WITH Panteg beating Usk in a top-of-the-table thriller, and Abergavenny wasting no time in putting Pentyrch to bed, the top three teams have it all to play for in the remaining seven matches.

Aber CC's Andrew Jones and Greg Fury got their side off to a quick start despite the wet outfield and 30 minute delay.

Fury departed on 53, caught on the backward square leg boundary by Mike Grossett off his son's bowling.

Ryan Watkins and Will Glenn quickly followed him to the pavillion but captain of the day, Gavin Heritage, gradually played his way back to form and started hitting and clearing the boundary. At the other end his partner, Andrew Jones, was batting perfectly and giving a master class in pacing an innings, mixing patience with aggression and swift running between the wickets. Heritage was eventually caught at long on for 75 and this was followed by a quick bombardment by Jon Denning.

When the allotted 50 overs had been completed, Jones was undefeated on 119 and Abergavenny had reached 266-5.

Pentyrch started off at a steady pace aided by a generous helping of wides and then Denning, pitching the ball up and swinging it in late trapped the opener LBW.

Denning proceeded to produce his best ever figures for Abergavenny, as in the following overs he bowled two double wicket maidens and decimated the home side with a total haul of three LBWS and five victims clean bowled.

The home side were finally all out for 66 with Abergavenny earning maximum points leaving them just behind Panteg and gaining on leaders Usk.

Abergavenny are home on Saturday to Rogerstone.

It was a different story for Abergavenny CC's second team who had a sour old time of it at Avenue Road.

An inability in the middle of the innings to keep the score moving at four runs per over put too much pressure on the lower order to reach Pentyrch's total, despite a wonderful effort by Mike Devoy to bridge the chasm.

The five Abergavenny bowlers had kept a reasonably tight hold on the opposition but an unbroken partnership of 68 for the seventh wicket between Pentyrch's captain Steve Matthews, unbeaten on 94 not out, and Carl Brown, 29 not out, resulted in the away side reaching 209-6.

Abergavenny got off to useful start with 47 for the first wicket between Nick Kinman and Richie Morris, and then totalled 90 when Wallace was stumped.

Kinman picked the wrong fielder to take a quick run to and the scoring rate declined until the arrival of Devoy who hit 44 in 26 minutes.

Unfortunately for Aber, Devoy holed out and the innings subsided 13 runs short of victory.

This defeat leaves the seconds in the second relegation spot and a massive team effort must be made with availability and allegiance to the team paramount.

Effort must also be made to rotate the strike more frequently and reduce the number of dot balls.

Whilst leading the side to a rare victory over Hythe Lobsters at Avenue Road on Wednesday, Abergavenny CC's Greg Fury also passed his 1000 runs for the season for the second successive year.

Hythe suffered early setbacks against the bowling of Jon Denning and in particular Dan Cooke, who claimed four of the first five wickets. Butler and Walters steadied the ship for the Kent side and had added 113 for the seventh wicket, when off spinner Matt Knight was recalled and immediately bowled Walters for 51.

Butler continued to attack the bowling and succumbed in the final over having reached his century.

Will Glenn and Denning got the Beavers off to a swift start and Fury continued the momentum, until Glenn and Cooke departed in the same over.

Richie Roberts showed his promise with a neat 15 and then Tom Griffiths joined the captain. The pair had added an unbeaten 106, with Griffiths on 34 and the centurian on 115, when the vistors' total was passed.