NEWPORT may have romped to success at St Helen's at the start of the season but the South Wales Premier League leaders are taking nothing for granted against Swansea.

The men from Spytty Park are sitting pretty at the head of the table thanks to another win last weekend when they triumphed at Ammanford by 71 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method.

Nonetheless, the gap to second-placed Cardiff is a slender three points and captain Michael Clayden knows they will have to be on their game against a Swansea side, who they beat out west by 115 runs in May.

"Cardiff are on our toes and we just need to keep on winning," he said. "Play good cricket and we have every chance of keeping our noses in front.

"All you can do is control your own game and if someone helps us out a bit by upsetting Cardiff then it would give us a bit more breathing space.

"We won't take Swansea lightly and they have been strengthened with (Glamorgan's) Andrew Salter, who we have had allocated to us in the past and will be a big player for them batting and bowling.

"They have some dangerous individuals and we know from Pontarddulais, when a guy got 120, that a player can take a game away from you."

Cardiff welcome Ammanford to Forest Farm while third-placed Bridgend, 21 back on Newport, try to keep in the hunt against Port Talbot at Newbridge Fields.

Newport will hope to go into their Premier League clash with a spring in their step as they face an intriguing Macey Cup fixture at Newbridge on Friday night (6pm start) with the winners facing Ebbw Vale.

Panteg got back on the horse in Division Two of the Premier League last weekend and will aim to keep the heat on leaders Penarth when they face fellow title hopefuls St Fagans.

An 18-point haul from their home encounter with Aberdare keeps them second in what appears to be a four-team battle at the top, Ynystawe the other contenders.

Panteg lost to Penarth a fortnight ago and with a home clash with Ynystawe at the end of this month and a final weekend trip to the Seasiders to come, it is shaping up to be a tense tussle for the title with the victors at St Fagans striking an early blow.

Ynystawe host third-from-bottom Pentyrch while Penarth head to second-from-bottom Clydach.

IT'S incredibly tight at the top of the South East Wales Cricket League with Pontypridd topping the Gwent-heavy Division One in which teams are struggling for consistency.

The competitive nature of the league is shown by the gap from the leaders to seventh-placed Blackwood being just 29 points.

Newbridge are right on the tails of Pontypridd and will be determined to strike back after losing to Newport Fugitives last weekend, bringing to an end a five-game winning streak.

Tomorrow they host an Usk side sitting in sixth after being denied a hat-trick of successes last time out by Blackwood, who head to Sudbrook.

The Fugitives are in third and they will have the rest of Gwent hoping they can turn over the leaders at High Cross.

Second-from-bottom Abergavenny have found a bit of form with back-to-back wins against Radyr and Sudbrook and will look to keep that going at a Chepstow side who lost by 73 runs to Ponty last weekend.

Croesyceiliog, fifth and fresh from a thumping 215-run against Sudbrook in which Alex Barry, Stewart Roden and Michael Beacham scored half-centuries and Lewis Pheasant took four wickets, head to bottom club Radyr.