LLANARTH have extended their unbeaten start to the season with a victory over the Welsh Asians.

Played in perfect conditions at the Blackweir Playing Fieldss, skipper Heath won his first toss at the sixth time of asking and, with the Llanarth batting line up looking threadbare due to prior commitments, sent Welsh Asians in on a pitch that from a distance looked very nice but close up had numerous studmark indentations that caused some uneven bounce throughout the match. 

Last week's bowling heroes, Banaras and Lomax took up the new ball mantle again and both struck early removing an opener each, though the latter's stint was cut short after sustaining a nasty looking gash to his knee. Banaras gave another super exhibition of swing bowling in claiming 3-24, two batsmen cleaned up by swinging yorkers and the Welsh Asians found themselves 56-4 when he took a well earned rest.

To be fair to the Welsh Asians batsmen they kept the scoreboard ticking along but kept losing wickets, Aslam made a decent 30 with some lovely leg side boundaries but when he departed to the spin of Powell, with the score at 88-5, Llanarth were looking to wrap things up quickly. Welsh Asians captain Swati lived up to his name when he swatted two rather large sixes off Powell but when the spin maestro eventually outfoxed him on his way to 4-23 the end came quickly. Aided by two fine outfield catches by Griffiths the innings closed at 145 all out, a total the Trees would be more than comfortable chasing but made more difficult with the absence of four specialist batsmen.

Lomax and Baxter began the reply in the knowledge that one of them really had to bat through to ensure victory and Baxter almost made a complete hash of that tactic when driving upishly at his fourth ball. The resultant catching opportunity was put down at cover and the fielder was made to regret his error for the remainder of the match. The pitch was now displaying variable bounce on a quite regular basis, making batting tricky and nigh on impossible for Lomax when he received a delivery that simply shot along the ground at ankle height to castle him. When Heath and James departed in quick succession too the Trees were in big trouble at 38-3. Griffiths joined Baxter at the crease, listened to his partners advice to "get forward at all costs" and the pair dug in to try to retrieve the situation. 

Baxter, being old-school, rarely wore a helmet to bat in unless faced with the nastiest of fast bowlers but having seen how the pitch was behaving pre-tea decided that discretion was the better part of valour and put his on for this innings, and was mighty glad he did. With the score in the sixties and Baxter well set on 40 he was in the process of a regulation leave to a ball outside off stump when it popped and jagged in from nowhere to take him flush on the grill, the helmet saving him from a busted cheekbone or nose or quite possibly both.

Once the clanging noise of the ball on his helmet had finally left his ears he set about his innings once again and, thankfully played as if nothing had happened. His defence, played forward with the longest of strides, negated much of the variable bounce and when the bowlers overpitched they were driven through the offside to the boundary. Griffiths employed similar tactics and this allied with good running between the wickets pushed the score towards victory. Despite the vagaries of the pitch the pair did not offer a chance in their partnership of 101 that was ended when Griffiths received an unplayable, straight shooter and was palpably lbw. It was a harsh ending to a superbly determined innings that was worth so much more than the 26 it states in the scorebook. 

The Welsh Asians heads were already down when one final piece of luck didn't go their way to confirm that it wasn't their day. With just two runs required a tired Baxter squeezed a defensive prod onto his pad and the ball rolled back onto his leg stump hitting it with reasonable force, the bail didn't drop. A couple of deliveries later it was all over as the target was reached for the loss of four wickets and Llanarth claimed maximum points. Baxter trudged off with an unbeaten 82 to his name and gave his batting helmet a kiss, not in the badge-kissing antics one witnesses in Test matches these day, but in a thankful gesture that his most unused piece of kit had preserved his good looks.