IT was a busy and successful week for junior cricket at Llanarth, beginning with an exciting and close fought Under 15 match against Lisvane in the Welsh Cup.

The visitors came with a strong batting line-up led by Wales player Y Mohammed who soon set about some indifferent early bowling from Llanarth with a flurry of boundaries.

Llanarth had their chances to dismiss Mohammed with a couple of run-out chances going begging and a fiercely spinning top edge being grassed, but they paid for this profligacy as the openers posted 89 off the first 10 overs before Mohammed reached his obligatory retirement score of 50. A degree of control was wrested back by the spinners as Dan Moseley and Will Heath bowled a combined total of eight overs for 39 and 12-year-old Ollie Lloyd took 1-14 off his two overs. Nevertheless with the other opener Hearls also reaching his 50 the Lisvane total of 143 from their 20 overs was a daunting one. It looked no easier when the Lisvane opening bowlers started with six tight overs conceding only 16 runs.

Llanarth batsmen Hugo Caldicott and Will Heath however didn’t panic, defended stoutly and picked up what runs they could. When the change bowlers came on they got their reward with some easier paced deliveries giving them something to hit. The scoring rate picked up but was only 51 at 10 overs and 73 when Hugo was out in the 13th over for a well made 38 leaving another 70 required at 10 an over.

After another quick wicket it was Will Collis-Smith (23) who joined Heath and the pair put together an excellent partnership before Heath was out for 31.

Good support followed from both Seth Butler and Dan Moseley to keep the scoreboard moving at the required rate and with 30 wanted off the last three an unlikely victory looked possible. In the end they fell just short with a score of 136 to lose by seven runs. A terrific effort against a strong club with the early missed opportunities making all the difference.

Tuesday saw the Under 13s make the short trip to Monmouth for the first round of the Monmouthshire Shield. Monmouth batted first with opener Owen Harris in fine form stroking his way to 46 before being last out in the final over. Unfortunately the other Monmouth batsmen were not of the same calibre and tight bowling particularly by Arthur Newington-Bridges kept the score in check. Arthur picked up one wicket as did Tom Llewelyn who accounted for another batsmen with a direct hit. Henry Evans also had one but it was Joe Hynes who was the star of the show with the spectacular figures of five wickets for three runs including four bowled to earn himself the match ball as a souvenir. The total score of 83 never looked to be enough and after Henry Evans took 16 runs off the second over Llanarth were always in control. Henry retired with 31 but Tommy Yeomans and Arthur saw the team home by eight wickets with three overs to spare.

If Monmouth on Tuesday was a fairly comfortable win a trip to Cardiff to play Radyr in the Welsh Cup on Thursday was an altogether different assignment for the Under 13s. A big city club that can field four senior teams on a Saturday and have a thriving youth section would surely be serious competition and so it proved. Batting first Radyr lost an early wicket with Tom Stentiford taking a good catch off the bowling of Larence Johnson but the second wicket pair of Couston and Wakeling took the attack to Llanarth with Wakeling in particular finding the boundary with great regularity. Both batsmen reached their retirement score of 30 and at the halfway point the score was 75 for one. The new batsmen were not quite so accomplished and found scoring more difficult against the spin of Ollie Lloyd and Tommy Chubb and with Henry Evans and Arthur Newington-Bridges bowling some great overs at the death Radyr were restricted to 120. Still a good score but less than it looked like being.

Henry Evans and Tom Stentiford got off to a decent start before a needless run-out brought Tom’s innings to an end and when Lawrence Johnson gloved a nasty short ball to the keeper in the fourth over it was looking ominous. However Henry found a reliable partner in Tommy Yeomans and the pair made steady progress keeping up with the six an over rate until Henry was retired having reached 30.

Another quick wicket brought Tommy Chubb to the crease and he joined Yeomans mixing solid defence with occasional hefty blows to anything off line. Tommy Yeomans for his part was always looking for anything short to employ his devastating hook through mid-wicket. He used his feet well to score off good deliveries and apart from one ill-advised attempt at a scoop shot batted with great maturity. It was entirely fitting that he should score the winning runs with another trade mark hook that brought up his 30 and sealed a seven wicket win with an over to spare. A really great all round performance by the team has earned them a second round match with Newport.

The week ended with Friday night training which this week also saw the start of the All Stars programme for 5-8 year olds. With 28 youngsters signed up it was a great sight to see them all running around in their personalised shirts and having a ball with a bat and ball. Thanks to everyone involved both club members and parents for making it a great social occasion as well as an exciting introduction to the great game of cricket.

AN inexperienced Abergavenny U13 have made an encouraging start to the season.

In their first match against Chepstow they bowled well to restrict the opposition to 48-3. Abergavenny knocked off this total for the loss of only two wickets with Welsh U11 player Tom Norton scoring 22.

Against Ebbw Vale, Aber batted first and scored a reasonable 76 for five, with Logan Williams making 19.

The Aber bowling was good, restricting Ebbw Vale to 25 off seven overs. However good batting from Ebbw’s Ethan Jones (30 retired) and Youseff Yasir (14 n.o.) saw them win comfortably.

The Gwent Shield match against Usk was a high scoring game which Usk won by seven runs. Usk scored 128 for four with Tom Coates scoring an excellent 58 not out as the innings closed on 128-4.

Usk bowled very well at the start of Abergavenny’s chase with Dan Cordell taking 2-12 and Rhodri Williams 0-15. Logan Williams made an excellent 50 not for Abergavenny, helping take the score to 121 for three.

Abergavenny U13 practices on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-8pm. One-to-one coaching with Len Wilcock is on a Saturday and Sunday morning between 9-12pm in one hour sessions. Contact 01873 830172 for more details.