ABERGAVENNY Cricket Club's first XI kicked off their 175th year with a prestigious fixture against a Gloucestershire XI which included former Zimbabwean international Anthony Ireland.
Gloucestershire batted first on a good early season wicket at Avenue Road but found the Beavers opening attack of Jon Denning and Nathan Byrne in particularly good form with a combination of good pace and late swing.
Denning caused severe problems for Woodman, and he was unlucky not to have him caught in the slips early on.
Byrne was equally unlucky when Campbell was also dropped, however he was to gain revenge when he bowled him shortly afterwards with an excellent yorker.
Woodman continued to ride his luck against the new ball bowlers but was able to settle into a better rhythm when the change bowlers came on, he mixed conventional strong off side drives with improvised sweeps off the seamers to ensure the Gloucestershire total was steadily mounting.
Ben Morgan removed the Gloucestershire captain and first team wicket keeper, Steve Adshead courtesy of a superb catch by the Beavers fielding gazelle James Schofield.
Woodman and Tom Stayt (65) then stepped up into top gear in an attempt to put the game safe and managed to rattle up an 86 run partnership in 10 overs to push the run rate over a run-a-ball.
Woodman completed his hundred off 100 balls before he was finally dismissed for 111.
Ireland joined Stayt for the final few overs and between them they hit six sixes off the final four overs to leave the Beavers chasing 285 for victory.
On the whole the Beavers performance was encouraging, with good spells of bowling from Denning, Byrne and Windross.
The ground fielding was superb, however catches were dropped at crucial times, and were they taken, the Gloucestershire total would probably have been 50-60 runs fewer.
With their promotion to the Premier division of the South Wales Cricket League this season, Abergavenny cannot afford to be so generous in the field.
Beavers coaching staff will be looking to improve this facet of the game before the first league fixture on April 25 at Tondu.
Ireland and Stayt then opened the bowling for Gloucestershire in what proved to be a very imposing new ball attack and is likely to be the best bowling partnership the Beavers will face this season.
Although the Beavers lost Schofield early on to some late in swing from Ireland, Andrew Jones and Greg Fury knuckled down and played extremely sensibly in a stand of 81 runs and this ability to play such good bowling augers well for the coming league season.
Aber then suffered a mid innings collapse against the excellent off spin of young Jack Taylor, before Gavin Heritage and Dai Windross saw the Beavers through to the close with a respectable 146 runs on the board.
Skipper Steve Brown and coach Graham Burgess were pleased with the Beavers first outing of the season, and will look to build on this performance in next week's games against Malpas and Panteg.
The Malpas fixture next Saturday (April 18) sees the start of the 175th Anniversary celebrations for the club.
After the match the club will hold a social evening to celebrate the anniversary and all ex and current players, members and supporters are welcome to attend. The match against Malpas starts at 1pm, with the evening's entertainment beginning at 7pm.