ADRIAN AYMES and the Cork ferry - the two most reliable things on view as Hampshire's 299-6 arm-wrestled them the initiative on the opening day of their PPP Healthcare County Championship match against Glamorgan.

The Bristol Channel is a lofted drive from the end of the St Helen's Ground and as per timetable the ferry from Cork to Swansea sailed by.

Its passage looked slightly more stately than Hampshire's did at times in reaching a solid total and, if the ferry prides itself on its reliability, then Aymes proved that he's an on-time guy.

Aymes' form has seen him yo-yo in the order but nobody relishes the prospect of scrapping it out and digging in more than he does as he swung the pendulum Hampshire's way.

His unbeaten 71 had his trademark stamped all over it. Dogged, stubborn defence allied to patience.

Unlike some of those who had gone before him, Aymes decided he's got nothing better to do so why not stick around and bat for a while That's not to say he's a mollusc.

On a sandbox of a pitch that will only get drier the ball had to be worked away and he and Dimi Mascarenhas kept the board ticking in an unbeaten 67-run partnership.

Aymes' only scare was when he had made 25 and Ismail Dawood confirmed his membership of the wicket-keeper's union by muffing a stumping chance.

His attempts to slip the cookie back in the jar with a manic appeal cut no ice with square leg umpire John Holder or with Aymes, who could hardly be expected to walk on a stumping appeal.

Mascarenhas also felt the withering stares when he stood stock still at Glamorgan's launch into a Cherokee war dance when Mike Powell plunged to snap up what they thought was a bat-pad catch. Even Australian club cricket is a tough school for Mascarenhas to learn that umpires are there to give decisions.

As it was, Aymes and Mascarenhas's task of holding out was eased when Matthew Maynard strangely brought pacemen Steve Watkin and Darren Thomas back into the attack with the light fading, prompting an earlier than scheduled finish.

Elsewhere, the Hampshire card wouldn't have met with Magnus Magnusson's approval as just about everyone, apart from John Stephenson,started but couldn't finish.

Robin Smith passed 50 for the seventh time this season but has yet to push on to a big hundred.

Poor shot selection in attempting one thunder-ous cut too many made him one of Robert Croft's three victims in a 32-over spell, having wrested the initiative his side's way in a 92-run third-wicket partnership with Will Kendall.

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