Reece pieces together another hundred as Glamorgan feel pain again

Luis Reece continued to wage his personal battle against the Glamorgan bowlers as he equaled the Derbyshire record of six successive fifties in first-class cricket on the way to plundering his third century of the summer against the Welsh county at Sophia Gardens.

Glamorgan's decision to put Derbyshire into bat on a green wicket in Cardiff came back to haunt them as the visitors settled in and made hay, ending the first day on 308 for 2.

It was also a significant day for Sue Redfern, who became the first female umpire to stand in a first-class match in England or Wales - although Glamorgan asked few questions of either the batters or the officials.

Reece, 33, was at the heart of the action all day long as he put his side in control with an unbeaten 139 in 96 overs. He put on 80 for the first wicket with Harry Came and then 180 for the second with Brooke Guest.

Leus du Plooy joined him for the final 75 minutes of the day and ended on 22 not out as his contribution to an unbroken third wicket stand of 48.

The home side are due to say goodbye to their chief executive, Hugh Morris, captain, David Lloyd, and head coach, Matt Maynard, and were hoping to push for a final to potentially take them up to third in the table. But the bowlers were once again made to toil in the field by the left-handed Reece as he took his tally of first-class runs against Glamorgan this summer to 471.

He scored 139 and an unbeaten 201, his highest score in first-class cricket, in the drawn game at the County Ground, in Derby in July. He also made 69 against them in the One-Day Cup clash in Derby last month.

Reece's hot streak began in the home clash with Durham in July when he scored 54 in the second innings. From there he notched his twin centuries against Glamorgan before taking 77 off the Gloucestershire attack and 86 against Sussex.

In his latest success, he reached 50 off 74 balls, his century off 175 balls and currently has 16 fours and a six to his credit. Fellow opener Came looked comfortable until he was caught at the wicket by Chris Cooke off the bowling of Zain-ul-Hassan in the 27th over. The next departure was 50 overs later when James Harris had Guest trapped lbw four runs short of his century.

Glamorgan tried seven bowlers throughout the day and four of them went for more than 50 runs.