Crickhowell’s poor run of form against opposition above them in Marches League Division One continued on Saturday, when they were soundly beaten at home by Garnons.

With injuries and non-availability affecting selection, Crickhowell’s fragile batting line up would have preferred to field first but Garnons won the toss and promptly invited the hosts to bat.

Wallace and Watts opened up and with nearly a 100 years of experience between them, they realised that occupation of the crease was more important than run rate in the early stages.

The pair battled well against sharp and accurate bowling from Jones (8.5 overs 2 for 11) and Bolton who bowled his 12 overs for only 22 runs.

Watts was the first to go being bowled by Jones, but Wallace battled on for a belligerent 29 in as many overs.

Ben Bowker was the first of Williams’ five wickets (5 for 36) and Nick Francis then looked to up the run rate for Crickhowell, and with 15 overs still available a decent score still look achievable.

But then disaster!

Francis (21) drove a high ball to the vacant long-on position and Jones sprinting from long-off managed to take a superb running catch over his shoulder, as most of those watching expected the ball to elude him.

With Crickhowell’s big gun silenced, it was left for rest to try to bat out their overs and post a total that would at least give the bowlers something to work with.

Garnon’s second change bowlers though, gave no respite for the weary looking tail, and only Jenkins (18 not out) offered any real resistance.

With five batsmen not troubling the scorers, Crickhowell limped to just 92 all out and even a superb array of homemade cakes at tea did little to ease their discomfort.

After tea, Francis (3 for 42 in 11 overs) opened the bowling with Ben Bowker (1 for 30) and at least both had some early success in trying to make life difficult for the Garnons’ batsmen. However, defending such a small total is never easy, especially on the small picturesque ground at Crickhowell, but at least the home side held two good catches from Watts and Price and managed to gain two bowling points thanks mostly to Francis who again bowled well to challenge the top order batsmen.

Garnons reached their target for the loss of four wickets, in less than 25 overs and took 23 points from the game.

This fixture marked the half-way stage of the season, and Crickhowell’s position of seventh out of 10 teams in the table reflects a pretty poor performance so far.

Next week they face Builth at home.