Port down 1sts, but young Ted tonks ton for 4ths

ABERGAVENNY visited top-two Newport in South Wales Premier One on Saturday, with the hosts making a cautious start with the bat against Josh Spies’s accuracy in his opening spell.

Things began to happen when skipper Sam Clarke came on to bowl, as he struck in his second, sixth, seventh and ninth overs, taking 4-27, with Newport 92-4 at the halfway stage.

In steaming hot weather, Newport then added 60 more runs in 15 overs to leave them 152-4 with 10 overs left.

Spies was finally rewarded with a couple of wickets getting rid of of the dangerous Campbell Macmillan (45) followed by half century-maker Adithya Mayur (55) before Newport finished their 50 overs on 227-6

Sam Clarke took his wicket tally to 26 and heads the wicket takers in Premier 1, despite the struggles of the team so far this season.

Buoyed by the previous week’s victory, there was optimism regarding the target.

But Abergavenny couldn’t have got off to a worse start, losing Olly Jones in the first over for a golden duck, Ryan Avery (7) in the seventh over and the in-form Morgan Bevans (6) in the 10th over to be 31-3.

This became 45-4 when Jack Ryan fell to Jack Hope-Bell for 22.

And when Salman Saeed returned to the attack, he immediately removed Mujahid Ilyas for 10 (51-5) which became 79-6 when Lloyd Sharp was out. for 18.

Tom Pipe and Joes Harris developed a partnership for the seventh wicket and had put on 52 when the latter was out for 30 – the first of three wickets in the over, all clean bowled, as 132-6 became 132-9.

Pipe remained steadfast however, and scored 50 before becoming the last wicket to fall, with Aber 160 all out.

Unbeaten Abergavenny 2nds hosted Pontymister & Crosskeys 1sts in South East Wales 4, and Baljeevan Khalsa played another scintillating innings scoring 138 from 98 balls with 12 fours and nine sixes.

The main partnership of 86 runs was with Alex Holmes (19), followed by a 48-run stand with Ellis Jones before Khalsa was fourth out (223-4).

Jones with 32 and Ryan Watkins took the score to 270-5, with the table-toppers finishing on 306-7, after whirlwind knocks from Ryan Watkins (24) off 18 balls and Toby Smith (26) off 14 balls.

Khalsa has now accumulated 455 runs in his last four innings, with an average north of 150.

Pontymister & Crosskeys got away to a flier though, clocking up 70 runs in nine overs, but batting at that rate comes with risks and Nathan Byrne, despite leaking runs, claimed the first three wickets in his opening spell (70-3).

Toby Smith took the fourth wicket (139-4) as the visitors still required 150 runs from 18 overs, which became 84 from the last 10, Ryan Watkins claiming two more wickets.

Dylan Beaumont-Welsh then came back on and took two wickets (2-50), but at 292-8 off 37 overs the game was astonishingly still in the balance, thanks to an unbeaten 127 from Zulfiqar Ali.

And five wides from one ball in the penultimate over saw the visitors duly reach 309-8 to deprive Abergavenny of their unbeaten record.

Taw 2nds inserted Abergavenny 3rds who got away to a good start with Will Jones scoring 31 (48-1).

This brought young Ioan Wallace in at No 3 and he was very unlucky not to make his maiden century for the club finishing on 95 from just 62 balls, including eight fours and five sixes,

He enjoyed partnerships of 63 with Ryan Williams (45) and 47 with his father Mark Wallace, Glamorgan CCC director of cricket, who made 21, as they finished on 233 all out in the 37th over.

Taw went off like an express train having blasted past 100 by over 14 without loss, cracking 80 in boundaries from 17 fours and two sixes.

This became 152-0 in the 19th over, with all five bowlers used being treated the same, as were the two other bowlers used.

And both openers scored centuries as they reached 239-0 with 13.4 overs to spare.

Meanwhile, 12-year-old Ted Jackson fired a magnificent 107 out of a total of 193-5 in 40 overs for Abergavenny 4ths against Sudbrook 3rds at Crickhowell, sharing a partnership of 102 with skipper Barry French (44).

Jackson then took the opening Sudbrook wicket (67-1), but despite a wicket apiece for Tal Edwards and Rijo Matthew, who bowled the opener for 85, the visitors reached their target with eight overs left.

Fixtures this Saturday include – Abergavenny 1sts v Bridgend, Monkswood v 2nds, 3rds v Bridgend Town 3rds, Abercynon 2nds v 4ths.