ABERGAVENNY CC 1st XI's top flight debut ended in a seven-wicket defeat at derby neighbours Usk on Saturday in front of a large crowd, reports PAUL SUSSEX.

But there was maiden century joy for the club's James Morris as he hit 109 for the 3rds in a nine-wicket win over Pontymister & Cross Keys 2nds.

With Usk's flag at half mast before the opening South Wales Premier One fixture, both teams stood in a minute's silence beforehand in memory of a number of the hosts' members who had recently passed away.

Abergavenny won the toss and decided to bat first, but didn’t get off to the kind of start they wanted, losing both Ryan Avery and Tom Pipe without score to Ollie Rayner catches in the slips off an accurate opening spell by Glamorgan star Billy Root, who finished with 2-24 from his 10 overs.

New man Morgan Bevans made 21 in a 41-run third-wicket partnership with opener Will Glenn (64-3), who batted well before being run out for 42 (68-4).

A promising partnership between Tom Norton (28) and Owen Harris (31) then added 61 before the latter holed out (128-5), followed by a technical error with the computerised scoring that saw play held up for close to an hour, with the game reduced to 45 overs.

That break in play had devastating effects on Abergavenny’s innings as they then slid to 173 all out in 41.3 overs with just Sam Clarke (17) and Joe Harris (16) adding much, Rayner finishing with 3-29 and former Qatar skipper Tamoor Zafar 2-17

The Duckworth/Lewis target was assessed at 178 to win, which Usk made short work of knocking off 131 before losing their first wicket in the 23rd over, Hugo Caldicott with 64 and fellow opener Matthew Williams with 59 setting the hosts on the road to victory, with Root (11) and Harawal Ahmed Wassam (6) seeing them over the line.

New Australian signing Josh Spies (1-34) and skipper Sam Clarke (2-62) made breakthroughs for Aber, but Usk reached 178-3 with 10 overs to spare.

The Abergavenny team was Ryan Avery, Will Glenn, Tom Pipe, Morgan Bevans, Tom Norton, Owen Harris, James Harris, Sam Clarke (capt), Josh Spies, James Hrastelj, Lloyd Sharp. The officials were Simon Green and Jonathan Kinsey.

But Abergavenny 2nds won by eight wickets at home to local rivals Llanarth 1st XI, despite initially regretting making the visitors bat, as they raced to 77-0 from 11 overs thanks to Ollie Mann (32) and Will Heath (33).

However the introduction of Steve Brown and Evan Jones changed the mood, aided by great catching, especially two by William Eccles.

Between them, the duo took 7-46, Brown taking 4-14 and Jones 3-32, before Tim Price got in on the act with 3-33 to dismiss Llanarth for 205, Glen Hamilton adding 44 for the hosts and Usman Khalid 27.

After 16 from opener Eccles, the target proved fairly academic as an impressive second-wicket partnership between skipper Edward Woolcott (89no) and Olly Jones (60) almost saw Aber over the line, before Ellis Jones (11no) joined the former to reach 207-2 with five overs remaining, securing maximum points.

Abergavenny 3rds batted after winning the toss at home to Pontymister & Cross Keys 2nds and were quickly into their stride posting 301-3.

Jaiden Caswell (68), skipper Stuart Eccles (57) and Archie Eccles (42) all had good knocks, but it was young opener James Morris who dominated, firing 109 for a maiden century.

In reply, the visitors never looked like reaching the target finishing on 224-6, with Wales over-70s skipper Andy Timpson at the opposite end of the age scale to Morris returning 3-18, alongside a wicket each for Dylan Beaumont-Welsh and Dan Bowden.

Abergavenny 4ths travelled to face Monmouth 2nds, who amassed 241-4 in 40 overs, with Edward Loose (2-25), Gareth Powell (1-38) and Corey Lewis (1-17) taking the wickets.

The Aber trio also scored most of their runs, Loose firing 40, Lewis 35 and Powell 24, but no one else managed double figures and they were all out for 143.

Abergavenny fixtures this Saturday (May 10) are 1st XI v Newport, Hopkinstown v 2nd XI, 3rd XI v Cefn Forest & Maesycwmmer, Abercynon v 4th XI.