HYTHE AND DIBDEN'S assent of the Hampshire League pyramid began in 2001 with an undefeated County Division 4 campaign.  They won all 13 matches, with South African Eugene Bursler scoring 381 runs in addition to taking 32 wickets.  Robbie James scored 314 runs, while skipper Paul Whitlock led the way with the ball, taking 39 scalps and with it the CD4 bowling award.  Leading run scorer was IBM's Steve Chandler (483), with Ryan Tate (477) six behind.  A certain Andy Hooper wheeled away, picking up a 35-wicket haul for Andover thirds.

Here's a memory jerker - South Hants Touring Club, pictured at Drayton Park in 1969, the embryo season of the old Southern League. Barry Boorah was probably still playing for Portsmouth Bohemians at the time.
Standing (from left): Pop Marshall (umpire), Tom Cordory, Eddie Clark, Paul Flynn, Avi Muley, John Stubbington, Roy Elderfield (scorer). Seated: Barry Wheeler, Ian Preston-Jones, Geoffrey Elderfield, Steve Pierce, Jimmy Eyre.

Fareham finished 14th in County Division 1 in 1983, with 34-wicket Ray Kimber and Andy White (24) prominent in the bowling averages.
United Services won the championship that season, with Hursley Park runners-up. St Cross and Hartley Wintney were relegated to be replaced by the emerging Bashley (Rydal) and Hambledon.
Longparish opener Denis Luff (684) and team-mate John Heagren (623) topped the run scoring charts, with former Hampshire & Derbyshire seamer Keith Stevenson taking 57 wickets for third-placed Road Sea, who also had the late Bernie Thomason and Julian Shackleton featuring.  Adie Holdway (52) and US all-rounder Andy Collier (51) also celebrated a half-century of wickets.

FLAMINGO sprang a surprise by beating perennial winners Easton & Martyr Worthy by 11 runs to win the 2000 Winchester & District CA Tichborne Trophy at Sparsholt.
A half-century by Paul Gover (54) underpinned Flamingo's 117-6, while Dave Wright took the MVP award with a 6-23 return off 4.1 overs, his spell highlighted by a magnificent running catch by a 16-year old Stephen Cook, who played for the club briefly during his school holidays that summer.  Son of then Hampshire coach Jimmy Cook, Stephen went on to make 11 Test appearances for South Africa, hitting a maiden 117 against England at Centurion in January 2016.  Also in the Flamingo line-up was then Saints captain Jason Dodd.
The Tichborne Trophy triumph over Easton & Martyr Worthy (dismissed for 106) was the fore-runner to a remarkable 2000 league and cup success, with Flamingo also being crowned Hampshire League County Division 1 champions that summer.  The club's second team also achieved a promotion.
Flamingo's cup winners: (back from left) Dick Batchelor (scorer), Paul Gover, Mark Leach, Stephen Cook, Paul Batchelor, Nick McMurray, Jason Dodd.  Front: Dave Wright, Gary Fenigan, Stu Shapland, Dave Breach, Jim Ramsay.

CORMORANTS, who finished runners-up to County Division 1 champions Liphook & Ripsley in 1993.
They had an identical record of 13 wins from 15 matches to Liphook, who garnered 16 more bonus points.
Andy Gavriel made 506 runs (136* v   ), while Wayne Musselwhite took 32 wickets.
Cormorants
Back (from left): Mike Hanrahan (scorer), Wayne Musselwhite, Rob Hamber, Ted Tugwell, Steve Tarrant, Doug Frampton, Graham Hughes. Seated: Cleighton Rudder, Dave Bridger, Gary Hounsome, Andy Gavriel, Stan Rudder.

Winchester carried off the Save & Prosper Southern League championship in 1988, ending the two previous years' domination by South Hants Touring Club and triggering a rather bizarre period when the title changed hands seven times in a row.
Ironically, the season did not begin well for the cathedral city club who lost two matches in May before setting off on  run of ten successive victories to secure their first title. Runs were hard to come by across the board - few pitches were covered in those days and ten of the 18 SL clubs played on council grounds - with South African pair Richard Montgomery (Trojans) and Wayne Truter (Deanery) the only batsmen to exceed 500 runs.
Mark O'Connor, then an aspiring Hampshire cricketer, was Winchester's top scorer, his 415 run aggregate including four half-centuries, while skipper Rob Savage (333) and Richard Edwards (248 were the only other players to make the averages.  Off-spinner Steve Ball's 43-wicket haul (which included three separate five-fers) proved pivotal for a Winchester side which excelled in the field. Paul Kerley's career-best spell of 6-17 demolished Waterlooville, who were unbeaten and top of the table at the time, only to fall away and finish in mid-table.

Despite fielding a powerful looking side, the then Save & Prosper Southern League took a seven-wicket beating from the Cherwell & District League in the inaugural 1986 Famous Grouse Trophy.
Tony Middleton (49) and Richard Scott (28) overcame a surprisingly lively Northlands Road track to steer the SL to 95-2 after 25 overs, but the remaining eight wickets fell for 57 runs with the side bowled out for 152.  Cherwell struggled against the new ball attack of Neil Taylor and South African Paul Smith, but once the shine disappeared, Oxfordshire's Steve Lines smashed a 16-boundary 84 not out to sweep the visitors home.  Cherwell were beaten by the Bristol & District League in the final.
Southern League. Standing (from left): Andy Hooper, Neil Trestrail, Paul Taylor, Paul Smith, Neil Taylor, Gary Shotton. Seated: ​Rob Savage, Tony Middleton, Mike Swain, Richard Scott, John Harris.

HAMPSHIRE narrowly failed to reach the quarter-finals of the NCA 50-plus County Championship in 1994, despite beating Middlesex and a Kent side including former England Test opener, the late Brian Luckhurst.
Mike Molden hit an unbeaten 87 in the opening seven-wicket defeat by Sussex, but three wickets apiece by Gosport Borough pair Ray Porter and the late Jim Stares set up a victory over Middlesex (147).  Malcolm Stretton top scored with 60 in the 19-riun defeat by Essex.
Arguably the highspot of that 1994 season was a flamboyant century by Lymington's Tony Wharton, who provided a galaxy of textbook shots on his way to an undefeated 109 as Hampshire totalled 230-4 to outscore Kent, who plunged to 115 all out, the Porter/Stares combo sharing eight of the scalps.
But all hopes of a last eight spot ended with a five-wicket defeat by Surrey in the final group match.
Hampshire: (from left) Brian Loveridge, Jan Bridle, Malcolm Stretton, Don Whitlock, Wilf Rolf (scorer), John Rickard, Jim Stares, Mike Molden. Front: Stan Rudder, Barry Wright, Arthur Holt, Tony Wharton, Ray Porter.

CALMORE SPORTS won 12 of their 13 completed matches to lift the Hampshire League County Division1 crown for a second time in 1994.   Bashley (Rydal) were runners-up.
Bob Budd, with 497 runs, with top batsman, while opener Simon Williams scored an often attractive and eye catching 472.  Recently joined from Chichester Priory Park, John Shepherd cleaned up the bowling prize with 33 wickets, spin partner Kevin Marshall capturing 23.