THE baseball giants of Newport and Cardiff clashed in the prestigious Coors/Ted Peterson Brewers Cup final at Llanrumney on Saturday, and the result was a comprehensive win for the Cardiff side.

Llanrumney had won the Brewers a record 12 times and Alexandra six times before Saturday, and the home side found it was lucky 13 for them.

Both sides were going for a double, Alexandra having won the WBU Cup, and Llanrumney the league title.

But in the scorching heat, Llanrumney won the vital toss and Alexandra wilted in the sun to suffer a mammoth 108-run defeat.

The Newport side did not help themselves with an inept fielding display, dropping six catches, four of them dollies, and failing even to go for two more.

It must have made the watching Tommy Grace, one of the greatest catchers and fielders to play for Wales, from Newport, blush.

And when they batted, Alexandra had two men touched out for failing to turn the correct way between bases, an elementary mistake and a cardinal sin.

But it probably did not matter, as on the day Llanrumney struck the ball better, ran faster between the bases, and in bowler Russell Martin had a real match-winner.

Llanrumney rightly batted on winning the toss, and helped by those dropped catches and innings of 15, 14 and 13 by Keith Gunstone, Mark Johnson and Leighton Martin, respectively, reached 80.

In reply, Alexandra always struggled and managed only 48, thanks to 15 from international Paul Canham, and 13 extras.

Llanrumney rightly decided not to enforce the follow-on and batted again to make Alexandra melt in the heat, and this time reached a mammoth 116-8 before declaring.

Stuart Cleverleybatted superbly for 24 not out and Martin added 23 not out and Johnson 22 not out for top individual match totals of 37.

Apart from Canham in the first and skipper Shaun Evans (8) in the second, no Alexandra player scored more than five in either innings.

And they were bowled out for a miserable 40 second time around, thankful for the trip to Rumney RFC afterwards to drown their sorrows.