NEWPORT lost for the second week running in Pool A of the South East Wales competition after going down by six wickets to visitors St Fagans, writes Lyn Hall.

The hosts won the toss in the 40-over tournament, sponsored by Thomas Carroll, and elected to bat but having lost an early wicket, it was left to club stalwarts Mike Clayden and Imran Hassan to try to regain the initiative.

They put on 107 for the second wicket before Hassan was bowled for 48 and Clayden carried his bat for 79, helping the Spytty Park side to 199.

In reply, Chris Hardy took three for 33 but he could not prevent the in-form Matt Thompson (70) and Tamoor Zafar (61) guiding their side to a comfortable six-wicket victory, although they were assisted by Newport bowling 22 wides.

In other game in the group, Bridgend found runs difficult to come by against Cardiff with too many batters getting out when they seemed set.

Only Tom Baker, following up last week's ton, pushed past a half century (53) as his side totalled 178.

With Alex Jones missing, there was little penetration in Bridgend's bowling and Cardiff took full advantage to race to an eight-wicket win.

In Pool One, Newbridge, despite losing Ben Wellington to Penarth, Ryan Watkins to Gorseinon and Alex Horton to the Glamorgan academy, had a successful weekend following their defeat of Croesyceiliog in the quarter-finals of the T20 competition and a convincing six-wicket win at Cowbridge.

Gavin Jones had an excellent opening spell for Newbridge, taking three for 12 off his eight overs, as the home team crawled to 152 for 9. Nathan Millichip was another batter to continue his good form as he carried his bat for 52.

Malpas entertained Penarth and Wellington showed his worth for his new club with a patient 67 and support from his colleagues saw them to 222. Malpas were never in the hunt for this target falling short by 47 runs.

Panteg batted first at Chepstow in Pool Two but could only muster 148 with Ollie Rayner taking four for 33.

A solid batting performance by the home team saw all top four batters scoring at least 20 and they reached their target in just 28 overs.

Usk were another side with batters in form with Olly Robson (76), Amit Aswani (69) and Dave Harding-Smith (64) taking them to 260.

In response, Sudbrook fell 20 runs short despite Ross Lewis (55), Scott O'Leary (46) and James Hussey (42) making valiant attempts.

Newport Fugitives collapsed to 97 all out chasing 207 at Pentyrch where Stuart Roberts topped scored with 63 with Dominic Grossett adding good end of innings impetus with 28 off just 11 balls.

At Abergavenny in Pool Three, Lewis Holley (56) was his side’s main run-getter of their 182 for 8 but his efforts proved in vain as Lisvane reached their target for seven wickets with just two overs remaining.

Blackwood's woes continued as they were bowled out for just 92 by Llandaff with several batters getting out to indifferent strokes as leg spinner Faraz Asif took four for just eight runs.

The newly-formed club, a combination of Cardiff Gymkhana and Central Cardiff, had little difficulty in knocking the runs off for the loss of three wickets.

The strangest result of the day was at Croesyceiliog where the home team bowled out visitors Radyr for 118. They looked well on the way for victory but lost their last five wickets for a mere six runs to leave them adrift.