DINAS Powys 1st XI opened their 2017 South East Wales Cricket League campaign with a short trip to local rivals Sully. Having lost the toss, the villagers were put into bat, and made steady progress before losing Hannah for 34 with the score on 56. The second wicket fell at 82 and sparked a flurry of further wickets reducing the visitors to 116-7. Only thanks to Awais Choudhary and in particular Ryan Todd did the villagers manage to get to 182-9 at tea. In reply Sully quickly took the game away from Dinas, with Santosh scoring 103, and the Centurions romping home with 7 wickets to spare on the 33rd over.

The 2nd XI took on a depleted Rogerstone who managed to field only 8 players at Bryn y Don. Dinas bated first and piled up 324-8 thanks largely to an unbeaten 120 from Chairman Jason Harries supported with good contributions from Jack Preston (67), Lloyd DiMauro (64) and Gareth Evans (41). Rogerstone were never going to chase that total down, but stubbornly batted out the overs with Dinas only able to winkle out 3 wickets, all falling to Upinder Singh (3-32).

The 3rds were away at Abercynon, and after being in some trouble batting first amassed a respectable 196-6 thanks to an unbeaten century (101*) by the evergreen Geoff Colley. In reply, the Villagers bowled out Abercynon for 145 with Rhys Bradley the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets.

On Sunday, Dinas took on Sully again in the first round of the Welsh Cup. At a sunny and warm Bryn y Don, Sully batted and scored 232-5 in their 40 overs, with the Villagers guilty of dropping some important catches (apart from Chairman Jason Harries who took 2 and injured his thumb in the process!). Losing the talismanic Gordon Hannah to the first ball of the reply didn't bode well, and Dinas struggled to find fluency. Indeed at 80-6 and then 114-7, with Harries looking to be unable to bat, it looked all over. However, Dani Zaman had other ideas and hit a blistering 101* including a great 71 partnership with Alex Vowles (11) to take the game into the final over with a plucky Harries going in to bat with an injured hand before running out of balls leaving the Villagers agonisingly short by 5 runs. Congratulations to Sully and we wish them the best for the next round.

Saturday's Fixtures

1's v Monmouth - Bryn y Don 1pm

2's v Malpas (Away)

3's v Newport 4th (Away)

Sunday

Friendly v Pentyrch (Away)