MISSING three keys batsmen and both opening bowlers Llanarth's depth of squad would be tested at bottom of the table Cardiff.

The returning Heath lost the toss for the ninth time in ten attempts but the Trees were quite content to field first on a cooler day than previous weeks. Baxter (3-21) had to take the new cherry and, despite looking unthreatening in his few spells thus far this season, rose to the occasion with some tidy outswing picking up three early wickets to reduce the home side to 28-3.

In a bid to escape the relegation zone Cardiff had made four midweek signings of UWIC students and one of them, Jamie, announced himself with some excellent strokeplay that kept Whistance busy on the boundary exhibiting some Ronaldo-like dives in the outfield.

Spencer (2-42) grabbed two wickets in an over to reduce Cardiff further to 55-5 but Jamie (69) found a partner in Hasham (56) and the pair launched a counterattack.

Despite being five down the boundaries flowed, Hasham sometimes a little fortuitously but Jamie was ruthless with anything on leg stump and hammered some fearful cover drives to the tune that 120 was raised in the 19th over.

Thankfully the golden arm of James came good and he got one through to castle Jamie when the batsman seemed set for a mammoth century. Powell's (2-41) spin accounted for two victims but even his ferocious glaring, following injudicious strokes, could not dislodge Hasham. It took some poor calling and a decent piece of fielding from Baxter to finally run him out. Vaughan and Willbourn sought to take the final wicket and it was the former who forced a false stroke to end the innings at 179 all out. 

The smallish boundaries coupled with a fast outfield meant the run rate should not have presented an issue for the Trees and so it proved as Wharton and Baxter raced to 52 in the seventh over before Wharton was bowled, off of his pads, attempting to work another boundary.

When C Dewfield followed shortly after a cool head was required to join Baxter and forge a partnership so as to not give Cardiff a sniff, that man was Nowell. Initially they defended and when Nowell, too, had the measure of both wicket and bowling quick singles were allied with boundaries as Llanarth grabbed control.

Indeed at one stage the bowlers tactics against Nowell appeared to be to set a short mid-wicket and bowl long hops that would be smashed and a rebound catch taken off of the mid-wicket's torso/rump/skull. When that didn't work Sisodya was introduced to bowl some very testing off-spin, including some prodigiously turning off-breaks, but with the run rate under control the Trees duo could afford to take no risks and worked their way towards the winning line.

Before the end there was just time for some final amusement, ten runs were required from plenty of overs when the Cardiff skipper brought himself on for a twirl. What followed was a bowling action not dissimilar to South Africa's Paul Adams, once famously described as a frog in a blender, though this version had markedly less turn and immeasurably less accuracy. Sensing a possible embarrassing dismissal Baxter took a single to let Nowell deal with it, however the favour was returned leaving Baxter to face a couple of massive wides before biffing a four and easing a single to win it.

Baxter (78*) and Nowell (51*) put on an unbroken partnership of 126 to take the innings to 180-2 and an eight wicket victory. Radyr won too to remain on Llanarth's coat-tails with the title chase, seemingly, a two horse race with six games to go.