A MOUTH-watering first versus second encounter was on the menu at Pentrepoid Road as unbeaten Pontnewynydd hosted Llanarth.

Sunny but windy conditions were the backdrop for the contest and Trees captain, Dennis Heath, won his eighth consecutive toss and invited the league leaders to have a bat.

The Trees were able to hand a Firstst XI debut to Glenn Hamilton, who had newly rejoined the club, and after a nervous couple of opening deliveries it was Hamilton (2-38) who got the breakthrough with his fifth ball via a smart catch by Tom Vaughan. A massive moment came in David Lomax's opening over as he forced an edge from Geraint Jones but the slip catch went down and Jones made Llanarth pay all afternoon.

Hamilton and Lomax continually beat the bat in their opening spells and the home batsmen showed great resilience to stick around but it took a mix up in the running that allowed Vaughan to take advantage and run out the dangerous Joe Matthews.

This brought Rhodri Jones (53) to join his brother at the crease and they saw Pontnewynydd through to drinks at 84-2. After the interval the brothers took a couple of watchful overs before pressing the accelerator, occasional boundaries mixed with swift running between the wickets put fierce pressure onto Llanarth and that manifested itself in the Trees dropping G Jones a further two times before he reached 60.

At 154-2, two hard-hitters well set and 10 overs to go Llanarth were staring down the barrel but some decent death bowling in conjunction with good fielding restricted Pontnewynydd to a tough but not insurmountable 231-3. G Jones was rewarded for his perseverance with 113*.

After tea the Trees were looking for a good start and when Mark Baxter struck three crisp boundaries in the second over a signal of intent seemed to have been shown, however once again he threw away his good form a few deliveries later and gave slip catching practice through poor shot selection.

Christian Dewfield (30) joined Lomax (71) and the pair began to build a platform from which to attack but a blow was taken when the former fell the over before drinks and squash was supped at 81-2.

The run rate continued to rise from that point thanks to good fielding and field placing, whatever Llanarth tried they just couldn't manage the couple of high scoring overs they needed to get the chase back on track and when risks were taken wickets fell. At 141-5 from 30 overs an unlikely 90 were required from the final 10 and when Lomax fell to an incredible one handed catch by G Jones, who was running full tilt along the boundary, the result was no longer in doubt.

Llanarth still had some result and bonus points to play for but a couple of run outs saw them all out for 183 to lose by 48 runs, with Scott Daley taking 6-46 for the champions-elect. The poor points total from the match saw the Trees slip from pre-match title contenders to third place by the end of the day and they will have to locate their ruthlessness again to regain runners-up spot.