Tuesday. Border League night. A home match with Redlynch and Hale A. A pleasant evening at Loperwood. Bar open. Oh, for a normal world! Instead, we look back on matches played ‘On This Day’ which is 9th June.
As a club, everyone loves that feeling of a clean sweep of wins. Talk in the pavilion over a beer of great performances on the field, there is no better atmosphere of an evening when all four teams bring home the points. We got close to this on this day in 2018 but it was the first XI who tripped up on their long away day at Liphook and Ripsley, which brought to an end a run of three consecutive wins for the reigning SPCL Division One champions.
We were put into bat and thrived with Matt Hardy hitting three sixes and six fours in his 90-ball 64 and, with Ben Johns added 96 for the second wicket. Michael Cook joined the free flowing Johns and put together another 44. At 176-2 and time still in the bank, hopes were high for a sizable total. Cook went for 2, Johns for an excellent 102-ball 79 and then Matt Taylor second ball. 176-2 became 176-5! Darren Vann’s belligerent unbeaten 42 in 26 balls, containing 3 sixes and three fours at least gave the total a much needed boost late on and we would have been pleased with 239-6. The home side lost an early wicket to Steve Wright but through Covey and Munt eased their side to 139-1 before they started to lose wickets at regular intervals – two to Mark Lavelle (2-29) and Wright (2-24) and were 206-7. However, Neave was crucial and his 42 not out guided his side to the two-wicket win.
It was much better for the 2s who absolutely walloped Hambledon 2s by 202 runs back at Loperwood. Tom Perry won the toss and batted first and sat back to enjoy his charges ease to 268-3 as Allan Hurst (43) and Michael Donovan (37) gave us a great start and this was continued with Adam Carty’s 68 and then a hard-hitting stand between Sam Moss (56*) and Ben Perry (36*) taking us to our imposing total. Hambledon were nowhere against the accuracy of Liam Newton who took 3-16 – all bowled – and Jono Maton 1-13. They were replaced after 10 overs by Perry (3-12) and Paul Henry (2-21) and they needed only 8.1 more overs to finish the innings, rolling them for just 66.
There was an early end to proceedings for the 3s away at Hythe and Dibden 3s as young Matt Morgan showed his undoubted talent by taking 5-14 in 7.1 overs to ease the hosts out for just 69 – Ryan Lomax (2-26) and Sam Dempster (2-11) joining in the wicket taking. Dempster fell early to the evergreen former Calmore seamer Tony O’Connor but we needed only 20.1 overs to knock off the runs, Mike Cotton and Tom Sutton both making 19 to win by 7 wickets.
And the 4s completed the three win day with a comfortable win over Langley Manor 4s at Hunts Farm in Michelmersh thanks to a good mixture of youth and vast experience. Skipper Paul Jewer made 51 and Luke Johnson 38 but it was the undefeated 45 from Jack Austin that was most pleasing in our 193-3. The home side were held up by Calum Bailey’s 4-15 and Finn Blay with 3-18 as they tumbled to 145 all out as Ryan Carty finished things off with 2-37.
We head back to 2012 for our next game in SPCL Division Three and it was a home game with Gosport Borough which skipper Darren Vann will remember fondly. First of all, he won the toss and put the visitors into bat and would have been pleased He took three catches behind the stumps and conceded only one bye. His bowlers, especially Matt Maiden (10-4-15-4) and Paul Proudley (2-46) rushed through the top order and James Rose (2-39) did for the lower order to see them reach 162-9 in their 50 overs. And then he would score over 55% of the runs needed with a scintillating 72-ball 91 which featured 11 fours and three sixes which took his side to the brink of the five-wicket win. Well played Darren!
It is hard to believe that, just nine years after the dramatic end to the 1998 season, both Calmore Sports and Hungerford would be back in County One in 2007 and we would return from Berkshire with a comprehensive 66-run success. James Rose won the toss and chose to bat first and watched Dave Brandes (43) and Gordon Pritchard (39) put 83 on together. 83-0 soon became 121-6 before Tom Pegler (32) and a crunching 61 from Nigel Hill drove the score up to 229 all out. The home side slid to 51-6 as Roy Walton steamed in with 4-25 to rip the top off the innings. They recovered before Hill (2-31) crowned a fine all-round day – he also took a catch – to end Hungerford’s innings at 163-7.
These games will pop up now and again and they will generally not be great reading – it’s another all-day game and this one is at Havant Park in 2001 where we would get a draw – albeit a losing draw – but still a draw. If you won the toss in these games, you would tend to bat first and that is exactly that Paul Gover did for the hosts and then watched a hugely talented batsman, Andy Perry, hit a sublime 160 not out as they declared their innings at 272-3 in 62 overs. Richard Hindley made 53 and Jamaican-Australian Shawn Gillies 31 while James Hibberd took all three of our wickets, returning 3-76 in 23 overs. Amazingly, Havant delivered 70.4 overs in our reply and we survived to 195-7 with Hindley wheeling away for 30 overs for 6-87. Jez Goode hit 67 and Stuart Bailey 64 not out as we played out time to secure the draw.
Our introduction into Southern League cricket hadn’t gone that well in our first season in 1990. Having beaten Alton in week one, we then suffered four defeats on the spin so a trip to twice league winners Lymington was not something that was greeted with great anticipation. It was a rain interrupted day and winning the toss seemed crucial. Steve Brandes did just that and put the home side in and they were hugely grateful to Hampshire opening batsman Tony Middleton who underpinned the Lymington innings with a superb 89 while his team mates contributed only 31 more. That was down to an outstanding bowling display which restricted them to just 128-8 in their reduced 43 overs as Chris Garrett claimed 5-39, Kevin Emery 2-24 and Graeme Lyon 1-38. Chasing down the meager total could have been troublesome but steady hands from Dave Parsons (29), Rob Budd (35) and Graham Cooper (30*) ensured we took the points by six wickets with three overs to spare.
In those days before league cricket, there were plenty of knockouts and one that was always well received was the old Romsey Advertiser Knock Out and we had a first round game in 1971 at home to Mottisfont. We batted first and made 128-1 in our 16 eight-ball overs with Stan Piper carrying his bat for 52 and Terry Chilcott cracking a fine 68. The visitors made steady progress against the disciplined Michael Newman (2-47) and Roy Matthews (3-26) and came up ten runs shy of victory despite Taylor (26) and Pragnell (25).
The last one today is this one! It is always said that a quick game is a good game. I am not so sure about that as we had one in New Forest Division 4 in 1984 that lasted just 16 overs out of the scheduled 80 – probably not even enough time for tea! Down at the Old Ground against a team called CFL, the fourth XI were dismissed for just 21 in nine overs – Frank Stuttard top scoring with 8 while a 13-year-old Stuart Bailey was bowled for 0. Six overs later, the game was done – lost by 10 wickets. Is the bar open?
