FOR the first time in its history, Sully Cricket Club fielded two Thomas Carroll Welsh Club Cricket Conference sides and celebrated a double success.

Noting another step forward, Spartans co founder and club secretary Gavin Beddard said the club would now consolidate before making any future plans.

Travelling to Whitchurch, the Firsts posted an excellent 271 for seven. Regular openers R Howe and skipper D Morgan put on 74 for the first wicket before the former was well caught for 41. C Howe then joined Morgan and together they put on 90 before the latter was bowled for 51with the score at 164 for two. Despite the loss of a number of other partners, Howe reached an excellent century (123), which included five sixes.

In reply, Whitchurch never looked likely to reach the target in the face of a fine display of controlled bowling from Spartans.

Opening the bowling, youngster James Fullard (2-17) took his first league wicket and, together with Reddy (2-18), restricted the home side to 35 for four after 12 overs.

With Deepu and A Davies continuing the stranglehold, M McVeigh weighed in with two wickets and Whitchurch, all out for 86, were beaten by 185 runs.

SULLY 1st XI: 271-7 (C Howe 123, D Morgan 51, R Howe 41)

WHITCHURCH HEATH: 86 all out (M McVeigh 2-4, D Nair 2-15, A Davies 2-21, J Fullard 2-17, Reddy 2-18)

This Saturday the Firsts play Monkswood at Wenvoe.

SHAIK KEEPS HIS COOL

On a glorious afternoon at Wenvoe, Sully's 2nd XI hosted Penarth Fourths and were asked to bat.

Penarth’s young opening bowlers quickly found their range and took the wicket of Hickin with only five runs on the board. K Kolluri and D Brennan took the Spartans to 60 before the fall of three quick wickets. With the score at 92 for five after 27 overs, N Crick and Q Aziz put on 42 runs in eight overs until the latter was stumped on 31. Crick soon followed after being caught in the deep on 20.

A batting collapse followed, with the next three wickets falling for only nine runs, and Sully finished on 146 with seven overs of the allotted 45 remaining.

Penarth captain A Prickett was the pick of the bowlers with four for 25.

In reply, Penarth also lost an early wicket but dug in and, after 23 overs, were slightly ahead of the required run rate on 85 for three. Taking advantage of some inconsistent bowling, I Summerfield eventually reached 39 before being out lbw.

The final overs were closely fought, with Penarth edging closer to the total thanks to some of the bowlers struggling to find their line and length; there was a total of 54 extras for the visitors. An exception was K Shaik, who took five wickets in his second spell, including the scalp of Prickett (24) to leave Penarth requiring three runs to win off 12 balls with just one wicket remaining. Under pressure Shaik kept his cool and dismissed the final batsman to secure a two-run win for Spartans.

SULLY 2nd XI: 146 all out (Q Aziz 31, K Kolluri 27; A Prickett 4-25)

PENARTH: 144 all out (I Summerfield 39, Prickett 24; K Shaik 5-34, M Sameer 2-22)

This Saturday the Seconds play Newbridge Thirds at Craig View.