A young Ammanford team gained a season-defining 18- run victory at Cardiff which, barring miracles or disasters, pretty much guarantees their continued presence in next season’s South Wales Premier League top flight.

Batting first, Ammanford opener Kurtis Marsh maintained his blistering form with 79, supported early on by skipper for the day Dan Roberts (21) and Xavier Clarke (42).

At 156-3, Ammanford looked set for a dominant total, but unfortunately none of the middle order was able to stick around for long enough to dominate the bowling.

Rhys Davies (26), Josef Davies (18) and Gruffudd Owen (16) looked good at the wicket, but got out when it looked as though they were ready to cut loose.

Ammanford closed their innings on a creditable 248-9, but the received wisdom around the ground was that this was 20-30 runs short of what was needed.

For Cardiff, Tom Barry marked his first wickets of the season with 5-46. The received wisdom looked to be correct as Cardiff cruised past the hundred mark before losing opener James Meggit (47). And even more correct as they reached 185-2, Glamorgan’s Prem Sisodiya bowled by Clarke for 32.

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It was when their other opener, Umar Malik, was bowled by Callum Croft for 101 that things started to go wrong for them. Tight bowling and excellent fielding kept the pressure on Cardiff ’s batsmen as wickets tumbled at gratifyingly regular intervals.

The last eight wickets fell for 45 as Cardiff slumped to 230 all out. Roberts, Davies and Clarke took three wickets each for Ammanford, but the entire team deserved the credit for keeping the pressure on Cardiff throughout and forcing the errors which led to a superb victory.

Ammanford remain in the bottom half of Premier One, but this win moves them 44 points clear of basement club Clydach who lost to Bridgend, this weekend’s visitors to the Park.