THE sound of leather on willow heralded the return of cricket at the weekend, as even the sun came out to play, reports PAUL SUSSEX.

Abergavenny CC opened the season with two friendly warm up games both at Avenue Road against Llandaff and Gorseinon, and two victories.

Saturday’s opening friendly saw a 40 over game, with the hosts winning the toss and inserting Llandaff, who not surprisingly found batting difficult after a reasonable start, and went from 47 -0 to 116-6 after 26 overs.

Those 26 overs were shared by eight different bowlers including two of the new recruits, Australian Dan Skipwith and Ryan Avery.

Llandaff were eventually all out for 186, after two wickets each for Skipwith, George Martin St-Valery – yet another debutante – Geraint Leach and Marc Morgan and one apiece for Dylan Beaumont-Welsh and Toby Smith.

Avery and Greg Fury then put on 52 for the first wicket in just seven overs in reply before the former went on to make  a classy 49 before he was third man out to a brilliant catch with the score on 93-3.

Queensland U19 player Skipwith was watchful on his debut, with conditions the polar opposite to what he faces in Brisbane.

But he went past his maiden half century with three fours and two sixes.

Geraint Leach (16 not out), back with Abergavenny after a break, proved a valuable support to the Aussie teenager, who finished on 74 not out as they saw the team home with two overs to spare with 194-4

The team was Greg Fury (w/k), George Martin St-Valery, Dan Skipwith, Dyland Beaumont-Welsh, Geraint Leach, David Clarke (capt), Ryan Avery, Marc Morgan, Toby Smith, Manuraj Raju, Archie Eccles, and Will Eccles.

On Sunday, visitors Gorseinon CC were again asked to bat first which saw huge rewards for the Abergavenny bowlers as Gorseinon slipped to 17-3 after seven overs with two wickets for David Clarke and one for Owen Harris.

Gorseinon then steadied the ship and the fourth-wicket partnership took them to 65-3 at the half-way stage.

Christopher Mee and keeper Greg Fisher (44) kept going and extended the partnership to 70 before Mee was out for 42.

Ellis Jones then took two wickets in three balls as Gorseinon moved to 127-6 with eight overs remaining.

Clarke in his second spell emulated Ellis Jones (2-37) with wickets with consecutive balls in the 39th over to finish with 4-18.

Snell took the ninth wicket and Will Glenn also took a wicket as Gorseinon finished on 171-9. 

Aber had a slow start in reply with just 16 runs from the first eight overs

Yet another debutant, Cormishman Karl Wheatley (11) opened with Eccles but he was out in the next over, and 16-1 became 18-2 when Skipwith holed out for a single.

Batters couldn’t get on top of the Gorseinon attack and after 21 overs Abergavenny were 73-5.

Youngsters Jack Ryan and Olly Jones then came together to try and stop the rot, and saw the 100 up before the former fell for a well made 37 from just 32 balls, leaving Aber on 106-6.

This brought the experienced Will Glenn  to the crease with 56 runs needed from the final 10 overs,  but he was the seventh wicket to fall for 17 with 43 runs still required.

Abergavenny reached 150 with five overs left, and all eyes were on whether the Jones boys, Olly and Ellis, could see them home.

And they certainly could, reaching 172-7 with two overs to spare and three wickets in hand, Olly scoring 34 not out and Ellis23 not out in a matc-winning partnership of 44 runs.

The team was David Clarke, Owen Harris, Jack Ryan, Rowan Snell, Will Glenn (capt), Ellis Jones, Karl Leathley, Dan Skipwith, Charlie Gedge, Will Eccles (w/k), Edward Woolcott, Olly Jones.

This weekend the final warm-up games are against Malpas (home) and Christ College Brecon (away) on Saturday (April 27), and Moccas (home) on Sunday.