Southampton Solent University suffered a 53-run defeat by Cambridge University in their BUCS Championship opener at Sarisbury Athletic. The Light Blues posted 180-8 before dismissing Solent for 127, Huzaifa Yousaf making 42. Solent play Durham at Totton & Eling on Friday, 1100.
0 Comments
Former Bangladesh captain Mo Ashraful christened his Portsmouth debut with a three wickets and 64 runs against Waterlooville, who won a tight game by four runs at St Helen's.
Ashraful, who is Portsmouth's overseas player this season, took 3-14 and later hit 13 fours as his side, wih 233-5, fell just short of Ville's 237 (Alex Shephard 50). Andrew Galliers and Chris Morgan hit fifties as Havant posted 214-6 in 40 overs to beat Chichester Priory Park by 34 runs at Goodwood. Teenager Harrison Barnard (26) and Australian Louis Clayton (23) chipped in for Havant, while Simon Hasted (58) responded in CPP's 180-7. Alton got in some useful batting practice by scoring 278 against Farnham, where Dan Harris (49), Ben Rolfs (46), Scoitt Myers (36) and Aarav Rajnikanth (36) top scored. Mike O'Mahoney took 6-60 and made 44 of Farnham's 148. Sway, last season's SPL3 winners, pulled off an excellent seven-wicket win at Exmouth, where Tim Noble and Will Millard notvched unbeaten 50s as the New Forest club chased down 224-7. Alex Hall hit 44. Jez Bulled (73) and South African Craig Jeffery 59) helped Fareham & Crofton reach 263-6 against Hampshire League Division 1 newcomers Hayling Island at Bath Lane. Greg Chaplin (68) and Jack Williams (40) top scored in Hayling's 213 all out, leg spinner Jeffery taking 3-25 and Tom Kent dropping a huge hint to selectors with 3-36 in a rare bowl. Australian Joe Merlino cleared the Locks Lane boundary rope six times on his way to an unbeaten 62 which helped Sparsholt beat Devon tourists Plymstock (166) by five wickets. Brad Dawes earlier took 6-13. Eight local sides are set to be involved in ECB National Club Championship action on Sunday (April 28), with Basingstoke & North Hants and St Cross Symondians facing West of England Premier League opposition.
Basingstoke host Royal Wootton Bassett at May's Bounty, while St Cross face Corsham for the second year running, but this time at the Green Jackets Ground, Winchester. Bashley (Rydal), who have yet to play any cricket this season, travel into Wiltshire for a tough looking preliminary round tie at Burbage & Easton Royal, who won WEPL Division 2 in 2023. Southern Premier League champions Burridge and South Wilts both have byes, while Old Tauntonians & Romsey head to Bath for a meet-up with WEPL Premiers Lansdown. Portsmouth may include former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful against Sussex Leaguers Middleton at St Helen's, Southsea. Havant host Uxbridge with Waterlooville headed to Normandy. Odiham & Greywell's reward for beating Berkhamsted is an away day at Middlesex Premier League club Richmond. All the matches are 40-overs per side and start at 1pm. Admission is free. Key South Wilts all-rounder Harry Broderick is optimistic he'll be fit for the start of the ECB Southern Premier League season despite fracturing a finger on his left-hand in the pre-season defeat by the Hampshire Academy.
Broderick went to hospital immediately after dislocating his left little finger in a freak fielding accident, It was put back into shape by Hampshire's medical team. "I had the injury x-rayed and there's a definite fracture," he revealed. "But I'm pretty postive I'll be at Bashley for the opening match on May 4." South Wilts left-arm spin all-rounder Archie Fairfax-Ross underlined the benefits of six winter months in Australia by scoring his maiden century against the Hampshire Academy on the Utilita Bowl Nursery Ground.
He peppered the boundary rope with eight maximums and six fours, 84 of his best yet 106 crossing the line. But, for all his efforts, South Wilts lost a 50-over warm-up match which produced 539 runs, by four wickets. Fairfax-Ross, who wintered on Queensland's Gold Coast, was joined in the South Wilts 269-run fest by Harry Broderick (47) and Ben Howgrave-Graham, who smacked a quick-fire 45. Andover's Sam Ashman (46) and Dom Kelly (50) responded for the Academy, whose match winner was Finn Gordon, who celebrated his 17th birthday with a blistering 73 not out, which included three sixes and eight fours. With support from Ethan Martin (21 not out), Gordon lifted the Academy from 160-5 to victory. Derrick Waters has left the crease at Sparsholt cricket for the last time – his ‘innings’ at Locks Lane lasting some 70 years and ending with his recent death a month shy of his 96th birthday.
A devoted lifelong supporter of Hampshire cricket, Bath rugby and Saints football, he joined Sparsholt in 1954 while working as a chartered quantity surveyor with the Hampshire County Council at The Castle. He was Sparsholt secretary for many years after having to retire prematurely from cricket due to a back injury sustained early in his career. His sons, all-rounder David and right-armer Steve succeeded him at Sparsholt, with grandson Seren going on to represent Kenya in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Mr. Waters was fine sportsman in his youth, excelling at cricket, rugby and football for Chichester Grammar School in his teens - but sadly had spinal fusion at a young age which had a significant impact on his involvement in sport. Despite his back injury, Derrick turned out regularly for Sparsholt and played in the Igglesden Trophy winning team in 1964. He was forced to stop playing for Sparsholt far earlier than he would have liked due his back surgery, but spent every weekend from that point watching the cricket while sitting in his car with his wife Jean from underneath the old oak tree at Locks Lane. “He took particular pleasure at watching both myself and brother Stephen playing for Sparsholt and was there when Seren, then 13 years of age, made his debut for the club,” recalled David, who was awarded the MBE in 2009 for services to under privileged children and cricket in Kenya. A very decent all-rounder himself, David is a long-standing member of the Kenya Kongonis cricket club. He was chair for 14 years and club captain for 24. An equally proud moment for Derrick came at Lord’s the following 2010 summer when grandson Seren scored a match winning 111 for Durham against Loughborough in the MCC Universities final. Derrick Waters, David and Seren are pictured in the Long Room at Lord’s after the final. Derrick’s funeral is at the Test Valley Crematorium, near Romsey, on Thursday May 9 (3pm) with a gathering at the Norman Edwards Ground at Sparsholt afterwards. Simon Woodruff's return to Chapel Gate to skipper Bournemouth in the ECB Southern Premier League this coming cricket season has been boosted by the arrival of a talented South African all-rounder.
Aidan Meyer, a 23-year old from the Eastern Province, has joined the Lions having played a lead role in Swaley's Derbyshire League promotion drive last season. A right-hand bat and seam bowler from the Port Elizabeth side Grey's Old Boys , Meyer made over 760 runs, including two late season unbeaten hundreds, to help Swaley finish as Division 1 runners-up. He was equally effective with the ball, taking 39 wickets as Long Eaton-based Swaley gained promotion into the county's ECB Premier League. Rated as a fine prospect by Hampshire's EP-based coach Adi Birrell, Meyer will make his Lions debut in Saturday's pre-season friendly against the Hampshire Academy at Chapel Gate. Woodruff has returned to Bournemouth after spending the 2023 season with St Cross Symondians, where things did not work out as he might have hoped. He will lead a young Lions side in which Meyer will be joined by two other domiciled South Africans, pace bowler Cole Rushworth and teenage batter James van Gool. Bournemouth's opening Premier League match is against promoted Basingstoke & North Hants on May 4. Saturday
Chichester Priory Park v Havant (at Goodwood), Fareham & Crofton v Hayling Island, Farnham v Alton, Ferndown Wayfarers v Poole Town, Hampshire Academy v South Wilts (noon), Shanklin & Godshill v Ventnor (at Arreton), Southampton University II v Trojans, Sparsholt v Plymstock, Totton & Eling v Burridge. Sunday Friendly Exmouth v Sway, Havant v Hampshire Under-16s. MATCHES CANCELLED Bashley (Rydal) v Lymington, Bournemouth v Bridgwater, Ferndown Wayfarers v Poole Town Hook & Newnham Basics v Liphook & Ripsley, Hursley Park v Tichborne Park, Langlebury v Sarisbury Athletic, Normandy v Basingstoke & North Hants, OTs & Romsey v Gosport Borough (ECB KO), Paultons v Calmore Sports, Paultons v Bramshaw (NVC), South Wilts II v Bere Regis, St Cross Symondians v Datchet, Wimborne v Parley, Ben Mayes hit a match winning half-century to guide the Hampshire Academy to a four-wicket over Guernsey - a victory which enabled the county youngsters to win the triangular Cornerstone sponsored Series Trophy. The King Edward VI sporting starlet, who also plays U16 hockey for England, made a patient 50 off 115 balls as the Academy chased down Guernsey's 134 all out to win with ten balls to spare. Mayes, left, hit a six and four boundaries but showed considerable patience guiding his side home after a mini-collapse. Mayes (50) and Sam Ashman (34) had taken them to 106-2. Ethan Martin completed the run chase. Earlier Sam Davis (3-17) and Martin (3-25) shared six Guernsey wickets with Freddie Gillett taking 2-12. Ben Mayes brings up his half-century [Martin Gray pic] Bradfield School's Andrew MacEwen led the way with 76 as the Hampshire Academy posted 166-4 before dismissing Somerset for 117 in the Guernsey Cornerstone Tournament.
He hit two sixes and eight fours, sharing a 77-run start with Andover's Sam Ashman (21) before enjoying another useful partnership with Finn Gordon (36). Sam Davis, Freddie Gillett and Manny Lumsden took two wickets each. But the Academy's bright start ended with a 51-run defeat by a far more experienced Guernsey Board side, who defended 125-9. Davis, Lumsden and Eddie Jack took two wickets each before the Hampshire youngsters crashed to 74 all out, Kai Highman taking 4-5 and Charlie Forshaw boosting his prospects of some Southern Premier League cricket this summer with 3-16. Guernsey then beat Somerset by six wickets. Hampshire play Guernsey in a 50-over match at the KGV Field, St Peter Port on Saturday, 1100. Hampshire Academy 14-man squad
The Channel Islands weather relented to enable the Hampshire Academy to beat their Somerset counterparts by 29 runs in a T20 match in Guernsey. Wilf La Fontaine Jackson (49) and Andrew MacEwen (36) top scored in Hampshire's 149-6. Sam Davis and Finn Gordon took two wickets each as Somerset replied with 120-8, opener Seb Linnett hitting 55, including three sixes. Rowledge are signing an award winning Australian Grade cricketer as their overseas player for the upcoming Southern Premier League cricket season. Sydney based spin all-rounder Justin Felsch helped his club Bankstown win the Albert Cup, the New South Wales Second Premiership, with two stunning individual performances in the finals. The 22-year old was named man of the match in the semi-final victory over Northern Districts, taking 5-44 as Bankstown rolled Northern Districts out for 137 and then, batting at seven, made an innings defining 52 to ensure his side edged a narrow lead. Bankstown went on to win by six wickets to clinch a cup final spot against Western Suburbs, where Felsch starred once again. He struck a second consecutive fifty as Bankstown posted 281 - and then produced a phenomenal spell of off-spin bowling to reduce Western Suburbs to 131 all out. Opening the bowling, Felsch sent down 20 overs, ten of which were maidens, conceding only 17 runs in the process. He wasn't rewarded with a wicket, but played a lead role in Bankstown's Grand Final victory. Felsch, whose elder brother Ryan played for Rowledge in the soggy 2014 season, has also been playing First Grade cricket in Sydney this past winter season. Captained by gloveman Ben Wish for a ninth successive season, Rowledge will also be boosted by the return of teenager Ryan Littlewood, who missed all of last season with back problems, and have added Hartley Wintney teen Ben Williams to their squad. "We are really pleased Justin is going to join the squad. I have no doubt he will be an asset, and will fit in brilliantly. There is a real buzz as the season approaches and we will once again look to be competitive," Wish said. Hambledon leg-spin all-rounder Justin Behrens took a hat-trick for the Rondebosch franchise in the Cape Town Club Cricket T10 League win over Durbanville Cricket Club.
He ended with figures of four for three in two overs, as Durbanville were limited to 73-7 in response to the Rondebosch total of 122-4. The result ensured Rondebosch first position on the eight-team points table. They will meet Durbanville again on Friday. The winner of that match will advance to the final. Behrens topped the Western Province CA Premier Division bowling charts with 42 wickets this past SA winter. Province Cricket Association premier league. Unlike the Cape Premier League, players represent clubs rather than franchises in the inaugural Cape Town Club Cricket League. Participating clubs are allowed to invite players from clubs not involved in the tournament to be in the squad and XI. Behrens is an example of this. Others include Claremont's ex-Dons star Matthew de Villiers, who also plays for Rondebosch. The Southern Premier League management has been asked to consider a one-week wet weather delay to the start of the 2024 programme, scheduled to commence in four Saturdays time on 4 May.
The suggestion is that the round one fixtures on 4 May are postponed and rescheduled for 7 September 2024, when none of the 20 home clubs has a ground share issue with winter sports. The SPL has canvassed clubs with a view to a decision being made ahead of next week's captains meeting. For some odd reason, the SPL programme starts a week earlier than all the other ECB Premier Leagues in the south, who begin on 11 May. The region has been hit hard by one of the wettest winters and springs in living memory. The constant rain that has saturated grounds going back as far as last July has left most outfields waterlogged to the extent that any pre-season warm-up matches have probably been knocked on the head already. Since January 1 until the end March, we have had (source: MetOffice) a total of 389.9mm of rain, compared to 271mm in the same period last year. And last year was higher than previous years. As can be see from the stats, its an unprecedented amount of rainfall and there have been very few gaps between rainy days in order for grounds to recover. Several preliminary round matches in the ECB National Club Championship and Village Cup due to be played this Sunday have also been called off. The situation is so serious locally that not a single SPL ground could be fit for play on May 4. Clogged drainage ditches on the perimeter of many grounds is the root cause of the problem - surface water simply cannot drain away, leaving water tables very high. This is particularly the case in vulnerable grounds at Bashley (Rydal), Calmore Sports, Hook & Newnham Basics, Hursley Park and Langley Manor, who are facing major problems at Knellers Lane. Apart from the odd bit of outfield mowing, getting a roller out of the shed and on to the square has been a no-go for virtually every groundsman. "Getting plant out if the shed is one thing. A roller sinking on the outfield, where it could be marooned for some time, is another" said one senior groundsman. Groundsmen, almost entirely volunteers, are comfortably a calendar month behind preparation schedule, with any hope of pre-season friendlies already gone and, with it, a vital income stream. Pre and early season is a key time for clubs financially, with outgoings for cricket balls, insurance, equipment repairs at their peak - but with no income, a precarious time. It has been suggested to the SPL that, if by any chance some drying weather comes along and some pitch preparation is possible, 4 May could perhaps be used for friendlies. The fixtures are made and the umpires will be ready. What do you think ? Is delaying the start of the SPL season until 11 May a good idea and is it feasible ? Sensible comments welcomed ... Hampshire's Academy aspirants flew to the Channel Islands today play hosts Guernsey and Somerset in a triangular five-day white ball tournament at the King George V Ground in St Peter Port - only to be the met with an all too familiar scenario. Today's tea-time T20 opener against Guernsey was called off due to inclement weather, but the forecast for the next few days is more promising. They plan to play T20 and 50-over matches, We hope to provide match details on this website. Basingstoke & North Hants went unbeaten for two seasons when they carried off the Thames Valley League championship in 1988 and again in 1989. They were also inaugural TVL winners in 1972 and again in 1996.
Standing (from left): Doug Martin (umpire), Jon Govett, Keith Harris, Mark Gifford, Andy Neal, Rob Williams, Derek Pine (umpire). Seated: Ray Pavesi, Nigel Williamson, Danny Bent, Derek Dicker, Chris Hume, Darren Flint. Seamer Ed Bartlett has accepted the challenge of leading New Milton's bid to bounce back from last season's disastrous Southern Premier Division 1 relegation campaign.
He won't have former skipper George Watts - now based on the Isle of Wight and playing for Ventnor - at his side, but Bartlett will be boosted by a South African batter/spin bowler from Cape Town. Thaakir David, a 20-year old top order batsman and spin bowler, has joined New Milton from the Western Province CA side Rylands. Bartlett, who switched from his home town club Wimborne three seasons ago after covid, has remained loyal to the Green & Golds despite last season's relegation which saw the Fernhill club win only one game. With 48 SPL wickets under his belt in three seasons and a place in Dorset's attack up for grabs, he might easily have been attracted to join neighbours Bashley (Rydal) or Bournemouth. But instead he's taken the captain's armband to play at Fernhill. Thaakir David hails from Wynberg Boys High School (where South Africa Test great Jacques Kallis was educated) and spent the 2023 UK summer playing for Warrington in the third tier of the Cheshire County League. He made over 500 league runs and took 33 wickets, but was unable to prevent Warrington from finishing bottom of Division 3. David was unable to shrug off the losers tag when he returned to the Cape - Rylands finishing last in the competitive Western Province CA competition. The 20-year old will want to avoid a hat-trick of relegations this summer ... Paddy McNamara, a promising 21-year old Australian all-rounder, is joining Hursley Park as their overseas player for the club's return to Southern Premier League cricket this summer. A top order right-hand batsman who bowls left-arm seam, McNamara hails from Wangaratta, situated on the Hume Highway in north-eastern Victoria, a three-hour drive into Melbourne. He has captained Rovers United Bruck CC for the past three years having emerged from the junior section and, on the back of two outstanding seasons, came close to selection for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash. "I have played cricket in Wangaratta all my life. I take my cricket very seriously and work hard to improve my game all the time but I also love the social side of it after games," he said. McNamara will be joined at Hursley Park by Mark Pravitt, who helped Orsett & Thurrock win the Essex Premier League Division 2 title last season. Hursley's first competitive match will be the National Village Cup tie against Odiham & Greywell on April 28. Paultons visit The Quarters for the opening SPL3 match on May 4. Spin all-rounder Oli Green will skipper Hursley Park, having won promotion back to the Southern Premier League by virtue of finishing runners-up in Hampshire League Division 1 last season. The gloves are off at Bashley (Rydal) with skipper and lead bat Michael Porter pondering on whether to continue to play cricket or pursue a lucrative career in the boxing ring. He's scored exactly 4900 runs in the past ten seasons for Bashley, guiding the side to the 2019 Southern Premier League title, but most recently and with the weather at its wettest, Porter took up boxing and has been letting his fists do his talking as opposed to his cricket bat. Porter has proved a real knockout since linking up with the Ultra White Collar Boxing Club in home town Bournemouth, where he's floored one opponent after another in front of packed, blood thirsty black tie audiences. The 28-year old so far has a perfect ten-out-of-ten win record, the last seven inside the distance knockouts - statistics that haven't gone unnoticed in higher circles. The ABA selectors were present at ringside at the BIC last week when Porter waded in, ducking and diving, right and left fists pumping, to dump his latest opponent on the canvass inside two minutes. "The crowd leapt out of their seats chanting 'more, more' : I thought I was in the Colosseum for one moment, fighting alongside Russell Crowe in Gladiator," Porter laughed. Porter might just get an invitation to the upcoming ABA Championships in Wolverhampton and, if his right arm is raised at the end of his flyweight qualifying contests, a place the GB squad at the 2024 Paris Olympics might just be around the corner. But if his sensational career start continues apace, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom promotions and Frank Warren might just bypass Porter's amateur career and jostle to give him an early taste of the big time. Local boxing hero Chris Ballam-Smith is due to defend his WBO cruiserweight crown at AFC Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium this summer and there's speculation Porter could feature on the undercard. "That really would be beyond my wildest dreams," said the Bashley captain, who harboured thoughts as a career as a footballer in his teens. "I sat next to Harry Cornick in science lessons at Poole Grammar and, when my dad took me to Dean Court, Nathan Byrne was my role model. He was my hero." Porter is waiting to find out who his next boxing opponent will be, but with the BCG waterlogged and little prospect of any pre-season friendlies ahead of the May 4 SPL start date against South Wilts, he plans to continue his early morning Boscombe beach runs, accompanied by his training partner, his dog Rover, pictured above. "Rover thoroughly enjoys his early morning exercise, the only problem is that I have to take a plastic bag everywhere," he smiled. www.facebook.com/1825270088/videos/pcb.10219923846726284/1467825790468635 Ben Attrill led the way in his Sunday best as Ventnor's players set off on a 10-mile Easter fund raising walk from Newport to their Steephill headquarters - complete in cricket fit, wearing lids, pads, gloves and wearing coloured clothing - to raise much needed funds, particularly to continue weekly expensive cross-Solent trips for Southern Premier and Hampshire League matches on the mainland. Ventnor have optimistically penciled in home matches against the Hampshire Academy and Lymington on April 6 and 13 ahead of an end-April visit to Amport in the National Village Cup. St Cross Symondians have signed South African strike bowler Kyle Pluke as their overseas player for the ECB Southern Premier Division season, which is scheduled to start on May 4 2024.
Pluke is one of the lead bowlers in the Western Province CA Premier competition and took 38 wickets for fourth-placed Claremont this past Cape Town season. His wicket tally was second only to Hambledon leg-spin all-rounder Justin Behrens, who took 44 poles for WPCC. Rondebosch were WPCA winners. Pluke, who moves the ball both ways, plays in the same Claremont side as 2022 Hambledon run gun Matt De Villiers and Derbyshire's Harry Came, recently of St Cross. He will be heavily involved in coaching at the Green Jackets Ground. Stalwart opener Pete Hopson has been left to pick up the pieces with Havant sent reeling by the loss of a staggering SIX front line ECB Southern Premier Division players.
With the start of the competitive summer season only six weeks away, Hopson [above] has found himself catapulted into the captain's hot seat - something he didn't anticipate when Harry Gadd reportedly accepted an invitation to skipper the first team team at last November's annual meeting. But in a surprise move, Gadd has decided to drop down a tier and play Division 1 cricket for Portsmouth and take in the fresh air on Southsea seafront. Gadd isn't the only top order batsman to leave Havant - last year's captain Ben Walker has rejoined Bashley (Rydal), where he won a 2019 Premier championship medal, and wicketkeeper George Metzger has returned to his home town club, Basingstoke & North Hants after two short spells at the Park. Basingstoke have been promoted back in to the Premier Division this season after a seven-year absence. Havant's seam bowling has also been hit, with Sonny Reynolds returning to Waterlooville to play under the captaincy of his elder sibling Archie for last year's Division 2 winners. Fellow seamer Richard Jerry, who battled against injury last summer, isn't expected to play and Portsmouth university student Kai Ziemkendorf has done his time in the city. It's left Hopson, a first team regular since 2010 and accumulator of over 5000 Southern Premier Division runs, with only a handful of experienced team-mates. The ageless Richard Hindley remains alongside Chris Morgan and Chris Stone, with teenager Ben Feeney an ideal fit behind the stumps. The player exodus does mean talented youngsters like Charlie Whitfield, spin pair Freddie Gadd and Matty Hayward will get more opportunities, along with Harrison Barnard. Havant are reportedly in talks with a West Australia Grade club about an overseas player for the upcoming season. A team of Hursley Park cricketers got in a spot of pre-season fitness training and at the same time boosted club coffers to the tune of almost £1,300 by participating in the Eastleigh 10k. The money raised goes to pay for essential works needed to maintain The Quarters as one of the nicest grounds on the circuit.
There's a real pre-season buzz at Old Tauntonians & Romsey following last season's promotion as Southern Premier Division 2 runners-up. Hampshire's Chris Wood [left] has been appointed coach, with opener Charlie King stepping down as captain and top order batsman and spin bowler Rob Newman taking the armband. Wood's coaching role as already impacted pre-season training, with healthy attendances at midweek Embley Park school sessions, where the pair have run the sessions. Chris has been gaining his coaching badges and is studying a degree in Leadership in Sport. Wood, who has a white ball Hampshire contract and initially expects to play in the Vitality T20 Blast, has been with OTs & Romsey for the past ten years. He celebrated his debut with a half-century against Bashley (Rydal) seconds back in May 2015, but as a full-time county cricketer has been a key player in Hampshire's T20 Blast successes, featuring in ten Finals Days and lifting the trophy three times. Wood said: "This appointment comes as the latest step in a relationship between myself and the club that has strengthened over a number of years. "As my playing career comes towards it back end, I’m passionate about strengthening my skills and experience as a coach and Romsey has provided a great environment and opportunity for that to happen. "I want to help us cement our place in SPL1 and hopefully beyond in the future, and I know this only happens by working with the whole club and playing group at OTR’s. "We’ll work to make the environment competitive with every player having the opportunity to push for a first team place. OTs & Romsey chairman Stuart Tulk added: "Chris is a terrific addition to our coaching ranks and will add valuable experience and knowledge to our preparations for the season ahead as we look to maintain our position in Premier Division 1, which is exclusively 50-over white ball cricket. Formats "With his extensive experience of white ball cricket having excelled for both Hampshire and London Spirit in various formats we are hopeful of building on the solid foundations built by Charlie King and the previous coaching team” "We will have to adapt to the new challenges white ball cricket will provide and hope my experience from the professional game, especially in white ball formats will be a help” Chris Wood will be present every Saturday where his Hampshire playing schedule allows and on occasions still play. Newly promoted OTs launch their SPL1 challenge against Portsmouth at St Helen's, Southsea on May 4, prior to which they are scheduled to host Gosport Borough in an ECB national club championship preliminary round tie on Sunday April 14. The square at the Romsey Sports Centre had extensive end of season work carried out under a process called 'koroin' - Hampshire assistant groundsman Tom Cowley and Southern Ground Care undertaking the operation with the support of the Test Valley district council. "The top 20mm of the entire square was removed, the table reseeded and top dressed in preparation for the coming season,"Tulk explained. Ferndown Wayfarers' fairy tale run in the ECB national indoor sixes championships ended with a 49-run defeat by Broadstairs - but reaching the final itself was a fantastic achievement by the Dorset side, the third Hurn Bridge team to reach Lord's after Poole Town in 2010 and winners Bashley (Rydal) two years ago.
Denied a place on ground accreditation grounds in this summer's Southern Premier League after winning the Hampshire League at the first attempt last year, Ferndown had beaten Ventnor, won the Taunton regional finals with victories over 2023 ECB finalists Neyland and OTs & Romsey, before knocking out Birmingham Premier Leaguers Halesowen in the semi-final. But drained from pulling off a thrilling last-ball win to beat Halesowen, Ferndown found the Lord's national final a step too far and were soundly beaten by Broadstairs, who had twice finished runners-up in the past, most recently against Sarisbury Athletic. Wayfarers were in the game with Broadstairs 71-3, but Nathan Fox (34*) and Jake Benfield (32*) took the game away from them. It all went disastrously wrong for Ferndown with the bat as they lost openers Alex Sansom and Eric Linge on 10 and then Freddie Pittaway for a second ball duck. They fell to 41-5 before Will Sansom made 38 to lift their final total to 77. |
Powered byCricket-Hockey.com - the cricket equipment experts in Downton, Salisbury
|