Penarth step up their game (From Penarth Times)

Penarth step up their game

PENARTH'S 1st XI kept the pressure up on St Fagans with another resounding victory against Sudbrook last Saturday.

With skipper Dave Ricketts missing, Penarth were captained by Richard Skone, whose first contribution was to lose the toss and be put into bat.

It didn't start well as Penarth lost John Vaughan Davies and James Docherty early on but Jonny Hughes (46) and Nick Morgan (40) steadied the ship and Skone made a telling contribution with 45.

Matt Thomas (15 not out) then guided the tail through as Penarth reached 224-8.

The Sudbrook reply never really got going as Vaughan Davies and Tom Dilnot Smith proved too good for the Sudbrook openers, taking 2-10 and 1-25 respectively.

Robert Crimp continued his run of wickets as he picked up 1-38 and the spinning trio of Skone (2-14), Docherty (2-24) and Mark Thomas (1-4) also chipped in with Docherty adding a direct hit run out to dismiss the home side for just 117.

For Sudbrook only Mark O'Leary (21) and Carl Morgan (26) gave any real resistance.

David Stevens' 2nd XI slipped to their first defeat losing by two wickets to Sudbrook 2nds.

Penarth made 190 all out with Stevens and Neil Stephens the main contributors with 44 and 37 respectively.

Penarth then got off to a great start with the ball as they reduced the visitors to 14-4 with Ian Humpage and Jon Clogg doing the damage with a couple of wickets each.

However, the support bowlers failed to perform and Sudbrook were able to sneak home in the final over.

The 3rd XI suffered a heavy defeat as they failed to make 100 runs for the second time this year.

Only David Sadler was able to make any impression as he hit 22.

If that was not bad enough it was made worse by the fact that Caerphilly and Bedwas had earlier racked up 267-6, with Simon Wilkinson (2-51) the pick of the Penarth bowling.

There was better news for Ishy Akhtar's team on Sunday when they travelled to Blaina and recorded a resounding victory.

Batting first, Rhys Morgan hit 111 not out and David Stevens 60 as Penarth hit 230.

Blaina struggled in reply and there were wickets for Ishy, Rhys Goodfellow and Tom Parkinson.

The 4th XI also slipped to defeat on Saturday.

There were wickets for Tom Parkinson and James Davies, and Parkinson (34) and Richard Healy (35) were also the pick of the batsmen.

TEAMS

1st XI v Pentyrch (h), meet 11.50am: D Ricketts, J Hughes, J V-Davies, R Skone, N Morgan, J Docherty, M J Thomas, M A Thomas, T D-Smith, K Maddox, R Crimp.

2nd XI v Pentyrch (a), meet 11.45am: D Stevens, T Sidford, P Edwards, R Morgan, M Slugg, G Davies, J Clogg, A Prickett, I Humpage, P Ingram, L El Khatib.

3rd XI v Wick (a), 12.30pm: I Akhtar, N Stephens, M Sadler, P Goodfellow, R Meggitt, I Summerfield, R Bromiley, Z Gehlan, R Goodfellow, P Docherty, D Sadler.

4th XI v Wick (h): from: D Slugg, U Mohammed, S Wilkinson, R Healy, M Parry, V Aitkin, C Lewis, A Chilcott, T Parkinson, N Hutchins, S Newman, A Crimp, M Birch, J Davies, D Pritchard, Rh Morgan, H Morgan, A Cox, M Allen, S Lewis, J Crimp.