Rogerstone played their first ever 3rd XI fixture on Saturday and the success of the game could be measured by four youngsters getting their first ever taste of senior cricket, everyone getting a bowl and a bat and everyone keen to put their name down for another fixture next week.
Add into this the commitment shown by two players to drive 300 miles to arrive in time for a bat at 5.30pm, that Barry's third team included a first teamer who hit 109 off the first 20 overs, effectively taking the game out of reach and yet the 9 Rogerstone players still only lost by 56 runs in a high scoring game and the boys and girls in green could rightfully feel proud of their achievements.
For the record Barry III made 267-6 in 40 overs. Debutants Naveen Raj (2-42) and Nivaad Farooq (2-50) being the pick of the 8 bowlers used. Rogerstone made 211-9 in their 40 overs with skipper Martyn Smith (54 no) and keeper Sibghat Majeed (25) helping the kids along. Bearing in mind that many of the young players had never batted on grass before and the ball was keeping extremely low, just one or two more experienced players may well have seen the game end in an amazing victory.
Special mention must go to Andrew Williams who drove son Ben from Loughborough to help make up the numbers. Ben was lbw for 14 meaning that Andy had to pad up and stride to the crease. One ball later he was marching equally purposefully back to his car to avoid a parking ticket, much to the amusement of all.

In other games, the firsts won comfortably with 56 from Kieran Sharratt and 4-31 from Alec Holdaway, enough to beat Crumlin, whilst the seconds held onto their place at the top of Division 9 despite defeat in Aberdare. The three sides topped 600 runs in the day to show a growing strength in depth in the club as a whole.