ABERYSTWYTH faced local rivals Commoners with both sides looking to maintain their 100 per cent start in the Rachel’s West Wales Conference.

Put into bat by their opponents, the Commoners struggled to reach a total of 136, with Sion Lathwood topping the Aber bowling with 4 for 21, before Mel Jones knocked up a quick-fire 48 to secure a solid six-wicket success.

On winning the toss Aber captain Patrick Daniel opted to bowl first, and after an uneventful first couple of overs Daryl Davies struck for the visitors, knocking the middle stump of opener Neil Stent out of the ground.

In the following over Stent was joined in the pavilion by Abishek Somani, when also bowled by an inswinging delivery from Graham Bird.

This brought to the crease the Commoners’ in-form captain Umar Aslam, who struck a sweetly timed drive past the bowler off his opening delivery.

Soon after, however, Aslam edged a delivery from Davies to give him his second wicket, courtesy of fine catch by Andi Price at slip, and Commoners appeared in deep trouble at 17 for 3.

Mark Slater and Ian Lawton began rebuilding the innings and together, they brought the score closer to respectability. They frustrated the Aber bowlers, until the appearance of left-arm spinner, Pat Daniel, brought immediate success as Slater played on.

Wickets continued to fall steadily, mainly to Sion Lathwood, and the score had just passed 100 when last man Kevin Williams joined Lawton.

Together, mixing attack with judicious defence they took the score forwards until Williams brought out his reverse sweep, only to present a simple catch to end the innings on 136.

That was largely due to a resiliant knock by Lawton, who carried his bat through the innings for 66 not out.

Lathwood’s medium pace had proven prefect for the conditions, with a fine spell of 4 for 21 off 9 overs, which had also included some great slip catching from Daniel, Jones and Price.

The Commoners’ openers, Umar Aslam and Ian Lawton also extracted life from the pitch with the new ball but Price and Mel Jones coped admirably, and forced captain Aslam to ring the changes in a bid for wickets.

Price obliged with a catch to mid-on off Bill Summerfield’s bowling for 25.

Lathwood joined Jones who came to dominate the scoring rate, particularly once Lathwood departed after a flurry of fine shots for little return.

Nat Burrell joined Jones and struck several off-side boundaries before he chipped a simple catch to mid-off, with the game now looking secure.

When Mel Jones looked as if he was going to finish the job he was surprisingly dismissed for a well-struck 48, and it was left to Ted Trewella and Adam Shaw to ease the visitors to a six wicket victory in the 29th over.