NEWPORT easily defeated Blackwood at Spytty Park to remain in second place in the Premier Division of the Thomas, Carroll South Wales Cricket League.

In difficult conditions, Blackwood opted to bat first and were bowled out for 140. Simon Davies scored 48 and Huw Wilcox 28, while Gareth Thomas bowled unchanged to take 3-29 off 10 overs for Newport, Kyle Tudge had 2-22 and Imran Hassan 2-30.

Glamorgan’s Gareth Rees opened the batting with Hassan and the pair shared a partnership of 101. Rees was out for 67 and Hassan for 40, and by then it was job done as Newport reached 145-3. Wilcox took 2-20 for Blackwood.

Usk were expected to present a real challenge to leaders Cardiff and they did do well to hold them to 222-8 off their 50 overs.

Pick of the Cardiff batsmen was Aneurin Norman, who made 73, while Paul Carter had 41 and Dan Rees 38. Huw Waters took 3-31 for Usk, Owain Watkins 2-18 and Vinnie Kay 2-28.

Usk’s batting, however, failed to match their bowling and fielding and they slumped to 112 all out in 32 overs.

Ian Clayton made 33 and Sebastian Warwick 23, while Carter took 3-12 for Cardiff, Mansoor Tariq 3-17 and there was a wicket apiece by Norman, Matt Smart, Andrew Thomas (1-18 off seven overs) and Mike O’Shea (1-17 off eight overs).

Champions Sully had much the better of a drawn game against Tondu at Burnham Avenue and Abergavenny had to hang on for a draw at Pentyrch.

Batting first, Pentyrch reached 191 all out in 48.1 overs thanks mainly to the batting of Bradley Wadlan (83) and wicket keeper Gareth Gardiner (46), while James Schofield took 3-27 for Abergavenny.

Schofield then made the top score of 58 when Abergavenny batted, Gavin Heritage scored 38 and Craig Barnsley 32, but Mason Najmi took 3-25 and Peter Grossett 2-20 and after 51 overs Abergavenny were 174-9.

St Fagans and Sudbrook are another two teams battling it out for a place in the new South Wales league next season along with Cardiff, Newport, Sully and Usk.

Only five places are up for grabs so this was a crunch game for both sides and visitors Sudbrook won the toss and batted.

Their top-order batsmen all got runs with John Lewis making 45, Julian Lane 38, Carl Morgan 36, Ross Lewis 33 and Matthew Kinchin 27, but none could manage a really substantial innings and Sudbrook were 217-7 at the close.

Scott Edmed took 2-19 off his 10 overs for the Saints and Owain Hopkins 2-47 off 10.

Tom Maynard cracked a superb 71 off 50 balls to set St Fagans on their way and at 127-3 it looked all over. But Sudbrook roared back and in the space of four overs that changed to 133-7.

The Saints were dead and buried but the tail wagged as Hopkins and Nick Williams (11) added 34 for the eighth wicket and Hopkins and Edmed (21 n.o) saw them to victory with a ninth-wicket partnership of 51, Hopkins finishing unbeaten on a match-winning 89 not out.

Dean Wallace took 2-16 off four overs for Sudbrook and Chris Ashling 2-35 off 10.

Rogerstone gave unbeaten Division One leaders Bridgend Town a scare when they had them 65-5 but the visitors fought back through Jamie Russell (68) and skipper James Steptoe (38) to reach 218 all out.

Jamie Suller took 4-35 for Rogerstone and John Berry 3-36.

Mo Asif threatened to win it for Rogerstone with 69 but next best was Andrew Trinder (20) and they were dismissed for 168. Aussie player/coach Mike Jones took 4-34 for Bridgend and Steptoe 2-28.

Panteg piled up a massive 332-5 at Brecon with Ian Bird making 98 and Mohammed Ali Bukari 93.

Brecon managed 211-9 in their reply with Andy MacDonald making 63.

The victory lifts Panteg up to second place because Chepstow lost at home to bottom club Newport Fugitives in the shock result of the day.

Chepstow were bowled out for 140 in 42 overs, their only batsmen to make an impact James Croft (40) and Jason Dobbie (28). James Didcote took 4-20 off 7.3 overs, Kevin Hart 2-29 off 10 and Andrew Bartlett 2-31 off 10.

Dave Adams made 24 early in the Fugitives’ innings but it was Mike Lewis who won the game with a blistering 65 not out off 62 balls with 11 fours in a sixth-wicket stand of 64 which took them to 142-5. Luke Sellers took 3-36 off eight overs for Chepstow.

Malpas restricted Radyr to 142-9 in which Chris Peacock scored 33, Chris Butlin 21 and John Wilson 16. For the visitors, Lewis Morgan took 3-37 in 10 overs, Kristian Rose 2-19 in 10, Jamie Hall 2-22 off five and Neil Smith 2-24 off 10.

It wasn’t the biggest of targets but the Malpas batsmen crumbled and the highest score was extras with 37 as they were dismissed for 119.

Smith made 20, Andrew Ross 19 and Rose 18 as John Corden took 2-10 off 10 overs, Butler 2-17, Ben Wakeling 2-17 and George Oram 2-29.

Division Two matches at Creigiau, Ebbw Vale and Hoovers were all cancelled but leaders Welsh Asians had a comfortable victory at Machen.

They went in first and opened with a 105 partnership between Tanveer Ahmed (63) and Khalid Idris (46) and number-four batsman Iftikhar Arif made 65 in their total of 254 all out.

Gareth Jones took 3-70 for Machen and Mo Farid 3-74.

Only Andrew Trapnell (59 n.o) managed to defy the Asians’ attack as Machen were dismissed for 142.

Parvez Nazir took 2-31, Abdul Qadir 2-36, Usman Niaz 2-37 and Arif had 2-0 at the end.

Third-placed Cardiff Gymkhana closed on second-placed Ebbw Vale with a 31-run win at Ponthir.

Abdullah Jaura scored 73 and Sandeep Chanda 40 as the Gymkhana reached 215 all out with Matthew Dennehy taking 3-46 for Ponthir and Mike Holcombe 3-59.

David Wilson opened the Ponthir innings and was still there at the end on a magnificent 110 not out, but he lacked support and Ponthir were 31 runs behind after their 50 overs.

Abdullah Jaura took 4-41 to complete a fine all-round performance and his brother Usman Jaura had 3-40.