WICKET: Sudbrook's Rob Thorne celebrates a breakthrough against Newport

NEWPORT hit form in their local derby at the Deepweir to win their first game of the season in the Premier Division of the Thomas, Carroll South Wales Cricket League.

On a day when most captains put the opposition in, Nathan Millichip elected to bat first and Newport scored 248-9 in their 50 overs.

Backbone of the innings was a stand of 118 for the second wicket between Michael Clayden (90) and Young Cricketer of the Year and England Under-16 star Imran Hassan (64).

For Sudbrook, left-arm seamer John Lewis took 5-33 off six overs.

Sudbrook captain Chris Archer continued his rich vein of form with a fine 79 but Andy Harris took 3-35 and Sudbrook were bowled out for 173.

Croesyceiliog captain Mike Baillon also won the toss at the Diamond Ground and asked Cardiff to bat first and promptly dismissed them for 159.

Ryan Watkins top-scored for Cardiff with 32 and Dave Herbert got 28 but Stuart Roden took 2-15, Mohammed Ali Bukari 2-34, as did Baillon himself, and Rhys Jones had 2-38. Their Glamorgan player, Will Bragg, also bowled a mean spell of five overs for five runs.

Bukari then made 59 not out, Bragg 51 and Actar Baloch 32 as Croesy strolled to 160-3 and their first ever win over Cardiff in the premiership.

Baillon said afterwards: "It was a fantastic all-round performance on a really difficult wicket and our first win against Cardiff. Marvellous!"

In other matches, Panteg were on the wrong side of a hammering at Sully.

They asked the champions to have first crack and then saw them rattle up a massive 303-5, with Lloyd Smith making a superb 93, James Langworth 55, captain Ryan Sylvester 31 and Jamie Sylvester 29. Mark Davies bowled well to take 3-48 for Panteg.

It was a huge target and Panteg never really got going and David Fortune was their top scorer with 15 as they slumped to 102 all out.

For Sully, Andrew Davies took 3-8, Ryan Sylvester 3-13 and Terry Williams 2-13.

Usk inserted St Fagans at Croft-y-Genau Road and did well to restrict St Fagans to 173-6. Richard Kaufman (53) and Owain Hopkins (21) added 72 for the third wicket, but at 118-6 the Saints were in trouble.

They were rescued by an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 55 between Simon Holliday (34 n.o) and Adam Bennett (28 n.o). Tom Lee took 2-15 for Usk and the rest of the wickets were shared around.

Rogerstone are proving to be a surprise package in Division One and made it two wins in succession at Barry.

Mo Tahir led the way when Rogerstone went in first with a sparkling 101 and Z Ali got 27. For Barry, Raf Zaheed took 3-33 and Andrew Buckland 3-51.

Barry looked like they might get the runs as Damon Leeke scored 68 and Gary Morgan 57, but the Berry brothers, John and Haydn, made sure they didn't and the last Barry wicket fell at 193 in the 44th over.

John Berry returned 8-2-17-4 and his brother 9.5-4-26-4.

Miskin Manor held on to beat Brecon in the closest match of the day, with the visitors coming up three runs short of the home total, and relegated Chepstow beat Pontypridd at Ynysangharad Park.

Chepstow had first crack and reached 155 all out thanks to Malith Madurasinghe (51) and Alex Winter as Ryan Williams took 4-32 for Pontypridd off 8.1 overs and Tom Morgan 2-21 off nine.

Only Williams (31) and Morgan (26) made much impression for Ponty against a sharp Chepstow attack and the home side collapsed to 99 all out.

Rhodri Fawsitt bowled a sharp 10 overs for his haul of 4-17, skipper Luke Sellers had 2-7 off seven and Tom Jackson 2-21 off nine.

The ground at High Cross ruled out the game between Newport Fugitives and Abergavenny, while Black-wood were put in by Radyr in a 42-over game and Chris Rogers blasted a magnificent 137 to help the visitors to a score of 232-6.

John Davies got 38 for Radyr and Howard Stone 35, but Jason Grubb's 4-35 helped Blackwood to get them all out well short of the target.

Vale easily disposed of Hoovers in Division Two while Malpas continued where they started by thrashing Machen at Bettws Lane.

Only Lee Innes (21) and captain Gareth Jones (19) got runs as Machen crumbled to 116 all out against the bowling of Christian Rose (4-14) and Lee Evans (2-27).

Paul Evans (29) and Mark Collins (22) departed but Micky Martin showed his value with an unbeaten 40 to lead Malpas to an eight-wicket win.

Ponthir's game at Ton Pentre & Porth was cancelled and Cefn Fforest fell to a promoted team for the second time in as many weeks.

Welsh Asians totalled 249-6 at Llandaff School with Tanvier Ahmed making 58 and Iftikhar Arif a brilliant 92. Dean Butler took 2-53 for Fforest. The Asians ran out both Fforest openers, which swung the outcome their way, and with Parvez Nazir taking 3-13 and Ahmad Khan 2-18, Fforest were soon turned over for 123.

10:43am Monday 12th May 2008

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