IT was a very disappointing weekend for Llanarth with both firsts and seconds going down to dispiriting defeats.

Sadly both sides took their lead from the disastrous events at Headingly and emulated the dismal batting performance of England.

At home to Abercarn in a mid-table encounter, Llanarth batted first and found the Abercarn bowlers in anything but a generous mood as they maintained a tight line and good length and gave the batsmen nothing to hit.

After five overs the scoreboard registered zero points, not due to any malfunction but the lack of a single run, even the usually reliable extras had failed to get off the mark!

Finally, in the sixth over Spencer squeezed a drive past mid-on for two, however the victory was short lived as he nicked a catch behind two balls later.

The pressure remained on the batsmen and by the mid innings drinks break the score had advanced to 58-3, including a nice knock of 25 from Craig Whistance with four fours and a well struck six.

Things did not improve however with just three batsmen getting to double figures only to be dismissed trying to improve the scoring rate.

In the end it was left to Adrian Green playing his first game of the season to farm the bowling and get what runs he could with the two young tail-enders playing in the absence of regular players who were unavailable.

His 19 not out at least took the score past 100 and earned a solitary batting point for the home team.

Llanarth took some comfort from the fact that even this paltry total was more than their opponents had scored in their previous two matches.

Any hopes of an unlikely victory were soon banished however as the Abercarn batsmen successfully negotiated the new ball and then played some expansive shots against a bowling attack lacking inspiration.

A lacklustre fielding display did nothing to help the situation with several catches going to ground and misfields hastening the inevitable end.

Five bowlers were tried with the only successes being a wicket each for Will King and 14-year old George Davies who at least could celebrate his first league wicket.