Village Cup Victory 2004

Here are 5 views of the npower Village Cricket Final from the web –interesting reading.

1. WISDEN CRICINFO WEBSITE

Village Cup Final 2004
Sully Centurions lift Village Cup
Wisden Cricinfo staff
August 23, 2004
Sully Centurions 243 for 4 (Smith 113, O'Shea 79) beat Exhall and Wixford 164 for 7 (Simpson 58) by 79 runs at Lord's

A strong batting performance by Welsh side Sully Centurions, built around a century from Lloyd Smith, helped them beat Exhall and Wixford, from Warwickshire, to lift the Village Cup at the finals held at Lord's yesterday. Smith, who is just the third player to score a hundred at the finals in the Cup's 33-year history, smashed a century off only 86 balls to set a stiff target off 244 to win in 40 overs for Exhall, who were restricted to 164 for 7 despite a solid half-century from John Simpson and some lively hitting from Tom Heneghen.
Sully were always favourites: Exhall and Wixford's side is drawn from two tiny villages near Stratford-upon-Avon with a combined population of only 300. Sully also boast the batting talent of Ryan and Jamie Sylvester, who scored a total of four centuries in the games running up to the Lord's final, and are on the brink of retaining the South Wales League title.
Exhall couldn't believe their good fortune when Steve Keen dismissed both Sylvester brothers in the space of four balls to have Sully teetering on 34 for 2, but Smith and Michael O'Shea (79) set up a daunting total with a stand of 174 in 27 overs. Exhall gamely refused to be overawed by the challenge, but were never really in the running, although Simpson and Heneghen's efforts gave their innings some respectability.
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd

2. THE TIMES WEBSITE

Cricket
August 24, 2004

All-conquering Sully called into question
VILLAGE PEOPLE BY ALAN LEE

THE best team won it, no argument. When “Royston”, “Rocky”, “Rhino” and the other smartly suited players of Sully Centurions carried the silverware on to their team coach at Lord’s on Sunday evening, they did so with the satisfying certainty that no village team in Britain can hold a candle to them.
Back at the home of their sponsor, the Three Horseshoes pub in the Vale of Glamorgan, they celebrated exuberantly. Quite right, too. Ten years ago, this club, with its council-owned ground and ugly pavilion in a coastal spillover from Cardiff, was nothing. Now, it contains many of the best players in Wales and would flourish in a premiership of club cricket.

But there’s the rub. Sully are too good for the npower Village Cup. They dismissed their final opponents, Exhall and Wixford, a doughty side from Warwickshire, as if swatting a pesky fly. At one stage, I overheard two elderly Lord’s stewards shaking their heads, consulting their programmes and wondering aloud if this was the same bucolic final they had come to know over 33 years.
Sully’s superiority has spawned a rancorous reaction, much of it based too deeply on jealousy to be applauded. In defiance, if not in denial, Sully’s players have developed a persecution complex, some of which spilt over at the pre-final dinner. It is an unfortunate distraction from a mighty achievement but the truth is that, if there is still such a thing as village cricket, Sully do not play it.
It is the definition that is so tricky. Village cricket, circa 2004, need not be all about dragging unco-ordinated misfits from the pub to make up the numbers. It need not be a dotty reprise of England, Their England. But if all such innocence is rendered obsolete, the ethos of this beloved competition is lost.
Sully is run with obsessive pride and ambition by the remarkable Sylvester family, who fill every role from chairman to captain to tea lady. The senior brothers, David and Don, deserve unstinting admiration. With men such as this in charge, Wales could probably become a Test team. They have recruited talented players and, rather than paying them, have found them jobs, bought them tracksuits, cosseted and cared for them.
There is no evidence that they have broken any rules of the Village Cup, hence their victory is fully merited. Nor did they bring their renowned aggression to Lord’s — the final was conducted in exemplary spirit, with Exhall players being clapped in and out and even the bit-part Sully players given a bowl to remember their day.
These are not ogres, as some mischievous forces have painted them. True, even their own family say that Jamie Sylvester can be a grump and his brother, Ryan, a hothead, but this is a matter of team amusement among such as the massive, genial Terry Williams, from Sunderland, who knows more than most about bitterness, having served three terms in Northern Ireland with the Coldstream Guards.
Michael O’Shea, the son of a local policeman, has risen through Sully’s junior ranks and, at 16, is already an England Under-19 player. Soon to go to Millfield, he will assuredly play county cricket — an honour that only narrowly eluded Sunday’s centurymaker, Lloyd Smith, known as “Thierry” for his resemblance to the Arsenal striker.
Amid such talents, my mind flashed back to spring, watching the heroic Alan Cousins and his Godshill players shooing cattle and ponies off their New Forest ground before a tie that, inevitably, they lost. Such wistful venues are diminishing in the Cup, because the rustic, traditional villages are shy of embarrassment. This year’s entry of 492 was more than 300 down on its peak.
It should not be this way, for the Village Cup is a celebration of the rural, recreational game in which Lord’s is otherwise only for spectating. On Sunday, four of the Sully team had played there before in representative cricket. It did not stop them glorying in the surroundings as a team, but it did lessen the romance.
David Sylvester, the chairman, loves the Village Cup and wants to win it again. “I’ve no interest in the National Club Knockout and we’ll enter this again next year,” he said. By then, three more Minor Counties players, at present ineligible, will be available.
The philosophy of this competition must somehow be ring-fenced, or it will become just another attritional knockout. In the coming weeks, Tim Brocklehurst, of Wisden Cricketer, the organiser, is to reassess the rulebook. “It may be that we exclude clubs who play in certain, stipulated premier leagues,” he said.
For a measure of the magic that the Cup can still provide, the beaming face of the losing captain was priceless. Simon “Nails” Hollands said: “I had three minutes of disappointment, when I made nought, but I haven’t stopped smiling the rest of the day. It’s a dream for all of us. We can try again next year, but I doubt Sully can — not in this competition, anyway.”

3. WESTERN MAIL WEBSITE (ic wales)

Cricket: Sully Lord's of all they survey
Aug 23 2004 Staff Reporter, The Western Mail

A SUPERB Lord's century from Lloyd Smith set Sully Centurions on the way to the npower National Village Cup - the second leg of a remarkable treble.
Victory by 85 runs over Worcestershire side Exall and Wixford capped a fantastic weekend for Welsh cricket that also saw Glamorgan secure the totesport title.
And it followed victory over Pontarddulais in the Thomas, Carroll Welsh Cup last week, with Sully odds on favourites to add the Premier Division title with five games left.
Sully went in first and were in a little difficulty at 39-2 as their main run-getters, skipper Jamie Sylvester and his brother Ryan, went for 11 and 19.
But that brought together Glamorgan Academy player Smith, 20, and Mike O'Shea, 16, who captained the England Under-17s last week.
They added 174 for the third wicket with Smith hitting a superb 104, including three sixes and nine fours.
O'Shea chipped in with 79, including one six and eight fours, and the pair steered Sully to 243-4 via clean hitting and some great running.
As always, Sully's bowling and fielding were top class and Jamie Sylvester took a stunning catch to dismiss Exall & Wixford captain Simon Holland and followed that with two superb run-outs.
John Simpson threatened for Exall & Wixford with a fine 58 but he was bowled by Ryan Sylvester and that was the end of the Worcestershire side who were dismissed for 158.
To crown a fine performance, Jamie Sylvester took 3-16 in five overs and brother Ryan returned 1-20 off nine overs. Dave Eskins (1-19) and Terry Williams (1-48) provided solid back-up.
Teenage wicket-keeper Owen Lovering had a fine match, as did another 15-year-old Gareth Sullivan. And Nathan Gage conceded only 23 runs off nine overs and, like Sullivan, took a fine catch.
"Lloyd and Mike were just fantastic," said Jamie Sylvester. "Lloyd has struggled for runs but then gets a century on a difficult wicket at Lord's.
"Mike was just phenomenal - a 16-year-old playing with the maturity of a 26-year-old.
"And the crowd were fantastic, around 2000 Welsh men, women and children were here and were brilliant.
"That victory was the icing on the cake and a wonderful climax to 10 years of hard work by everybody involved.
"Three more wins and we'll retain our league title and I'm sure that will be a treble which will never to be equalled."
Chairman Dave Sylvester added, "Sully is a real family club started by my older brother Terry. It's been carried on by me and my brother Don who still turn out for the seconds.
"Don's sons Jamie and Ryan are in the team while my wife does the teas and my daughter is the secretary. "I'd never been to Lord's and it has been wonderful" 

4. National Association of Clubs and League Cricket Conferences Website