A BITING breeze, but clear skies above, suggested no clear advantage to batters or bowlers, and AUC captain Mo Aslam chose to bat first after winning the toss, with both sides looking for their first victory in this season’s Town & Country WWCCC league, writes Alex Pitchford.

Steffan Rees and Josh Roper both made early breakthroughs to dismiss the openers, Sohaib and Sai. Mo Aslam and Waqar Younis then made steady progress in the main partnership of the innings until Roper struck again to dismiss Waqar for 30.

The Aberaeron bowlers all continued to bowl probing lines and so wickets fell regularly.

Omair Syed (16) and Hayat Gurwindar (15) provided some resistance whilst Mo continued to carefully select the balls he attacked, predominantly, over pitched balls which he stroked down the ground, including 5 sixes.

Running out of partners, he tried to push on towards a challenging total, but was bowled by the returning Steffan for 94, including 13 boundaries.

All the bowlers did well, but most successful were Steffan Rees with 3/36 from 7, Josh Roper 2/36 and Jacob Jenkinson 2/27 from their 8, and Josh Drury 2/23 from his 4 overs.

After refreshments, for which the players were grateful to the Hive and the Cadwgan, thoughts turned to the chase.

The home side seemed favourites to reach the 197 required for victory, with a strong batting line up.

The Commoners looked to their main strike bowler, Waqar, who had taken 6 wickets for the Chair’s XI a few weeks back, and he struck early to bowl Alex Pitchford cheaply.

However, he could not break the Steffan Rees and Jacob Jenkinson partnership until his return spell, by which time it was too late.

When Steffan went for 72 (11 fours and 1 six), this just brought Chris Strange to the crease, who, with the target in range, stroked 3 fours to win the match. Jacob finished with 67* (10 fours). Waqar was the clear pick of the bowlers with his 2/49 from 7.