THE predicted rain again held off and allowed Llanarth to host Bedlinog in a match where the scorecard didn't come close to telling the whole story as Llanarth faced a searching examination of their title credentials.

With skipper Heath missing through a sore elbow garnered from picking up too many pints whilst watching the Lions his deputy, Powell, stood in and kept up the seasons standard by losing the toss and being asked to bat.

Lomax and Baxter were immediately tested by the opening bowling pairing of the Szpadt brothers, Mark and Luke. Former Ebbw Vale and Pentyrch star, Mark, used all his experience and guile to test the batsmen whilst in contrast Luke, newly signed from Radyr in midweek, propelled the ball at a decent rate forcing a bit of hurry up for the Trees pair.

Lomax looked in great nick as he raced into the 20s, including one lovely pulled maximum, before he drove loosely at a wide one and was taken at point. A double change of bowling soon ensued and the batsmen were hoping for something a little less taxing to get stuck into which was when Bedlinog revealed their trump card, one Simon Keen, a former Australia U19 captain with Australia A representative honours and whose last assignment down under was with Sydney Thunder in the 20/20 Big Bash opening the batting with Chris Gayle. He could also bowl at a velocity not seen at the LCG for quite a while too. The overcast conditions didn't help the batsmen, nor did Wharton's red/green colour blindness, in picking the red cherry out of the background trees and Wharton soon fell, playing on to Keen. When Michell lost a full toss to be bowled out strode the experienced A. Dewfield to join Baxter.

Baxter (35) eventually fell to the returning L. Szpadt ending a stodgy but hard fought knock that consisted mainly of inside, outside and bottom edging Keen to fine leg or third man and once copping a blow to the box from the Aussie that forced the Llanarth stalwart to count to two before continuing.

At 120-4 C. Dewfield was next in and for the first time ever father and son were batting together, Dewfield snr showed his son no favouritism and continued to take a single from the last ball of an over. However an excellent partnership of 90 resulted as father showed class is permanent in compiling a magnificent 77 from 66 balls, quality deliveries were resolutely defended and anything loose was despatched to the boundary. Son eased into his task and showed the skills that all knew he had including a trademark drive over long on into the trees. Keen came back for a second spell and cleaned up both Dewfields before an enterprising partnership of 20 between James and Powell took the innings total to 231-6, a score that the Trees were delighted with against such a useful attack.

Both teams enjoyed their tea, though Keen chose not to partake as he was busy being hand fed couscous by his girlfriend in front of the pavilion, leading many to speculate that if there is such a thing as a middle class Aussie then here he was. When battle resumed Llanarth grabbed the initiative immediately as Lomax (3-39) struck in his first over, he followed that up with two more quick wickets including the dangerous M Szpadt caught behind. Banaras (2-25) then induced a false stroke that was spectacularly caught one handed by Vaughan at point and Bedlinog had slumped to 24-4, though Keen was watching the damage being done from the non-strikers end.

The Aussie took a couple of deliveries to 'have a look' before settling into his task by taking a quartet of boundaries from a single Lomax over as watching spectators were treated to an exhibition of Big Bash hitting. Captain Powell thought it time for a spot of twirl, brought himself into the attack and was greeted with a pair a biffs, from Keen, to the long off and long on boundaries. Spencer had the dubious honour of bowling from the Road End and disappeared over it for a couple of sixes as all wondered what needed to be done to stop this one man demolition job. 

Thankfully a more familiar game was being played whenever Keen wasn't on strike and the strategy had to be "get the other guys out" to which spin maestro Powell delivered the goods with a triple wicket maiden leaving the Trees one wicket from victory. Keen had bashed 72, with 66 in boundaries, when Powell enticed him out of his ground to be expertly stumped by Michell thus ending an extraordinary innings from a very talented cricketer.

Considering some of the carnage Powell's haul of 4-10 was not to be sniffed at either in a final Bedlinog total of 113 all out that gave Llanarth maximum points and continued their hold at the top of the table.