite the best efforts of the weary Lisvane bowlers, 90 runs were added in the final 9 overs with Blundell finishing on an a magnificent 158 not out.

The Wanderers finished on 298-6 off their 40 overs.

In reply, the Wanderers made an early breakthrough with Venkata Siddu removing opener Lisvane Allen for 3 caught behind by Phil Wolfenden.

An excellent partnership between Tripathy and Navid steadied the ship for Lisvane but keeping up with the required run rate proved to be a tough ask.

Excellent bowling contributions all round made scoring difficult notably from Ram (7-2-19-0) and James Scullion (6-2-11-0).

After 20 overs the score had progressed to 76-1. Not content with his batting heroics, it was Blundell who broke the key partnership removing Tripathy for 54 caught by Colum John.

It was clear early on that Lisvane would struggle to get near the winning total and so it proved as they finished on 175-3.

Barry Wanderers won by 123 runs.

The club would like to extend our condolences to the family, friends and teammates of Maqsood Anwar who sadly passed away on Saturday.

A former player for the Wanderers in our 2004 promotion winning season, Maqsood is remembered fondly by all who knew him at the club.

We urge all of our members past and present to donate what they can to the campaign set up in Maqsood’s name https://gofund.me/7b7ba702.

All proceeds will go to the purchase of defibrillators for Barry Athletic Cricket Club and Sully Centurions Cricket Club.