ANDREW and Olly Jones became part of a select band of fathers and sons to play for Abergavenny CC 1st XI league match on Saturday, reports PAUL SUSSEX.

The Monmouth School teacher and young Olly – son and grandson of Glamorgan legend Alan Jones – did it in style as well, helping their team to a 43-run home victory over Port Talbot to keep the pressure on South Wales Premier Two table toppers Ynystawe.

A trawl of the 190-year-old club's history found that in 1998 in the final year of the Three Counties League competition, Ryland and Glamorgan star son Mark Wallace also played together in the first XI.

Ryland is still playing for Brecon 2nds and Wales over-70s, while Mark, current Director of Cricket at Glamorgan CCC,  still plays the occasional game for Newport 2nds alongside his son Harry.

Abergavenny were put in to bat on Saturday on a used wicket which had variable bounce and proved difficult to time shots.

They lost Andrew Jones for eight fairly early, then after a decent stand of 68 for the second wicket between Ryan Avery and Dan Skipwith lost two wickets with the score on 84, Avery caught and bowled for 39, quickly followed by Owen Harris for a duck.

Dan Skipwith batted well to reach his half century though, sharing a 41-run stand with Tom Pipe, back in the side after missing a couple of games, who scored 16.

The former was the fifth wicket to fall in the 44th over, with the score only on 155 at that point, giving a clue about the difficult batting conditions.

And the lower order, which included Olly Jones scoring 14 not out, Jack Ryan 19 and Joe Harris 22 not out did well to push the score on to 196-6 in the six overs available to them.

David Clarke then continued his wicket-taking form with two for five in his opening four overs (23-2), while Pawan Nisansala at the other end shared the unusual role of opening the bowling.

Ryan Avery with three wickets and Owen Harris with one then had Port wobbling at 87-6 in the 23rd over.

And Avery struck again in the 29th over for his fourth wicket, Joe Harris clutching a catch to leave Port Talbot seven wickets down before reaching 100, and the bowler with figures of 4-26 after his 4-35 the previous week.

There were two small stands of 29 and 27 for the eighth and 10th wicket, as the Port tail wagged.

But Skipwith with 1-7 and young Lloyd Sharp with 2-29 saw Port all out for 153 in the 42nd over, in a game which included four catches for wicket keeper Jack Ryan.

With Ynystawe and Cowbridge both winning, the result ensured the status quo in the division with Aber second ahead of a trip to face Penarth beside the sea this Saturday (August 17).

The 2nds and 3rds games were both cancelled due to rain, but a magnificent century for Mohammed Usama Ali guided Abergavenny 4ths to 116-run South East Wales 12E win over visitors Crumlin 2nds.

Abergavenny batted first and amassed their best total of the season, 288-4.

Third man Ali fired 113 off 101 balls, including 16 fours and three sixes, well supported by Jaiden Caswell with 43, Dylan Bradley with 74 – who he shared a 172-run third-wicket partnership with – and Ed Loose 14 not out.

Faced with such an enormous task Crumlin crumbled to 172 all out in the 38th over, with three wickets for Satish Rohra, two wickets each for Caswell and Imran Ahmadzai and one wicket each for Ali and Eric Pike.

The win moves them into fourth with a trip to Friends Union this Saturday.

Abergavenny 2nds, meanwhile, will be hoping to get back to action at home to Penarth 3rds, while the 3rds host Blackwood Town 2nds.