IT was a blustery day with very occasional showers as Llanarth welcomed Ton Pentre to the LCG, a team that had got the better of the Trees on the last two occasions.

Llanarth’s prospects were dealt a blow as four regulars were unavailable through holiday, work or injury but this opened up opportunities for others to play and perform.

Skipper Dennis Heath lost the toss but was happy to be asked to bat first on a wicket that had good bounce and carry.

Mark Baxter and David Nowell opened the innings and both raced out of the blocks with a flurry of early boundaries, 30 coming from the first three overs, and it came as somewhat of a disappointment when Nowell chased a wide one and edged to gully.

Christian Dewfield (30) walked to the crease and for the third consecutive week put together a good partnership with Baxter, the pair scoring contentedly without too much risk until Dewfield edged the last ball before drinks to gully. With D Heath following shortly after the resumption the innings was in the balance at 113-3 from 24 overs.

Tom Vaughan (35) was next man in and he was at his belligerent best in scoring at better than a run a ball that completely kiboshed the visitors plans of giving a single to Baxter and then keeping Vaughan quiet.

When Vaughan was deceived, and bowled, by a good slower ball it was time for Baxter to come to the fore.

After accepting the singles gifted to him he had reached a modest half century from 71 balls, but the turbo button on the bat was then engaged and his acceleration to a century took only a further 27 balls. He ended the innings unbeaten on 106*, a third League ton of the season, out of a useful total of 228-5.

A terrific tea fuelled the Trees quest for wickets, in particular that of Mark Thomas (54) who had guided Ton Pentre to the aforementioned two previous wins over Llanarth. It looked ominous as he bashed a couple of boundaries from the first over but was lucky to survive a huge lbw shout a few balls later. Raj Banaras (2-36) found a couple of beauties to knock over two other batsmen and with Eian Johnson and Tom Heath bowling fine economical spells Llanarth were content when drinks were taken at 66-2 even though the danger-man remained at the crease.

With the run rate escalating Thomas had to take a few chances and although he completed another half-century versus the Trees he was fortunate to get there as he clubbed Chris Powell (2-43) to the long-on boundary where D Heath took the catch only to, unluckily, step back over the rope to concede a maximum. Thankfully shortly afterwards Thomas tried for another six only to, again, sky it to long-on where D Heath completed an excellent running catch, inside the boundary, that effectively ended Ton Pentre’s hopes.

Stuart Morgan (33) made the final few overs reasonably entertaining with some wild swishes of the bat that occasionally connected and when they did, to be fair, the ball went a long way. He did perish in the final over via another bit of juggling in the outfield by Johnson off of some filthy leg-spin from Vaughan as the innings closed at 162-5 to give Llanarth victory by 66 runs.

Next week the Trees travel to the capital to face Welsh Asians.