CHEPSTOW Cricket Club finally ended a run of defeats by local rivals Sudbrook – but it was a close run thing with a winning margin of just 42 runs.

Only when Sudbrook's inspirational skipper Ross Lewis was caught just after completing his century, did Chepstow's supporters start to believe the hoodoo was about to be broken.

Chepstow had posted a score of 291-9 in the Glamorgan and Monmouthshire Cricket League Division 1 game which, in normal circumstances, would have been a tough one to beat.

But Sudbrook have firepower and Chepstow were without two of their regular bowlers, the Morgan-Huggett twins Tyler and Tudor.

However, on the plus side, they did welcome back skipper Jason Dobbie from injury.

The visitors were also without regulars, with Matt Kinchin and Mark O'Leary out.

Sudbrook won the toss and asked their hosts to bat first.

Openers Carwyn James and Gareth Ansell gave them a solid enough start although James – a century maker in his previous three appearances – departed first.

Jake Kings joined Ansell and almost immediately introduced reverse sweeps to keep the fielders on their toes, and when Dave Teague joined the action he too kept the scoreboard ticking over.

"We batted extremely well up front again," said Dobbie.

"We have a very talented top four of James, Ansell, Kings and Teague which I believe is the strongest in the league.

"It was a great game to play in. You have to be on top of your game to beat Sudbrook so the win was well overdue against our local rivals.

"We bowled well in stages but we gave away too many four balls and you can't do that against an excellent batsman like Ross Lewis.

"However, our energy was brilliant in the field which saw us through to an easy victory in the end."

With Lewis at the crease, Sudbrook were always in the game, but too often his partners played themselves in and then were out, leaving him to take the most of the opposition's bowling.

Although he and his men were disappointed, Lewis was quick to praise Chepstow's performance.

"We were disappointed as you would expect and once again, we didn't field particularly well," he said.

"We probably gave them about 30 extra runs but credit must go to their batsman who batted superbly and took the game away from us.

"When we were batting we felt we were in with a shout but we kept losing wickets at the wrong time and if we had more wickets in hand going into the last ten overs we might have been able to challenge their total.

"But credit to Chepstow who were excellent and showed why they are second in the table."