South East Wales Cricket League Division Three (Second XI) - Monmouth Second XI (123-9) lost to Brecon Second XI (230-3) by 107 runs.

MONMOUTH Cricket Club second XI suffered a 107-run defeat at home to table-topping Brecon on Saturday in the South East Wales Cricket League Division Three 2nd XIs.

Skipper Rick Parkes won the toss and elected to put the visitors in to bat on a damp pitch with prospects of improvement as the day progressed. The decision seemed vindicated at drinks with Brecon contained at 79-1 from 20 overs following spells from George Williamson (1-47 from 8 overs), Javid Choudary’s first spell, Parkes and Aled Jones. Jones continued and completed a very economical spell (1-18 from 8 overs). There were good performances in the field as Monmouth scored a sharp run-out, with a catch for Tony Jones and a senior club debut from Wales under 12 youngster Harry Hughes who kept impressively behind the stumps. However, despite the best efforts from the remaining Monmouth bowling attack, wickets were hard to come by and Brecon’s batsmen gradually accelerated to an imposing but not impossible looking 230-3 off 40 overs with former Talgarth batsman Mark Waldeck (77) the pick of the visitors batting line-up.

In reply Monmouth, sponsored by JD Wetherspoons, progressed steadily with contributions from senior batsmen Rob Pendleton (15), Ian Morgan (26) on his first appearance of the season, Tom Jones (10), Gaz Hughes (12) and Javed Choudary (13) while young Harry Hughes brought some cheer with a good-looking 14. However, with no-one getting beyond a start and with the progressive loss of wickets, Monmouth once again had to turn their attention to look for realistic batting bonus points as a realistic target and Aled Jones (15 not out) and Rick Parkes (6 not out) got the home side past the 120 mark for the second batting point to close on 123-9 from their allotted 40 overs.

The defeat sees Monmouth second XI slip back to the bottom of the table again, and now face a big potential relegation clash at home against fellow strugglers Vale CC at the Sports Ground next week with a 1pm start. Anyone wishing to play cricket for Monmouth this season should contact [email protected]