Support quality, independent, local journalism…that matters

From just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today

It was a difficult weekend for every side across Caerphilly County Borough in the South East Wales Cricket League over the weekend.

In division one, Blackwood Town were looking to get their first win of the season after losing their opening five. They travelled to Malpas on Saturday May 30.

Unfortunately for Blackwood, this game was over before they had a chance to pick up a bat. Malpas scored a staggering 333 points for Blackwood to chase in what had to be one of the innings of the season.

Blackwood were all out for a decent 192, but it was never going to be enough. They remain rock-bottom after gaining promotion to the top division last season.

In the division below, Newbridge were also searching for their first win after relegation last season. They faced a Vale side who were also winless.

Vale opened the batting and set a fair score of 181 for Newbridge to catch. It wasn’t to be once again for Newbridge, however. The visitors only managed 160 before being bowled out. A disappointing defeat.

Division three has the potential to be very interesting this season with newly promoted Machen joining Crumlin and Pontymister & Crosskeys.

All three sides have been struggling so far however, only Machen had managed a win coming into the weekend.

Unfortunately for the three sides. That poor record didn’t change after this round of fixtures.

Machen lost by 37 runs on the road to top of the table Cardiff and Crumlin set a healthy 266 for Penarth to chase down but got caught with three wickets to spare. As for Pontymister & Crosskeys, they lost by 39 runs at home to Pentyrch and remain bottom of division three with the other two sides just above.

Abercarn were looking to build on a win last week with a division eight tie on the road to Barry Wanderers.

Barry opened up with a very good score of 242, leaving Abercarn with all the work to do. Unfortunately, Abercarn only made it to 183 runs before losing all of their wickets. They remain stuck on one win in sixth place.

The biggest disaster of the weekend however came in a division nine game between Cefn Fforest and Maesycwmmer v Rogerstone Welfare.

The Caerphilly side opened up batting but could only manage a measly 70 runs; all out inside 25 overs. Rogerstone made lightwork of the chase. Winning with ten wickets to spare.

With losses all-round, each side will need to improve fast if they want to stay clear of the dreaded relegation spot, even at this early stage of the season.