Abergavenny Beavers have one of the best wins of the season

A “weak” and young thirds team line up was put forward against a strong second place Garnon team with all the odds against Abergavenny, but a gutsy team performance from the Beavers helped them carry out one of the best wins so far this season. The captain Mark Winstanely won the toss and elected to bat first, a wise decision on a fast outfield to say the least. A solid start seemed like a must and the two wise openers, Winstanley and Jon Lamont, gave us exactly that putting on an impressive opening partnership of 72. But a good delivery by Andy Johnson got rid of Lamont after scoring a solid 29, breaking this impressive partnership. A young Ashley Curtis was the next man in, scoring an explosive 27 with 5 boundaries with Mark still going strong at the other end. But Andy Johnson managed to snatch another wicket, this time caught behind. Our batting began to look wobbly with good bowling by Marcus Farr not helping Abergavenny’s stability, finishing with 3-66 from 11 overs. It looked like Mark was struggling for support, but level headed all rounder Kylie Holmes made a vital 40 runs with 8 boundaries helping the team reach an impressive 270. However the man who stole the show was skipper Winstanely with a true captain’s knock of 126 with 17 fours and 2 sixes, delivering for his team with one of the best knocks of the season without question. But now it was Aber’s time to field, although 270 was a healthy total with a fast outfield and lack of bowlers making the game very much in the balance. Similar to Abergavenny’s start Garnons had a solid opening partnership with Guy Pearson Gregory and Andrew Matthews, making life difficult for the bowlers. A strong delivery by the young Alex Holmes followed by a good catch from Jimmy Herrick to get Pearson Gregory out for a well batted 45 helped Abergavenny get on the front foot, but still knowing there was a big task ahead of them with lack of bowling and the main bowlers getting weary. But youth players Alex Holmes and Rhodri Townsend showed great maturity by frustrating the batsmen with good line and length, following this up with a good bowling partnership between Kevin Palmer and Jimmy Herrick taking 4 wickets between them, Palmer taking an impressive 3-16. Runs dried up for Garnons after this, but there was still a lot of overs left in the game. Kyle Holmes and Gavin Nash strained their way to bowling 24 overs between them and managing to pick up a couple of wickets, making it very difficult for Garnons to meet this total after bowling all 45 overs. Abergavenny thirds were victorious and showed a real sense of togetherness in a brilliant 54 run victory, a very unlikely result showing a bright future for the rest of the season.