ABER CC's excellent run in the Welsh Cup came to an abrupt end on Sunday at the hands of an in form Cardiff side, who are top of the South Wales Premier division.

Cardiff won the toss and elected to bat, and thanks to Thomas and Preece, got off to an excellent start.

Aber's cause was undermined by early injuries to opening bowlers Ryan Watkins and Nathan Byrne, though Watkins was able to get through his nine overs.

Assisted by a spate of wides and some loose bowling early on, Thomas raced to 87 from 63 balls. At the other end, Preece was caught of a leading edge by Tom Watkins off the bowling of Gavin Heritage, whose initial three over spell was expensive.

It wasn't until Nick Francis was introduced into the attack that Aber started to gain a semblance of control, and he removed danger man Thomas in the 18th over.

At drinks Cardiff were extremely well placed on 179-3 after the dismissal of Rees, bowled by Heritage who settled into a much better rhythm from the Avenue Rd end.

However, from here, Aber competed hard and picked up wickets regularly, ensuring that no-one got set to make a real charge in the final overs.

Francis was the pick with nine overs costing just 39 runs as well as the wicket of Thomas. Both Ryan and Tom Watkins also bowled good spells from the opposite end, Tom picking up 3-12 in his final three overs, while Chaitanya Sanapala bowled respectably at the death.

Cardiff finished on an imposing 288 all out, but Aber could be well proud of their competitive performance in the second half of the innings.

The real bugbear was the number of wides bowled, which reached 50, and made a real difference to the total Aber were asked to chase.

Nevertheless, requiring more than six runs an over didn't daunt Greg Fury or Ryan Watkins, who after the removal of Will Glenn for nine, set about the Cardiff bowling with relish, both striking some absolutely sumptuous boundary blows.

Fury was eventually given run out going for a tight single for a magnificent 60 off just 49 balls, but Watkins carried on, making a superb 49 off 39, before being bowled by Boorman. Unfortunately, with Aber well placed at 130-3 off 20 overs, the wheels came off as, with the necessity of trying to keep the pace going, some big shots and contentious LBW decisions led to a collapse to 162-9.

Will Ford and Byrne played some good shots in a defiant last stand at the end, but ultimately Cardiff ran off 100 run winners.

Aber came away disappointed, which given that they went toe-to-toe with arguably the top side in Wales suggests that they are not a million miles away from competing with some of the sides in the Premier league if they can realise their hopes of promotion.

They will have to address a few shortcomings, but they have had their eyes opened to what they would be up against and will be better prepared for it if and when the chance arises

IN what turned out to be almost a carbon copy of the reverse fixture from last year, Abergavenny hammered Sudbrook by nine wickets down at Deepweir on Saturday

They were fortunate to win a potentially match deciding toss, and bowled first on a pitch that was damp from the torrential downpour on Friday night.

Their bowlers made excellent use of the conditions, with Ryan Watkins and Jon Denning giving absolutely nothing away.

Watkins' five over spell yielded just four runs, while Denning's initial six over burst conceded 18 runs and was rewarded with the wicket of Shaw, bowled for six.

Youngster Dan Cooke replaced Watkins and struck first ball, as his short loosener was pulled tamely to Watkins at midwicket by a hitherto watchful and solid Ross Lewis.

Cooke bowled a good six over spell, and had a difficult chance dropped behind the wicket, but later picked up a second wicket, as Kinchin was caught at the wicket by Greg Fury.

Tom Watkins was introduced to the attack somewhat later than normal, but immediately settled into an excellent line and length, making full use of a pitch tailor made for his style of bowling.

He picked up the wicket of the positive and potentially dangerous Miles for 31 and had O'Leary caught by Fury off the last ball before drinks, leaving Sudbrook on 100-6 from 25 overs, with Gavin Heritage having earlier bowled Archer.

With Heritage and and Will Ford struggling with the slope, Denning was re-introduced to bowl in tandem with Watkins and the pair bowled tightly, but without taking a wicket.

However, just as Aber considered changing the bowling, Watkins enticed the explosive Carl Morgan to sky an attempted hit over the top, and saw him caught at cover for 26. This opened to door for Aber to wrap up the innings and Watkins went on to claim a further wicket, finishing with the exemplary figures of 8-3-10-4.

At the other end, Denning picked up the final wickets to end with figures of 3-29 from his 9.4 overs.

Just as was the case last year when Aber rolled Sudbrook for a low score, there was to be no thought of giving the opposition a sniff of a chance by being cautious.

Instead, Fury and Andrew Jones went out and took the game away from Sudbrook with some positive batting, and had reached 45 from 6 overs when Fury was bowled for an explosive 30 from 25 balls.

Ryan Watkins went to the wicket and after an initially watchful start, was kicked into life with an opening over from Jon Lewis that yielded 18 runs. He went on to play several further blistering shots and finished the game unbeaten on 58 from just 33 balls.

Such was the carnage at the other end that Jones, who opened the innings, finished on just 33 not out from a total of 132-1.

Although they benefited from a correct call at the toss, Aber nevertheless played some excellent cricket, picking up from where they left off at Panteg three weeks previously in the Welsh Cup.

It has been difficult with a number of fixtures rained off in recent weeks, but they will hope that they can gather momentum and go on a real run of winning games to put themselves at the top of the table in the promotion shake up. Next up in the league is St Fagans at home