Another lacklustre batting performance. Another defeat.
The story of Newport’s season is becoming more and more predictable as the batsmen fail to bat out their overs, fall short of a competitive total and drop ever deeper into the relegation zone.
Now 63 points short of safety with seven games left, thoughts are already turning to next season and life in division three.
It was the familiar season long story when at St Georges on Saturday.
The loss of early wickets left the remaining batsmen facing an uphill battle, and while Rasika gave hints of a long overdue big league innings, his top score of 38 fell way short of what was needed.
Only three other Newport batsmen managed to reach double figures and with county paceman Steve Taylor ending up with match figures of 5-36, Newport were diusissed for an inadequate looking 118.
Jonty Mountford gave the visiting supporters something to cheer about when he claimed two wickets in his first over to leave St Georges on an unlikely 0-2.
But Matt Tilt (43) and Lee Griffiths, who remained unbeaten on 53 had little difficulty in steering their side to victory for the loss of three wickets.
Tomorrow, Newport entertain high riding Penn for the third and final vice presidentís luncheon of the season in a game is sponsored by domestic cleaning company Time For You, which is run by former Newport player Peter Williams from Muxton.
Meanwhile four teams provided entertainment in the battle for Newport Cricket Club's President's Trophy on Sunday.
President Mick Lea, hosting his first President's Day, started proceedings by umpiring the first innings of the 18 over a side competition between a team captained by second XI skipper Pat Davenport and third XI skipper Craig Stockman.
After a close tussle, it was the Stockman side which went through in a game which featured outstanding catching and fielding.
The second semi final brought together sides captained by Ed Keenan and cricket committee chairman Mike Atherton.
Two good contributions from Rasika saw Atherton's Ashes post a formidable 155 and in a nail biting finish, Eddie Keenan's side were left to score six off the final ball of the game, but only managed to hit a four, going down by just one run. Mike Atherton's side came out on top in the final.
Club chairman Bob Williams said: "The format drawn up by club captain Steve Myers gave some of our youngers players the chance to play alongside some very experienced players and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Some of the fielding was quite outstanding and it was good to see so many people turn up to support our President on his big day."
