ABERGAVENNY made it three wins in a row with victory over Pentyrch at Avenue Road last Saturday.

On winning the toss, visiting captain Steve Matthews elected to bowl first, a decision vindicated by his opening bowlers Pete and Mike Grosset on a pitch that had some moisture under the surface after the recent rain.

Both bowlers got the ball to jag around and Aber openers Andrew Jones and James Schofield found life extremely tough in the early overs with the score just 24 off 10 overs. However, having weathered a tricky early period unscathed, they were able to increase the rate gradually and set a platform for the rest of the innings. 

Schofield eventually fell for 20, with the score on 53 in the 19th over. Lewis Parfitt came in at number three and, after a scare second ball when he was dropped off a difficult chance from a ball that popped on him from Peter Grosset, settled quickly.

The second wicket partnership took the score to 105 before Jones surprisingly fell, caught at mid on for a hitherto chanceless 50. The in form Tamoor Zafar continued the acceleration of the run rate, making a brisk 29 before picking out deep midwicket, bringing his average down to a mere 95 after five innings this year.

With the score now 159-3 from 40 overs, the situation was perfect for Ali Bukhari to add some late innings fireworks and quickly settled with two boundaries in his first four balls. He and Parfitt compiled the fourth partnership of the innings in excess of 50, until both fell in consecutive balls, with Parfitt making a superb 72 that perfected adapted to the needs of the innings and helped guide Aber towards maximum batting points and a competitive total. However, with his and Bukhari's departures it was left to youngsters Dan Cooke and Richie Roberts to put together an excellent and quick stand of 37 in the final three overs, with some intelligent strokeplay and running between the wickets, to take the final score to 246-5.

Aber were delighted with their efforts given the testing new ball period, and demonstrated once again this season that they can construct an innings well, batting around one or two of the top order making scores in excess of 50.

However, with the sun beating down on the pitch, any mischief in the pitch had long since disappeared and the visitors were able to chase their target in perfect batting conditions. Parfitt removed Roberts early, a just reward for some excellent bowling in the previous games. Will Ford was introduced into the attack early, and after some cat and mouse with young opener Scott Matthews, eventually had him well stumped by Lewis Holley, who again kept very tidily in conceding just one bye all innings. The innings was attritional throughout as Pentyrch never quite managed to score quickly enough to give themselves anything more than an outside chance of victory, yet neither could the home side take enough wickets to feel comfortable that they were in control.

Number three Connor Brown in particular looked very assured and demonstrated excellent technique in compiling 76 runs around which Pentyrch built their reply. In response, Schofield regularly changed the bowling to keep the batters on their toes, and each bowler was rewarded with a wicket or two for their endeavours. Dan Cooke in particular bowled very well, bowling with excellent pace and rhythm in two spells that asked searching questions of the batsmen and yielded two well deserved wickets. Wardrope, Gardiner and Grosset all fell to Zafar, Will Ford and Asim Gillani before Brown eventually fell to Cooke. With the score on 179-6, and the result now a formality, Aber went in search of two more wickets that would bring an extra bowling point, and, after Cooke removed Cameron with an excellent yorker, Bukhari obliged by trapping opposition captain Matthews LBW with the last delivery of the innings, leaving Pentyrch on 205-8.

An excellent game, played in good spirit and beautiful weather yielded 19 points to Abergavenny who have built some good momentum as they head into a testing game against last year's winners Sudbrook. They will hope to keep their winning run going and put pressure on current pace-setters Panteg ahead of their meeting in June.

Abergavenny Second XI, on the other hand, slumped to another disappointing defeat at Pentyrch.

Things could scarcely have gone better for the visitors in the early stages, with the home side in deep trouble at 37 for four wickets after 17 overs, Andy Pratten and skipper Mike Heames each taking two wickets.

Pratten was particularly impressive, returning figures of two for 10 from his nine overs. The Pentyrch revival was led by hard-hitting Dan Coomer (48) and held together by a remarkably-mature innings by fourteen-year-old Jamie Mills (90 not out). Dave Tallis (36 not out) inflicted further suffering on the Abergavenny bowlers to post a final total of 225 for six.

Colin Knight (33) and Nick Kinman (19) gave the Abergavenny reply a solid start and this was continued by Ryland Wallace (44) and Gareth Powell (18) but the target and scoring rate was always a challenging one.

A couple of run outs proved fatal and wickets fell steadily to leave the visitors 44 runs short, at 181 for eight. Scott Greaves chipped in with 18 not out towards the end. The pick of the opposition bowlers was Mills with figures of three for 27.

This Friday (May 31) the club will host the first of a number of events this season in support of the 'benefit year' of Mark Wallace, who came up through the Abergavenny youth ranks and is now Glamorgan's captain. The format for the evening will be a quiz and cricket forum – the panel comprising Mark himself, Glamorgan 'Director of Cricket' Matthew Mott, and Marcus North, the former Australian Test batsman, who is in his second year with the Welsh county. Food will also be provided. Proceedings will start at 8 pm and the cost is £10. Payment on entry, everyone welcome.

SHORN of three senior players, Usk still proved too strong for Rogerstone whom they comprehensively outbowled and outbatted at the Athletic Ground on Saturday.

Captain for the day Richard Catchpole chose to field first on a pitch that offered good bounce and carry.

With Tom Robinson away, Usk opted for the experience of Jake Roderick to partner James Colthard, Roderick making immediate inroads with only the second ball of the match, one of two good low slip catches taken by teenager Henry Lewis.

An over or two later and Colthard had reduced Rogerstone to 12-3. Though all the quicker bowlers struggled to control the swing, wides comfortably the highest scorer for Rogerstone, wickets continued to fall.

Roderick captured two more to finish with 3-21 off his ten, the spin of Lorne Burns accounted for the lower middle order, his seven overs returning 3-16 and the burly Sam Morris bowling with some good pace to take 2-14 off his four overs.

Apart from extras, the only other double digit score came from Andrew Trinder with 17 as Rogerstone were bundled out for 75 off only 28 overs.

In reply Usk got off to a quick start though teenage opener L Harris did pose a few questions, accounting for the in-form Neil Perrett who may consider waiting a bit longer into his innings before hooking, leaving Usk on 19-1.

With all the bowlers going at over eight an over, Usk cruised towards the target, Lorne Burns in particular punishing the bowling.

Even though Henry Lewis inexplicably ran himself out for 13, reducing Usk to 49-2, that was the last bit of good news for a demoralised Rogerstone side as Burns upped the tempo, flaying the bowlers to all parts in search of his half century. Unfortunately however he fell two short when the game finished in only the seventh over.

There were very many good points in the win for Usk. The bowling, fielding and batting were generally sharp but maybe the performance wasn't as ruthless as it should have been. That said, it was an eight wicket victory by 3:15pm on Saturday afternoon.