LLANARTH welcomed Ton Pentre to the Llanarth Cricket Ground on Saturday 1st August – a team that had got the better of the Trees on the teams’ last two meetings.

Skipper Dennis Heath lost the toss but was happy to bat first on a wicket that had good bounce and carry.

Mark Baxter and David Nowell opened the innings and both raced out of the blocks with a flurry of early boundaries, 30 coming from the first three overs, and it came as somewhat of a disappointment when Nowell chased a wide one and edged to gully.

Christian Dewfield (30) walked to the crease and for the third consecutive week put together a good partnership with Baxter, the pair scoring contentedly without too much risk until Dewfield edged the last ball before drinks to gully.

With D. Heath following shortly after the resumption the innings was in the balance at 113-3 from 24 overs.

Tom Vaughan (35) was next man in and he was at his belligerent best in scoring at better than a run a ball, which completely bamboozled the visitors plans of giving a single to Baxter and then keeping Vaughan quiet.

When Vaughan was deceived, and bowled, by a good slower ball it was time for Baxter to come to the fore.

He had reached a modest half century from 71 balls, but then accelerated to a century in just 27 more balls.

He ended the innings unbeaten on 106, a third league ton of the season, out of a useful total of 228-5.

After tea, the Trees went looking for wickets, in particular that of Mark Thomas (54) who had guided Ton Pentre to wins in the two previous games.

It looked ominous as he smashed a couple of boundaries from the first over but was lucky to survive a huge LBW shout a few balls later.

Raj Banaras (2-36) found a couple of beauties to knock over two other batsmen and, with Eian Johnson and Tom Heath bowling economical spells, Llanarth were content when drinks were taken at 66-2.

With the run rate escalating Thomas had to take a few chances and, although he completed another half-century versus the Trees, he was fortunate to get there as he clubbed Chris Powell (2-43) to the long-on boundary where D. Heath took the catch only to step back over the rope to concede a maximum.

Thankfully shortly afterwards Thomas tried for another six only to sky it again to long-on where D. Heath completed an excellent running catch, inside the boundary, that effectively ended Ton Pentre’s hopes.

Stuart Morgan (33) made the final few overs entertaining with some wild swishes of the bat that occasionally connected and, when they did, the ball went a long way.

He did fall in the final over via a bit of juggling in the outfield by Johnson off of some leg-spin from Vaughan as the innings closed at 162-5 to give Llanarth victory by 66 runs.