LLANARTH seconds continued their excellent start to the season with an emphatic win over Cefn Forest on Saturday.

With Peter Francis having been coaxed out of retirement to cover an availability crisis the Llanarth opening pair of Francis and Spencer had an experienced if not exactly sprightly look. With neither batsmen too keen on running singles never mind anything more ambitious, they set about the innings in contrasting fashion. Spencer opted for aggression whilst Francis was content just to occupy the crease.

When Spencer was out in the 19th over he had registered another half century with 11 fours and a five, courtesy of four overthrows, in his 56.

Francis on nine was soon overtaken by the new batsman Gareth Powell whose 47 was also liberally peppered with boundaries. When Rhys Hinton (18) came to the wicket and struck three early boundaries Francis was in danger of being overtaken again, but spurred into action he eventually accelerated his scoring rate to one an over before being given out lbw for a patient 42 in the 43rd over.

Brief cameos from Dave Griffiths, Rhys Willbourn and Ollie Evans who had also been coerced into playing at short notice ensured that the Trees set a challenging total of 234 and picked up maximum batting points.

By the time Cefn Forest came out to bat the skies had darkened and heavy cloud cover provided ideal conditions for the swing bowling of Hinton and Powell.

Hinton in particular was almost unplayable beating the bat time and again. He soon removed the first batsman but the second wicket pair resisted until the ninth over when Hinton induced an edge from Cefn Forest's captain and best player Simon Williams which was spectacularly taken one handed by wicket-keeper Spencer diving low to his right in front of first slip.

After this setback the Forest batsmen seemed content to shut up shop and hope that they would survive long enough for the forecast rain to save them.

In the event although rain appeared inevitable on several occasions it never arrived and change bowlers Griffiths (2-29) and Bisson (4-28) worked their way through the opposition before leaving Willbourn to mop up the last two wickets and earn Llanarth a maximum points victory which would take them to the top of the table.

Next up is a top of the table clash with Abercarn who are also unbeaten.