A HORRIBLE weather outlook leading up to

Llanarth Cricket Club's game against Blaina CC had many putting the fixture down as a cancellation.

However the Blaina players insisted that all was set fair at Central Park and, not being a team that cancelled games on forecast alone, the match was on.

The ground did indeed look in good nick with only some dampness in the outfield that slowed up some field piercing strokes, and the game commenced in quite warm, muggy conditions. 

Skipper Den Heath won his fifth consecutive toss and decided to insert Blaina and, when Ed James sent down the first over that had good pace and carry, Llanarth fancied themselves to make early inroads.

However Daryll and Lee Davies had other ideas and played very correctly and watchfully for the opening skirmishes, rare boundaries along with some Trees wides ensured the home side reached 38-0 from the first dozen overs but a double bowling change altered the course of the innings.

Eian Johnson (3-26) was introduced and was immediately hooping the ball around corners, the breakthrough came when L. Davies was looking to cut, only to have the delivery swing back alarmingly to hit the top of middle.

Johnson also induced the opposition skipper to play on and then cleaned up the hard hitting Adam Lane by swinging one around his legs.

At the other end Chris Powell (4-16) found the bounce to his liking and delivered a testing spell of off-spin, two of his wickets came from good catches by Tom Heath and Chris Page.

The Johnson/Powell combination had engineered a collapse of 7-32 as Blaina slumped to 71-7 and the Trees scented an early finish.

Llanarth's hopes of wrapping up the innings quickly were then frustrated by Grant Gwillym (23 not out) and Alan Barber (17 not out) as they stuck obdurately to the crease in attempting to bat out the remaining overs. They saw off the last few overs of Johnson and Powell, the returning opening bowlers and some of Eddie Butler's spin in ensuring Blaina reached tea with a total of 119-7.

The drizzle had started in the final five or six overs of the Blaina knock and with menacing clouds rolling up the valley there wasn't much hope for too much cricket after tea. Nevertheless David Lomax (18 not out) and Mark Baxter (25 not out) started off and, despite more water on the outfield they stroked some lovely shots to the boundary.

Conditions weren't easing and the bespectacled Baxter found both droplets of rain on his glasses followed by them evaporating and steaming up his lenses an interesting hindrance to watching the ball.

By the 12th over of the innings the rain had got worse and was presenting a problem for the seam bowlers on their run ups. The players sought refuge in the pavilion to wait to see if precipitation would stop.

With the Trees in a commanding position captain Heath was trying to persuade his opposite number to restart the match as the drizzle had lessened slightly but Blaina, quite reasonably, were having none of it and with current Newport Dragons rugby pro Rhys Jones in their negotiating party their point of view was convincing.

Thus the game was abandoned with Llanarth 49-0 from 12 overs.