** There was perfect weather and a pitch that looked a picture - Congratulations to Haverfordwest County on their hard work with regard to the pitch and the excellent work by their voluntary stewards.
**It was a real family day out for Clarbeston Road and Merlins Bridge as players and supporters bought their nippers along, dressed in club colours and running on the pitch beforehand. It set the scene for the best behaviour I’ve seen from the crowd at the Senior Cup Final for a number of years.**It was also lovely to see so many former stalwarts from both camps in attendance, as well as former stars from other clubs who had turned out to enjoy the game and chat with old enemies who had once kicked lumps out of each other
**The pre-match walk on to the pitch and presentation of both teams and officials was led by the Manderwood Pembrokeshire League hon secretary Brian Hawkins before the players and officials were presented to Rowena Lloyd, the league chairman, and Sean Hannon, the representative for sponsors Manderwood. I even spotted more than a few rugby players in the crowd!**It was nice to see Brian at the match after his recent illness and we wish him every good health and a nice rest during the summer months.
**There was a big smile on the face of the league’s hon treasurer Micky Phillips and his veteran side-kick Keith Scourfield as almost 1200 basked in the sun and watched the game.
**The match officials met up with a number of other referees for their traditional pre-match lunch at The Friars in Haverfordwest where Sean O’Connor produced a football quiz which ended up with a triple tie between ref for the day Charles Davies, fourth official Angus Scourfield and yours truly, with Angus winning on a tie-breaker. Was there collusion between the top-table whistlers? It’s not for me to say!
**Well done Charles, Dave Badger, Kevin Milich and Angus for the way they controlled the match – there was just one booking and no-one could argue about that as the match officials sensibly took their time before issuing a fair caution.**On the eating front with the refs it is usually Chris Stapleton who catches the eye but on this occasion he was absolutely eclipsed by fellow Hundleton resident Steve Williams, who polished off the biggest breakfast I think I have ever seen!
** Clarbeston Road started their day at the Cross Inn in the village with breakfast and after an early arrival at the Conygar Bridge Meadow Stadium took a leisurely walk, returned to the ground and had a warm-up before their team talk.
**Merlins Bridge had their meal at The Glen, went for a game of ten-pin bowling in Milford Haven, returned to the pub for their massive club picture that included all the junior and second team players, followed by their team talk and the short trip to the ground for their pre-match warm-up.**On the ten-bowling front it was club skipper Chris Ormond who topped the poll with a score of 147 – and it was second team player Tom Jago who collected the wooden spoon!
**Thegame was played in a competitive fashion but was summed up by an early crunching tackle from Clarbie’s player/manager Matthew Ellis on his cousin Peter Thomas in the Wizards’ midfield. Both went down in a heap, got up, shook hands and got on with the game!
**Merlins Bridge boss Nathan Thomas received the Lilian Holman Memorial Trophy as the winning manager and his skipper Chris Ormond carried on his ten-bowling victory by receiving the match ball, traditionally provided by Mark White of Ocky White Travel Ltd, as man of the match, which was chosen by Sean Hannon of Manderwood.**Whether winning or losing there were to be few celebrations for Dan Rees, the Clarbie central defender, because he was quickly off up the M4 for Sunday’s London marathon – so good luck to Dan on his 26.2 mile run!
**I take no praise for the fact that I nominated the winners because almost everyone (Chrissie Lloyd excepted) went for the Bridge – but only Scott Richards (Angle) and Andrew Burgoyne (Milford United) got the scoreline spot on. Well done lads!