SW PREMIER LEAGUE
NEWPORT remain in the box seat for the South Wales Premier League crown with four matches of the season remaining – but skipper Matthew Norris knows there is still a lot of cricket to be played.
Norris admitted his side “got out of jail” on Saturday when the weather saved them and stopped St Fagans’ charge towards victory.
St Fagans are the only side to have beaten the league leaders in 2018 and, after bowling Newport out for 109, looked like they may have been on their way to doing the double.
In what were bowler friendly conditions at Spytty Park, hosts Newport were unsurprisingly inserted after losing the toss with former Glamorgan wicket-keeper Mark Wallace their top-scorer with 25 as they were all out in 32.1 overs.
Jeremy Lawlor took 4-27 while Gareth Rees and Owain Hopkins both collected a couple of wickets.
St Fagans were then going along nicely at 36-0 off 10.1 overs when the weather finally called a halt to proceedings.
It ended Newport’s eight-game winning run in the league since that defeat by St Fagans on May 26 as they attempt to regain the title they surrendered to Cardiff last year.
“We’re definitely not counting our chickens,” said Norris.
“We’ve played good cricket over the past two years and the boys deserve it but we certainly won’t be resting on our laurels. We’ll be looking to put in a good performance now at Pontarddulais next week and get the win and put this weekend behind us.
“We’ll just look to keep playing good cricket and do the simple things correctly and everything will take care of itself.”
Nearest challengers Neath’s scheduled game at Ynysygerwn was cancelled without a ball being bowled and that was the same for the games at Ammanford and Port Talbot Town against Pontarddulais and Bridgend Town respectively. The only other game in Division One to get going was at Forest Farm between reigning champions Cardiff and Mumbles.
After being put in Mumbles put 267-7 on the scoreboard from their 50 overs.
Dan Lewis-Williams finished unbeaten on 75 while Ben Francis (56) also hit a half century. James Meggitt took 3-44.
However the game was abandoned due to rain without the hosts facing a delivery in reply.
In Division Two, Malpas’ hopes of beating the drop took a blow as they lost at home to Panteg by 48 runs under Duckworth-Lewis rules.
Panteg skipper Ian Bird’s 69 along with 50 from Callum Reid led them to 257-9 off their allotted 50 overs having been inserted by the hosts.
James Francis and Christian Rose both picked up three wickets for Malpas who were then given a revised target of 238 off 42 overs.
However they were all out for 189 in reply. Ryan Ward got to 36 before being run out by Jack Mayers who took two wickets along with Chris White.
Malpas are bottom of the table and 17 points from safety while the result for Panteg edges them further away from the bottom two.
Penarth, meanwhile, kept their title bid on track as they beat Newport Fugitives convincingly by 118 runs under D/L.
An unbeaten 102 from Richard Skone and 100 from skipper Tom Sidford helped Penarth to 279-8.
The Fugies were then given a revised target of 245 off 38 overs but were all out for 126 in reply.
Jack Thorpe-Yon was their top scorer with 27 but 4-18 from Ryan Sylvester and 3-39 from Morgan Humphreys ensured it would be Penarth leaving victorious. Skone also took two wickets.
The scheduled games at Carmarthen Wanderers, Clydach and Llanelli were all cancelled.
Clydach still lead the way in Division Two from Penarth.