FOLLOWING last week’s heavy defeat at Swansea, Penarth faced relegated Ynysygerwn at the Athletic Field on Saturday hoping to post a first league win of the season.

And things looked promising at tea, with the visitors dismissed for just 141. It wasn’t to be however as the visitors rallied to exploit some difficult batting conditions and bundle the home team out for 125 as no batsman managed to get on top.

Having elected to bat Ynysygerwn made a brisk opening stand of 26 before Morgan Humphreys bagged the wicket of Aaron Ace and Penarth put themselves in charge.

Tom Sidford, Ryan Sylvester and Mark Thomas were quickly among the wickets, aided by some smart glove-work from Jack Thomas, as the visitors slumped to 69 for 6.

A stand of 31 between Joshua Griffiths and Adam Davies settled the batting team but another flurry of wickets left them staring down the barrel at 103 for 9.

As it turned out the 10th wicket proved to be the biggest and most important of the match.

Aided by a missed chance at 110, Griffiths and Geraint Bowden added 38 and gave the innings some respectability before Sidford bagged the latter for a valuable 21. Griffiths was unbeaten on 41 at the close.

With ball in hand Ynysygerwn were very impressive. Debutant Cameron Prentice picked up the wicket of in-form Jamie Hitchen with a ball that kept a little low, before fellow opener Scott Matthews edged Gavin John behind.

Things soon got much worse for Penarth as Sidford was given out caught behind first ball to Prentice and Richard Skone was on the wrong end of another ball keeping low from the same bowler to leave Penarth at 24 for 4.

There was no let up with the introduction of Yuvraj Odedra to the attack as he picked up the wicket of Nick Morgan before Penarth rallied slightly through Sylvester and Thomas. These two found a way to keep the score ticking in putting on 35 before Sylvester was defeated in the flight and bowled by left arm spinner Griffiths with the score at 77.

It was too much to expect a Penarth win from here as the visitors increased the pressure on the young Penarth tail and it was left to a cameo of 23 from veteran Mark Thomas to briefly cause the visitors some discomfort before his wicket confirmed a win for Ynysygerwn by 16 runs.

There was better news on Sunday as Penarth booked their place in the next round of the Welsh Cup with a 116 run derby win over Barry at the Island.

Having elected to bat, all-rounder Richard Skone provided the backbone of the Penarth innings with a dominant 114 in valuable stands with Sidford, Nick Morgan and Llyr Morris before an unbeaten stand of 74 between Greg Cross (44*) and Luke Tilbrook (28*) took Penarth to a huge 289 for 5 from their 40 overs.

An upset was never on the cards as the hosts soon fell behind the required rate in their reply. Ashley Baker did manage a half century for Barry but regular wickets shared between Skone, Mark Thomas, Sidford and Tim Miller put Penarth on top before the part-time bowling of Nick Morgan brought the match to a fast conclusion with 4 for 14.

The club are indebted to Robertson’s Legal for their match ball sponsorship.

There was no second XI action this week, but both 3rd and 4th teams enjoyed resounding victories.

At Crumlin, the 3rd team were comfortable winners despite a century for home batsman Simon Veall who managed a remarkable 102 not out of his team’s total of 150.

Mark Frost did the damage with the new ball for Penarth, collecting 3 early wickets, before the experienced spinning pair of Neil Stephens and Keith James picked up a further 5 between them as no batsman could offer Veall any meaningful support.

The Penarth reply was dominated by Gareth Jenkins who continued his fine early season form with an undefeated 99, while his opening partner Conrad Adams managed 40 not out as the pair of them knocked off the required runs in just 21 overs.

Back at the Athletic Field there was an equally straightforward victory for Andy Prickett’s 4th XI as they defeated Mountain Ash by 8 wickets. The visitors’ top order offered a little resistance as Julien Humphreys claimed a brace of wickets before the promising off-spin of 15 year old Rhys Mottram collected 4 wickets for 1 run as the batting side subsided to just 56 all out.

In reply David Carter ensured there would be no drama with an unbeaten 32, while Rhys Mottram joined him to get the team over the line with 9 not out.

This Saturday Penarth will look to get their league season up and running as they host Newport Fugitives at the Athletic Field, while the thirds host Blaengarw.

Seconds and Fourths are on the road at Cardiff and Cynon Valley respectively.