Pentwyn (143-3) beat Llanarth (142 all out) by six wickets

LLANARTH CC firsts hosted Pentwyn on a lovely sunny day at the LCG. While unlike last week they were able to call on a full 11 players, the batting line up still boasted only two specialists.

Skipper Dennis Heath won the toss and elected to bat on a smashing looking surface, against a Pentwyn side that could only muster 10 and shorn of many excellent players that have featured for them in just the last couple of seasons.

The innings began disastrously as Baxter horribly dragged a wide one onto his own stumps and walked from the ground attempting to kick his own backside all the way back to the pavilion. However Ed James (49), relishing his emergency opener tag, played plenty of free flowing attacking stokes and in conjunction with Elis Wilbourn (21) the score progressed nicely to 76-1 from 18 overs before the latter spooned a catch to point. James then fell agonisingly short of a maiden firsts fifty and, when Heath was palpably leg-before-wicket, the Trees were in a spot of bother to say the least.

Handy knocks from debutant Gerry Stentiford (20) and Chris Powell (26) at least gave Llanarth something to work with, but Pentwyn’s Richard Moon (6-15) ran through the lower order as the innings ended at 142 all out.

A sumptuous tea was taken and Llanarth were feeling positive knowing that they surely only needed a couple of key wickets to make things very difficult for the visitors. Eian Johnson (1-16) struck early but the score had reached 42 before Chris Powell was able to snare the other opener. Moon (32) and Craig Barnsley (56 not out) came together in what was the key partnership to be broken but unfortunately they put on 50 before Baxter (1-18) castled the former to leave the visitors at 92-3.

They never lost another wicket. Barnsley, with an excellent innings in fairness, was able to guide his team home with the minimum of fuss to hand a second comprehensive defeat to the Trees.