COMMONERS ended their West Wales Conference campaign in style with a convincing 100 run victory over Talybont.

Batting first after winning the toss, Neil Stent (69) led the Commoners to 217 for 5 with a fine half-century, while Jan Ruzicka’s contribution of 46 runs proved to be his highest score to date for the club.

The Commoners’ bowling attack proved too strong for Talybont with seamer Chris Ward (4 for 28) combining with spinner Abishek Somani (3 for 40) to end the home side’s response 100 runs short on 117.

Commoners’ openers had initially struggled against some accurate swing bowling, and top batsmen Rakesh Bhatia was bowled for just 1 by Anish Kuriakose .

Remaining opener Neil Stent was joined by Dave Wilcoxson and the pair soon settled and began to find runs relatively easily, with Stent particularly strong off his legs, whilst Wilcoxson mercilessly punished anything short on the offside.

Captain John Glasby bought on Joseff Joshi to bowl in an attempt to put the brakes on the scoring, and just as it looked like Wilcoxson was set for a big score, the new bowler had him caught for 44.

Stent continued to accumulate runs, and was joined by Jan Ruzicka, who rapidly struck 46 after a cautious start, before he was bowled by Anish in his second spell.

Stent eventually fell for a solid 69, when caught off the bowling of youngster Augustine, but Commoners’ total was boosted to 217 for 6 by some late hard hitting from captain Jacob Hughes-Pickering, who finished 31 not out. The pick of the bowlers was Anish with 2 for 56, with Ti bin 1-38, Joshi 1-30 and Augustine 1-12.

The reply began badly when opener Dave Barrow fell for just 2 runs off the bowling of Chris Ward, but Joshi joined in-form Ben Harper and runs started to flow - until Joshi unfortunately played on, just as he looked like opening up.

Vinod Matthew and Anish both fell for ducks off bowler Ward in rapid succession, to leave Talybont reeling at 28 for 4.

Phil Abraham then joined Harper and the pairing began a recovery, scoring freely before the former batsman was bowled by the leg spin of Abishek Somani.

Harper soon followed when caught behind from another excellent delivery from the spinner for 30, and Tibin joined them when bowled by the same bowler.

Talybont captain John Glasby and Anand Sharma steadied the ship for a while, but Anand was run out by a piece of smart fielding by Hughes-Pickering.

Last recognised batsmen Glasby was joined by young Titus Mathew, but fell when hitting out for a rapid 17 runs, leaving Titus Mathew and Augustine requiring an improbable 100 to claim the win.

Chris Ward, however, had Titus Mathew caught, and the match ended with the Commoners as the emphatic victors.

Ward claimed 4 for 28, and spinner Somani took 3 for 40 to end the home reply.

Tywyn & District (92) lost to Aberystwyth (93 for 6) by 4 wickets

ABERYSTWYTH Firsts returned to the top of the West Wales Cricket Conference with a six wicket success at Tywyn on Sunday, after dismissing the opposition for 92 all out, and replying with 93 for 6.

It was not as difficult as the final score suggests for the visiting team, who gave away a couple of wickets at the end when chasing the last four runs for victory.

Graham Bird took 4 wickets for 26 from 9 overs, with four maidens for Aberystwyth, while Gareth Lewis finished with 3 for 18 from 7 overs, Jamie Holder with 2 for 31 from 9, and Zaid Khan 1 for 6.

The only batsmen to reach double figures for Tywyn was South African Eric Herbert (19), along with Richard Rees (12) and Jack Maynard (10) in the lower order.

The successful response by the defending champions was led by openers James Breeze (34) and Anthony Burrell (21).

Ceri John (19) and Sam Margrave-Jones (11) edged the defending champions closer to victory, before Jamie Holder (4 not out) scored the winning runs in the 25th over. James Bradbury-Willis (2 for 14), Dave Jenkins (2 for 8) and Eric Herbert (1 for 18) claimed the wickets for Tywyn.

• For the second week running, Tregaron continued to find it difficult to put players on the field and they were forced to concede against Aberystwyth Seconds.

This weekend’s West Wales Conference fixtures will see Aberystwyth Seconds take on Talybont at the Geufron on Saturday, and Tregaron are scheduled to play Aberystwyth Firsts on Sunday afternoon.