LLANARTH CC's first teame gained their opening victory of the season in fine style last Saturday.

The toss was won and Llanarth took first dibs looking to put a total on the board to pressurise the Penarth reply after tea.

David Lomax, a new signing from Newport and on first team debut, forged a new opening partnership with Baxter. The start was slow but assured against an accurate but not greatly menacing Penarth attack and the pair put away the bad balls on offer without taking any risks in a bid to build a foundation for later acceleration.

At drinks with the score at 81-0 the foundations were laid but Baxter perished straight away attempting to push on. Heath though took on the mantle whilst Lomax unfurled some fantastic drives.

Lomax looked set for a big score until he mistimed one such drive to be taken at cover for 67 and the score at 125. Heath (53) proved to be the glue that held the rest on the innings together as he compiled a near run a ball half century, and the cherry was provided by Nowell who exhibited a previously unseen slog-sweep from his repertoire that went sailing for a maximum. The final total of 211-5 was judged by some to be maybe 20 runs shy but to be fair it proved to be a strange wicket that was tricky to get in on.

After a splendid tea Llanarth were keen not to let any of the opposition batsmen settle and Spencer gained the early breakthrough that was required by straightening one down the line of the stumps to win an lbw.

Baxter provided four ibruprofen fuelled overs before making way for Lomax (2-12) who opened things up for the 'Trees' by first taking a tidy ct and bowled, then outsmarting the number four bat with the old three card trick - two out-swingers that the batsman had a good look at followed by the nip backer that he again left alone only to find off stump pegged back at 38-3.

It didn't get any easier for Penarth as the 'Trees' went for the jugular in introducing spin maestro Chris Powell to the attack. Not for the first time an opposition batting line up found him too hot to handle as he ripped through the middle and lower order in pursuit of another WCCC tie. A super analysis of 6-34 was his reward as the Penarth reply crumbled in the evening sunshine. Although Powell was belted for one six into the cow field that resulted in Baxter almost losing the family jewels on some barbed wire when retrieving the ball.

A moment of note towards the end was the maiden First XI wicket of youngster Ben Jones, after having an earlier chance shelled by his uncle Dennis (Heath) in the gully he forced another false stroke that was smartly caught by Ashraf at point. The end came at exactly 100 all out as the 'Trees' bagged maximum points with a decent all round performance that needs to be repeated week in week out.