ABERGAVENNY CC’s First X1 travelled to Ynysangharad Park and crossed swords with Pontypridd on Saturday in a reduced game of 45 overs per side.

Pontypridd won the toss and Aber were asked to bat. Will Glen and the returning Luke Bowen (29) put on a solid 50 for the first wicket.

Adam Harrison (27) then joined the skipper Glen and put on a further 55.

Glen was out, one short of his half-century, Gareth Powell retired on 16 and Lewis Holley (24 not out) batted alongside David Clarke and Dan Cooke, who was making his belated first appearance of the season-to take the score to 170-5.

In reply, Ali Saeed (55) batted well, but other batsmen fond Dan Cooke difficult to handle as he claimed five wickets in his nine over spell. Cooke clean bowled four of the five wickets and finished with 5-46.

Adam Harrison kept control in his nine over opening spell finishing with 0-17. Geraint Leach took the wicket of the half centurion Ali Saeed and followed up with a caught and bowled.

Ben Davies who had a torrid time last week against his old club Monmouth showed great maturity to bounce back with 2-11 from his nine overs to leave Pontypridd at 105-9 after 36 overs. Geraint Leach picked up the final wicket finishing with 3-10 as Pontypridd were all out for 118 as Abergavenny won by 52 runs.

THE enigma variation that is Crickhowell Cricket Club, has again been on display over recent weeks.

Unable to raise a side, and having to concede a third game already this season the previous week, they managed, not only to get a full 11 onto the field last week, but gave high flying, league leaders, Builth a run for their money too.

Visitors, Builth, won the toss and had no hesitation to invite their hosts to bat first.

It proved to be a good decision with Crickhowell loosing early wickets against the accurate bowling of Dylan McPhee and Mike Williams.

Kerrison, Sussex, Lilley and Cornock all tried to dig in for Crickhowell, but none were able to get to double figures, on a wicket that was giving the bowlers some assistance with both lateral movement and unpredictable bounce. Francis (16) and Jenkins (21) battled hard to give the home side some respectability but it was veteran Ryland Wallace (31 not out) with dogged support from the tail, that ensured Crickhowell at least batted out their overs and managed to post a decent total, given the conditions, of 143 for nine.

For Builth all four main bowlers were economical with Mike Williams taking three for 35 with support from McPhee (2 -32), Wall (1-26) and Sam Williams (2-22). Aled Powell (1-12- 2) was the other wicket taker. Normally, such a low total, would not have created many fears for a Builth batting order this season that has already seen many of the top order posting centuries, but a wicket in Sussex’s first over and another in the fourth, bowled by Nick Francis, proved that this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for the visitors.

Sam Williams (26), Powell (44) and Roff (23) all then showed good application, but Nick Francis in particular, was using the conditions well. When Kerrison had Williams caught by Lilley, Francis then removed Powell and Roff and then completed a stunning caught and bowled to send off Richards. He then clean bowled Galton for a duck and also bowled Mike Williams for six. Builth were now reeling on 130 for eight but with Francis completing his spell (10 overs, three maidens, six for 22]) and with the experienced McPhee (18 not out) still at the crease Builth had just enough fuel in the tank to get themselves over the line for an exciting win by two wickets.

Next week Crickhowell make the shortest away trip in the country probably, travelling a half a mile down the A40 to take on Glangrwyney, who are also languishing at the foot of the table just above Crickhowell.

TORRENTIAL rain in the surrounding areas on the Friday put the fixture at Llanarth in doubt but the covers did their job and a full 45 over match was able to be scheduled.

Dennis Heath returned to captain a team shorn of three of its top four from the win over Brecon and he was delighted to win the toss and invite Pontypridd to have the first knock.

A ruthless skipper sacked his own son from the opening bowling slot but was rewarded when Gary Holley bagged the opposition captain for a duck. New ball bowlers, Holley and Seth Butler, were initially hampered by some interesting offside wide calling but thankfully this soon relented when the realization that the game might finish at midnight being a likely outcome.

Chris Powell (2-22) was soon into the attack, extracting bounce and turn from a drying pitch. He won an early lbw decision and then delivered an almost unplayable ball to Philip Hope who could only glove it behind where it was smartly taken by Chris Page.

Tom Heath (2-23) replaced Holley and the smiling assassin was charging down the hill extracting just enough movement from the surface to cause problems. Two fine catches helped him bag his wickets with Butler reaching high at point and some excellent captaincy that saw D. Heath creep ever closer to the long on boundary so that he was waiting under a skier from Umar Butt with the batsman failing to realise he had dropped back.

After drinks at 88-5 there was a period of circumspection from the visitors as they tried to bat some overs but a D. Heath run out brought in Gersone Balachandar (26*) who restored some attacking intent. After a couple of annoying partnerships D. Heath (3-15) brought himself into the attack and ran through the bottom order to close the innings at 148 all out. The unsung Llanarth performer being Page deputising as keeper. Two catches standing up to spin, a smart stumping, closing a run out, as well as not letting any of the myriad wide balls past him saw Page put himself into the conversation for permanent gauntlet wearing duties.

An outstanding tea was ravenously devoured by all before Allan Dewfield (27) and Mark Baxter (38) commenced the Trees reply. Balachandar found some good pace, bounce and movement with the new ball, enough of which forced edges through the slip corden by both batsmen. However A. Dewfield found the pace on the ball to his liking as he stroked a trio of delicious cover drives to the ropes. It took the introduction of spin from both ends to slow Trees progress and bring about the breakthrough as A. Dewfield chipped a return catch back to off-spinner Mario Paul.

As Baxter cut out all risk against some useful spin Chistian Dewfield (24) decided that there was more room in the air than on the deck and made sure all of his scoring strokes went there, but at least it kept the scoreboard turning during his partner’s torpor. C. Dewfield eventually pumped one ball too many into the sky to be caught at mid off and Baxter’s interminable effort finally concluded when he actually timed one, but only succeeded in biffing a pull to mid-wicket. Spectators hoping for a collapse and regular close finish were to be disappointed as Page continued his MS Dhoni impression by finishing the match off in cahoots with Dave Griffiths as they calmly eased the Trees home without further loss for a seven wicket victory.

Llanarth’s season has started well with a 5-1 record to lay third in the table but the next three fixtures, against the unbeaten top two and an Abergavenny team just two points behind, will go a long way to seeing where the Trees are in terms of competing for this division.

WITH both clubs failing to salvage a win from their first five league fixtures, Glangrwyney played Brockhampton Thirds in a basement battle.

Home captain Will Morrall had no hesitation of inserting Glangrwyney to bat on a very damp wicket. The decision was justified as Glangrwyney lost Geoff Holmes (0) and Nick Jones (3) with only 34 on the board.

With Glangrwyney missing three of the normal top six, captain Mike Devoy was joined at the crease with Tom Cole. Both had the task of rebuilding the innings with only four recognised batsmen and two of them already in the shed.

At drinks Glangrwyney had reached 101 for two with Devoy just passing his third 50 of the season, Tom Cole passed his maiden 50 for the club shortly afterwards.

With the score on 134 and a partnership at 100 Tom Cole (62) was caught.

With R Price (17) gone for a handy partnership of 26 and overs running out Devoy cut loose smashing 25 off the 37th over before reaching his maiden 100 for Glangrwyney with a pull shot for four but next ball fell to the same shot for 102 with eight balls of the innings left. Glangrwyney lost two more wickets and added a further seven runs to finish on 207 for seven off 40 overs.

After tea and on a drying track still offering assistance to the bowlers, G. Paton removed both openers with the score on 13. With Devoy and Paton bowling tightly and restricting the home side to just a few single here and there, Hardwick replaced Devoy and struck in his second over to leave Brock 39 for 3 off 17 overs. With Paton out of the attack, runs started to flow, and Brock had reached 110 before Hardwick struck again, E Jones for 52. Then two balls later, bowling W Morrall (22), to leave the home side on 111 for five.

Kev Palmer picked up his first wicket to leave Brock in tatters at 112 for six with eight overs remaining. With young Brock player Freddie Ralph dispatching the ball to all parts Brock started to close down the Glangrwyney total in alarming fashion.

However, K. Palmer picked up another wicket and Devoy another. The Glang captain turned to Nick Jones to bowl the last over. With the first ball he removed the number 10 batsman, caught and bowled. In the process the batsmen had swapped ends and faced with Ralph on strike, Jones repeated the first ball to have Ralph caught and bowled for a brilliant and almost game changing 65.

Yet it was Glang’s day and on the sixth time of asking they had finally recorded a win by seven runs in what turned out to be a thriller of a game.