With the reserve teams of the Premier League returning to their roots, many changes have had to be made to numerous divisions of the South East Wales Cricket League, writes Lyn Hall.

The management committee should be complimented on their work – they now administer cricket in the area for 15 divisions, one of the highest in the ECB.

Perhaps, however, they should have gone one step further and reduced the First Division to ten clubs as many clubs favour as the necessary disruption would then have been restricted to just one season and the need to agree suitable fixture dates for the additional games would have been avoided.

The situation whereby clubs at the end of this season play each other on consecutive weeks would not have occurred. It will certainly be something new in competitive league fixtures in all sports.

The highest score of opening day was posted by Abergavenny with their 237 against newly-promoted Ebbw Vale.

James Francis and Sam Clarke notched half centuries for the home team while Tom Pipe fell one just short being caught on 49.

Robson Blake, Aryan Shetty and Ethan Jones each took three wickets as the Vale struggled to keep the score down to an achievable target and they were never in contention in reply, falling to 83 all out with wickets being spread between the bowlers.

At Sudbrook, promoted Blackwood were asked to bat first and fought their way to 168 with valuable contributions from Callum Herring and Dan Wilkinson but they were helped considerably with the home team bowling 31 wides.

Blackwood were equally generous in their reply bowling 30 but at 137 for 7 they were well in contention.

Home captain Jamie Watkins showed great determination and with the help of Luke Ingham led his side to a three-wicket victory.

At Malpas, a solid batting card saw them post 235 off their allocated overs with Kieran Walker taking 4 for 33 off just five overs for the visiting Tondu.

In the reply the visitors put on 198 for the first wicket with eight bowlers tried in the bid for a break through before Ben Green was run out for 69.

Skipper Scott Thornton saw his side to victory with three overs remaining with an undefeated 123 to become the only centurion on the day.

At Lisvane, visitors Radyr were struggling to set a target for much of their innings before number 9 bat, Ben Wakeling, nudged his way to 40 to help post a competitive 176.

Lisvane, who have lost four first team players including last years captain Nye Brown, were never in contention with only two players reaching double figures with Brychan Tudor on 31 and Jack Mitchell 37 with the next highest scorer managing to score just 7.

It looked as if rain might come to their rescue but they were on 104 for 9 when the game finished with a 72-run victory for the visitors.

The only other scheduled game of the day was the local derby between Panteg and Croesyceioliog was cancelled due to wet conditions at Panteg.