EARLIER this month the latest installment of the Aberwelly Cup was played between Abergavenny and Wellington.

First up at first string was yet another repeat of the first match last year played between the two ‘lookalikes’ Mike Logan and Chris Short. Once again, Logan prevailed, winning by three sets to one, but the match was closer than it looks, with great rallies and long games.

There then followed another extremely close match between Peter Steed and Dan Keywood, a real cat and mouse game eventually won by Keywood’s hard hitting which overcame Steed at the end. The third string match between Jiwan Gahunia and David Thorne only lasted two sets, with Jiwan retiring at the end of the second set with an unfortunate hamstring injury. Mike Logan stepped into the breach to give Thorne a game and managed to win the next three sets, but the match was awarded to Wellington, who were now leading 2-1.

At this point, both sides brought out their big guns, ‘E’ team captain Tony Davies and Peter Shaw. Another hard fought match ensued, with Davies gambling on winning two one point tie breaks at the end of the third and fourth sets, winning one but losing the other, which led to Shaw winning 3-1, and securing the match for the visiting side.

The final dead rubber was played between Matthew Thompson and Jason Hill, which turned into a real epic, with Thompson just edging the match in the fifth set to gain respectability for Abergavenny.

So Wellington retained the cup for another six months, and everybody retired for drinks at the Sugarloaf Vineyards followed by a curry at the Bayleaf, which all enjoyed apart from one Wellington player, whose Indian meal did not agree with him! Abergavenny looks forward to a rematch in Wellington in the autumn, when it hopes to regain the cup!