THE captain’s son Osian Jones was the star of the show as Monmouth Cricket Club’s 1st XI beat Cardiff visitors Bay Dragons by eight wickets on Saturday.

Skipper Gareth Jones looked on proudly as young Osian Jones took four wickets for just nine runs in his four-over spell, supported fellow Monmouth Junior Cricket Programme graduate Sam Brennan with two wickets.

Monmouth won the toss in the South East Wales CL Seven match, and inserted the Dragons before quickly quenching their fire.

Only opener Vedanta Bhandary with 10 made double figures in the top and middle order before Brennan bowled him, while Muzammil Khan sent fellow opener Greg Landon packing for eight.

Paul Brooks clutched a catch for Jones’ first wicket to dismiss the third man for five and Brennan bowled the next victim for a single.

Jones then coaxed another catch for eight, and Gareth Jones winged in by snaring the Dragons’ skipper lbw for four.

Jones’ third victim was bowled for a duck and another catch by David Teague gave the youngster his fourth victim for two.

The tail wagged slightly with 16 for the ninth man and 14 for the 10th man, but Gareth Jones and Adam Roberts ended the resistance, the latter through a Peter Keay catch with Dragons all out for 92 in the 25th over.

The Monmouth top order, consisting of Teague (21 not out), a returning Henry Breeze (20), Roberts (22, and sporting his new 666 shirt) and Keay (11 not out), easily then chased down the total in 14.3 overs, reaching 96-2.

A delighted captain and club head of development, Gareth Jones, said: “I had a great day with a bunch of great mates, saw my boy achieve better league bowling figures than I ever have, and beat a quality team.”

The 2nd and 3rd XIs’ games were washed out, but meanwhile, three members of Monmouth’s Junior section (sponsored by Monmouthshire Building Society) will be playing for East Wales this week.

Osian and Albie Balfour will be playing against Shropshire and Wiltshire, with the former taking the captaincy on Tuesday. Henry Sullivan will also be playing up an age group to represent East Wales U15s at the Barnard’s Castle Cricket Festival.

Elsewhere, the 2nd XI were the only Usk CC team to see senior action at the weekend, as they skittled Dinas Powys 1st XI out for 70 runs to record a 139-run win.

With the rain-hit match reduced to 25 overs, the South East Wales Four hosts racked up 209-2 as opener Matt Hancock cracked an unbeaten 71, backed by Aled Burkitt with 61 and Gabriel Warwick with 51.

Usk’s attack then ran amok, with just one Dinas batsman making double figures with 16 as all six bowlers took wickets, Jake Roderick and Neil Perrett both with braces.

Chepstow’s Saturday league programme was wiped out, but the Sunday side secured 193-run home win over Penydarren Country XI.

Brent Harkins and Lloyd Bartlett both fired 51s retired not out and Cameron Rees an unbeaten 50 as the hosts racked up 255-6 in their 40 overs.

They then limited the visitors to 61-6 off 21 overs, at which point stumps were called with the hosts declared the winners.

Gwilym Garrigan starred with the ball with three wickets, backed by Paul Phillips with two and Tom Absalom with one.

The midweek team also enjoyed a five-wicket friendly home win over Nottinghamshire visitors Teversal CC.

Harry Harkins and Rizan Manoor secured wicket braces as Chepstow limited their opponents to 181-7 in 40 overs.

Kieran Krishnan and Mitchell Harris then hit unbeaten 51s before retiring and Kameel Sahabdeen 41 as the hosts reached 182-5 in the 37th over.