Brecon Cricket Club’s seconds continued their recent improvement on Saturday with a thrilling win against the once mighty Sully Centurians, writes Derek Osborne.

Sully had won the first round fixture at Brecon and were likely to prove strong opponents and as ever would be certain to share their attributes vocally all afternoon.

Brecon captain John Kenchington will remember many battles with the Sylvester and Fiddler family and would have been keen to put their memory to the sword. JK certainly led from the front, opening the batting and flaying the bowling whenever it strayed from a good line and length.

Although he saw two partners falling relatively cheaply Des Lally came to the crease and proved that class is permanent as he joined in the assault on the Sully bowling.

JK scored a magnificent ton which included twelve fours and one six while at the other end Des’ 67 not out featured six fours and one six.

It was the bowling that had been weak when Sully won the earlier fixture but this time Brecon looked to have a decent attack and containing Sully to less than 5.5 an over looked distinctly possible.

Buff Kenchington and Daf Edwards took an early wicket each with good economy figures but then Sully hit back and started scoring freely and began to look favourites.

It was veteran ex-captain John Cooke who turned the tide though with an excellent 8 over spell of 5 for 42. This brought about an incredibly close finish where captain JK had to finish off a miserly spell of 8 overs for 22 runs in order to close the win.

Sully were not all out but were unable to hit enough at the death and finished just three runs short of the Brecon total.

This third consecutive win lifts Brecon into ninth and off the bottom of division 8 for the first time. With fourth place being only 11 points ahead it is all very close and there is plenty to play for in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, at The Depot Ground Brecon’s firsts were battering Vale, a very wealthy, well equipped team from just outside Bridgend.

Batting first, the home side had a great start as all of the top four made useful contributions.

Sean Waldeck (21) and Rowan Starkey (59) opened and saw off the early bowling well despite a controversial appeal turned down that resulted in a Vale bowler being cautioned for questioning the integrity of the Brecon batsman.

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Greg Webber (29) and Rhys Pritchard (55) continued the assault before a few cheap wickets and just a late flurry from Sam Williams (28 no) saw the innings close at 249 from the allotted 45 overs.

In reply Vale had nothing to offer in the face of excellent home bowling.

Chris Davenport (2 for 29) and Sam Williams (3 for 22) blasted out the top order and were followed by James Mitchell (4 for 30) and Jac Kenchington (1 for 20) mopping up the remaining batsmen.

Just 29 overs were needed and only two Vale batters got into double figures and one of those only scored 10.

Brecon were the victors by 146 runs.

This win puts Brecon fourth in division 2, just one point behind third and a healthy distance ahead of the lower half of the table.