Anthony comes to Glamorgan's rescue

JON CULLEY

reports from Colwyn Bay

Glamorgan 276 Middlesex 43-1

Glamorgan's excursion to their northern seaside outpost began promisingly when Hugh Morris scored a first for the season by winning the toss, but the opportunity to profit from a docile pitch looked to be going to waste in mid-afternoon after six wickets had fallen for 166.

There was particular disappointment for the Welsh crowd when both Matthew Maynard and Tony Cottey, each in his best form of the summer, established useful positions only to get themselves out. Maynard, having boosted his first class runs tally by more than 200 at Old Trafford in the last round of games, added a further 47 off 56 balls before lunch here but then hooked the first he faced in the afternoon straight to long leg. Cottey, another centurian against Lancashire, looked in no more discomfort but set off for a single against John Emburey that was never on, was rightly sent back by Robert Croft but could not get home before Mark Ramprakash, swooping in from cover, scored a direct hit.

Morris, meanwhile, had batted with great assuredness for two and a half hours only to be struck in the solar plexus by a short one from Richard Johnson, who waited for the captain to recover and then located the edge of his bat with the next ball.

However, along came Hamesh Anthony, a late substitute as Glamorgan's overseas player, to rescue the innings with his first half-century in county cricket.

Anthony, a 24-year-old from Antigua, is filling the breach in Glamorgan's bowling left by Ottis Gibson's recruitment to the West Indies tour party. He had not offered much evidence of any particular prowess with the bat before yesterday, and there was a good deal of hit and miss about his performance here, but when he did hit, the ball travelled. Three times he smacked Phil Tufnell over the on-side boundary and struck Emburey a similar blow. There were half a dozen fours, too, before he drove Johnson to mid-on.

There were compensations for Emburey and Tufnell, who finished with three wickets each, but Anthony's seventh-wicket partnership with Neil Kendrick contributed 71 to what was eventually a respectable total before Anthony capped his day with the wicket of Paul Weekes, brilliantly caught by Maynard at second slip.