​LONGPARISH, who lie 12th in Hampshire League Division 1 after Callum Giles (73) had inspired a dramatic one-wicket win at Ryde.
Standing (from left): Ben Gardner, Jordan Blackmore, Jack Ashmore, Sam Gardner, Nathan Smith, Toby Trinder.  Front: Chris Clarke, Zac Allen, William Samways, Callum Giles. Michael Taplin.

Mottisfont (from left): Ian Bradwell (56 years). Graham Blake (69), Craig Proctor (37). Richard Blake (37). Edwin Moody (64). Steve Godwin (54) Front: Jalpan Patel (41). Ian Jerram (65). Graham Collins (59). Darryl Lawrence (27), Pete Southwell (70).

There’s nothing like a bit of experience when it comes to winning a tight cricket match – and Mottisfont’s ‘Dad’s Army of a team had plenty of that when they beat Laverstock & Ford by one run in a Hampshire League Division 4 West thriller.
The Font sent out a team with a combined age of 579 years, one player aged 70, three in their mid to late 60s and there more of 54 years or more.
Richard Blake (47 runs) and Ian Bradwell (34) top scored in Mottifont’s 155-9, Laverstock finishing one short at 154 all out, 
Bradwell completed a fine day’s work with figures of 3-38, while Blake, Proctor and Patel took two wickets each.

South Wilts thirds suffered a bizarre and somewhat rare hat-trick of run outs in the penultimate over of their Hampshire League Division 2 match against East Woodhay at Bemerton.
With three balls of the 44th over of their innings remaining, South Wilts were handily placed at 209-5.
Off the fourth ball Freddie Sharlow was run out attempting a second run (210-6).
Next ball skipper Tom Pearce, who had made 45, was run out was non-striker and when new batter Rebecca Blake ran past him.
Then off the very last ball, Amila Maduragoda was run out as he too attempted a second run.
Ironically, the 45th over was a maiden, South Wilts closing  at 211-8, with extras top scoring with 50.
East Woodhay went on to win by four wickets, batting themselves out of trouble at 135-6.

Harry Shardlow and William Welch hit centuries before South Wilts’ pulled off a one-run victory over  Purton in a remarkable Wiltshire Under-15 League match at Bemerton which produced a staggering 677 runs and with the outcome in doubt until the very last ball.
Sharlow, with two sixes and 20 fours in his unbeaten 150, shared two significant partnerships, initially 171 with Welch (104) and then 150 with Alex Vincent (49) as South Wilts posted 339-7 in 40 overs.
With Adam Davison scoring 136, Purton hit back hard and eventually needed two runs to win off the last ball, which George Nash arrowed through the stumps of Cavan Bramwell (37) to give South Wilts a one-run win.  Purton closed an agonising 338-7.
South Wilts scorer Adrian James completed a marathon day with the books, starting at 10am with the U13s and not finishing until 7.10pm when stumps were drawn on the Purton thriller.  

Ben Rogers hit an unbeaten 120 to power Bournemouth to a 51-run victory over neighbours Parley in the HCB Under-17 Kerry Cup.  
His century contained four sixes and 12 fours and came in a hefty second-wicket stand with Conor Smith (40) as Bournemouth posted 181-4 before restricting Parley to 130-9 (Kieran Laird 43).
Second round draw: Alton v Trojans, Hursley Park v Bournemouth, Hambledon v Aldershot, Compton & Chandler's Ford v Havant or Petersfield, Rowledge v Hartley Wintney, Sparsholt v Hedge End or Winchester District, Totton & Eling v Bashley (Rydal).

Tichborne Park opener George Ayling (pictured) thought he was on a winner after smashing a career-best 155, including 11 sixes and 11 fours, off the Ryde attack in a Hampshire League Division 1 run fest at Harding Shute.
He scored just of half of Tichborne Park’s towering 304 all out – but it wasn’t enough !
Ayling found himself upstaged by 16-year old Oscar Vandecastle, who struck an unbeaten 138 to sweep Ryde to a remarkable one-wicket victory with 14 balls to spare.
The teenager hit two sixes and 13 fours, carefully shepherding Ryde from 227-8 and into a winning position.  Ryde’s last two wickets added 78 runs.  It was their first win of the season.
Compton & Chandler's Ford now top Division 1 after an emphatic 119-run win at Odiham & Greywell coincided with Old Basing losing.

Standing (from left): Ollie I’anson, Toby Gray, George McCarthy, Tinashe Chimbambo, Will Fisher, Fawwaz Anjum.  Front: Scott Spearing, Mat Scorey, Alex Spearing, Andy Gorty, Ethan Sharpe. 

Four wins from their opening five matches has taken Compton & Chandler’s Ford to within three points of Old Basing at the top of Hampshire League Division 1.
Powerful batting has enabled CCF to post totals of 275-plus on three separate occasions, with Will Fisher and Jameel Khan each scoring centuries.
Compton have just signed 33-year old Zimbabwean Tinashe Chimbambo, who plays franchise  cricket for Mountaineers and made 89 on debit against Longparish last weekend.
Results –
Compton & Chandler’s Ford 337-8 (Fisher 137*, Gorty 69, Jassal 47) beat Portsmouth 208 (Gorty 6-53, Rathod 3-28) by 129 runs.
Compton & Chandler’s Ford 227-8 (Rathod 68, Fisher 42) beat Winton 225-9 (Gorty 4-25) by two wickets.
Compton & Chandler’s Ford 95 (Power 5-23) lost to Tichborne Park 96-4 by six wickets.
Compton & Chandler’s Ford 275-9 (Khan 112*, Gorty 57, A Spearing 30) beat Alton II 144 (Sundram 3-37) by 131 runs.
Compton & Chandler’s Ford 294-8 (Chimbambo 89, Gorty 55, Sharpe 49, Spearing 37*) beat Longparish 111 (Anjum 4-25, Fisher 4-23) by 183 runs.

Former England and Surrey all-rounder Rikki Clarke divided opinion on social media after he posted a screenshot of the scorecard from his appearance in a Hampshire League game for Shrewton over the weekend.
Clarke, who retired from first-class cricket last summer at the age of 39 and represented England in 22 internationals from 2003 to 2006, scored 229 playing for Shrewton in the sixth rung of the Hampshire cricket pyramid - Division Two of the HCL against South Wilts thirds. .
Clarke’s 109-ball stay at the crease featured 22 sixes as his side scored 385-7 off their 45 overs. It was Clarke’s third league outing of the summer; he had only scored 28 runs across his previous two league games in 2022.
Clarke attracted some criticism online for playing against a club third team but was praised and defended by a whole host of former professionals. 
Former England bowler Simon Jones tweeted: “Ignore them [those criticising Clarke] Clarkey, there’s always going to be a minority who are envious and enjoy trying to create, take it as a compliment, you’re a huge asset to the club, smile and keep doing what you’re doing.”
Another former England Test cricketer, Gavin Hamilton, defended Clarke, saying: “Cannot actually believe this is being questioned.”
The three-time County Championship winner also highlighted how, aside for turning out for Shrewton, he has put in a lot of time helping to improve the club. 
In a further tweet, he said: “Spent about two days of my time jet washing the decking and helped paint it after to make the pavilion look better for potential visitors and new recruits. Went to winter nets to help coach all senior teams and did free junior coaching classes for new junior recruits.”
South Wilts, who fielded six teenagers, were bowled out for 146 and suffered a fourth straight defeat.  Clarke later bowled six overs without reward.  

So, what does it take to make sure that you play a game next weekend? Or, if you are a Club, how do you make sure that you have a team?
The CCC has decided to make this a singular issue Newsletter, the topic having acquired an immediacy and intensity of debate as a result of an open letter from a small club in the lower levels of the Hertfordshire league who admitted to being unable to put together enough players to fulfil their two Saturday league fixtures, and were forced to concede both.
This Pandora’s Box was opened by Bayford and Hertford CC who conceded both their games in divisions 3B and 10 East – despite having registered over 100 players with the Herts League at the beginning of the season.
It transpired that 12 other clubs conceded fixtures over the same weekend in Hertfordshire, and this was mirrored in Cornwall, Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somerset – and – given the number of social media requests from across the country, we may surmise that there is a disturbing trend at the lower end of the club cricket league structure.  The picture was then repeated for the second weekend in a row.
During this period NCC has been active in acquiring data and has a lively social media dialogue across the country, as well having contributed to a Radio Essex programme covering distressed clubs in the region.
As Cricket Clubs we start our lives with the ethos of wanting to play cricket.
                                                                                    Competitive edge
We then morph into trying to be better at cricket and, at the same time, we try to provide the best facilities we can to sustain our cricketing aims.
Then we join Leagues to further sustain the competitive edge to our game, and those Leagues develop rules which make sure that the games we play are fair and equitable.
And this has been so for the past 9 generations since The Gentlemen of Hambledon graced our pitches.
Then we find that, in some cases, enthusiasm for the game is a diminishing asset and so we want to change the bases under which we wish to play.
But the Leagues, to which we have associated ourselves, are entrenched within their rules and, because they can, they prevent us from being flexible in our attitudes.
So, how do we react, with responsibility for the youth and future of cricket in our grasp, without appearing to be wrecking the infrastructure which we helped to put into place?
There is a strange dichotomy in the world of Club Cricket at the moment. 
On the one hand there are more registered players across the country than ever.
On the other, we have cricket clubs unable to fulfil their fixtures due to lack of players.
                                                                                             Pandemic
We know that the pandemic has had an odd consequence of Big Clubs getting bigger.  Equally we are aware that the individuality of Clubs does not easily accommodate a “sharing” mentality.
Surely now is the time to break the vicious circle and look for equitable and sensible solutions so that smaller Clubs can retain their core values?
Hertfordshire is one of the largest Leagues in the country when it comes to numbers of clubs and divisions in its remit.  The Herts League has already taken steps so that clubs in some of the lower divisions are able to have duplicate registrations by local region – but few clubs know about it.
Yet there are over 3000 cricketers registered in Hertfordshire.  How many of those registered are “regular” players, and how many of the  “regular” players did not get a game last weekend?
If a large club with three or more teams has an excess of say, 3 players on an any given Wednesday or Thursday, how can they tell other local clubs that they have players for loan purposes?  And in any case are they willing to do so?
                                                                                                Condone
But even if they were so disposed, how would they know which clubs to contact if they had either an excess or a shortfall? And would the Leagues condone such actions?
What appears to be required is to establish a central player register of both players and clubs, county by county and league by league, with availability on a weekly basis. The envisaged system can only work for extremely small geographical areas and should only reflect the situations in the lowest 20% of divisions in Leagues.  Preferably, clubs will pre-nominate the other clubs in their locality (not necessarily in their own League) to the central register for speed of response.
The National Cricket Conference has a remit from the ECB to “Find a Player – Find a Club” and we are making sure that we have the resource to make that work.  We are preparing a “forum” facility on our website where we can alert specific parties to either scarcity or glut.
Find a Player Find a Club
It requires a flexibility from the Leagues to allow cross registration abilities, not just within leagues but by geographical proximity. We can envisage a system evolving as in Hertfordshire but with modifications. The process is only workable on a very localised basis, as well as it being marketed correctly and openly.
This innovative process can only succeed if the Family of Cricket  acknowledges this as a need to be implemented from the bottom up, but it will have to change the terms of its Will. The NCC is available to write and enact the codicil, and we would like to do it as soon as possible – but only within a cooperative environment, encouraged and promoted by our major stakeholders – County Boards, Leagues and Clubs. 
Watch this space.
Any thoughts ? Email them to Robbie Brook : ccc@club-cricket.co.uk

Bishops Waltham cricketers will take the field in Saturday’s opening Hampshire League Division 2 match against Ferndown Wayfarers in shirts sponsored by First Choice Therapy, the sports and remedial massage therapists, based at 4 Cross Street.
The new season has begun on a promising note - a high scoring defeat at Southern Premier League Hambledon preceding a fine 14-run victory over Old Tauntonians & Romsey II in which James Hunter and Luke Carvey made unbeaten fifties and Ed Dadd took six wickets with the ball. 
The club fields three Saturday teams in the Hampshire League, along with a Sunday XI and a side participating in the Winchester & District Midweek League on Tuesday evenings.
Based at the Albany Ground, just off Winchester Road, they are pro-active in junior cricket and run sides from age nine upwards.

Colden Common, Otterbourne and Sporting Wessex are looking for a regular wicket keeper for the 2022 season, ideally someone who has previously played at Hampshire Cricket League County 3 level.
If there are any budding wicket keepers who aren't getting games at their present clubs, CCO & SW maybe be the club to offer you the opportunity to fulfil the role.
If you are interested please contact Colin Hutton on 07761 250832 or by email at chut@noc.ac.uk

A 1.75 tons roller which has sat for the past six years deteriorating in the long grass on the boundary edge at Parley has been fully refurbished for use by the local Hampshire League club this coming season.
The roller is 63 years old, 25 of which were spent at Dean Park playing an important role in preparing pitches for Hampshire’s County Championship matches.
Anxious to enhance the quality of their own pitches and so get their ground accredited for potential promotion to the Southern Premier League in 2023, Parley engaged DJB Machinery from Tonbridge, Kent, who sponsored the full refurbishment of the roller – and what a superb job they did !
“DJB Machinery took the roller back to their Tonbridge base, where they provided a mechanical upgrade, installed new parts, and repaired and repainted it. What a fantastic job they did, none more so than Dan Bryce and Albert,” beamed Parley cricket manager Keith Clarke.
“Hopefully, the roller will continue to serve the club for many years to come in the hands of the Parley ground volunteers, especially as DJB Machinery’s sponsorship deal includes a six-month service arrangement.” 
Parley will play pre-season friendly matches at Dorset Premier League side Martinstown and against SPL neighbours Bournemouth before opening their HCL Division 1 programme at Alton on May 7.

​The Hampshire Cricket League plans to return to normality in terms of playing regulations for its Saturday afternoon matches this summer.
Games across the board were restricted to 40-overs per side last year, but the league intends to return to a 50, 45 and 40-over format down the 19-division pyramid when play begins on May 7 2022.
That means Division 1 matches will be 50-overs per side, with a restriction of ten overs per bowler, with play starting at 12.30pm.
Games in Divisions 2 and 3 will last 45 overs (nine overs per bowler) with 1pm starts. 
Divisions 4 to 6 will be of a 40-over duration (eight overs per bowler) again starting at 1pm.

We all know how important umpires (and scorers) are to the game of cricket and every batsman will have tales of those occasions when there was 'no way I could have been out' !
Here's the chance for you to get one or two people from your club trained up as umpires at the standard required for your friendlies, your league matches and even for the league panel of umpires, should the individual concerned wish to go that far.
The Stage 1 and Stage 2 courses, both being held at The Leaze – headquarters of the Dorset Cricket Board and Wimborne & Colehill CC - are being held on Saturdays March 26th and April 9th, respectively.  These may well be of interest to HCL clubs in the New Forest and obviously Bournemouth and Dorset.
For information the Stage 1 is designed to equip an umpire to be able to stand for a club in friendly matches whilst the Stage 2 is a requirement for anyone wishing to join a league panel.
Stage 1 UES1/000504 - https://booking.ecb.co.uk/d/s8q5c6
Stage 2 UES2/000474 - https://booking.ecb.co.uk/d/t8q5cn

Langley Manor cricketer Ken Morrison is the Hampshire League’s new chairman, succeeding Denis Emery in the hot seat.
A retired chartered accountant, Ken graduated from Southampton University in 1982 and initially played Sunday friendly cricket for Merlin for around 20 years.
A batsman/wicket-keeper, he joined Langley Manor some 15 years ago and mainly plays third and fourth team cricket in the regional divisions.
Ken confesses to be a big soccer fan and, having grown up in Suffolk, follows the fortunes, or otherwise, of Ipswich Town.
He said: “Having recently retired, I am excited to be getting more involved in local cricket and am looking forward to joining the Hampshire Cricket League management team. 
“I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Denis Emery and Philip Wilson, the retiring Chair and vice Chair, for their outstanding contribution to the management of the League.”
The Hampshire Cricket League has 185 clubs for the 2022 season, which will begin on May 7 and a thriving Ladies section which has three divisions and plays on Sundays.

THE terminal shortage of money, players and volunteers has led to the folding of Brading — with the sad prospect of more cricket clubs on the Isle of Wight likely to follow suit.
Middlemead, Brading's home since 1987, once thrived as players and families devoted their time to the club, which boasted two Saturday teams, one on Sundays and players taking part in midweek touring games.
Money was raised from events and donations to buy the land at Middlemead, on the edge of Brading, and transform a farmer's field into a ground Island cricket could be proud of.   The club had a spell playing in the regional divisions of the Hampshire League.
How times have changed.
Club stalwart Ian Hailes, whose family has a long association with Brading and island sport, explained: "Difficulties finding funding, players, paid up members and, crucially, a lack of volunteers, has become a downward trend this past ten years — making this a heavy workload for the remaining few of us who ran the club.
"Income dropped considerably amid the cancellation of two seasons during Covid, with bills paid, wickets needing to be prepared and maintenance of the clubhouse, which made the club financially unsustainable."
But cricket shouldn’t be lost to Brading as the club has gifted Middlemead to the Isle of Wight cricket board "so that matches can be continued and enjoyed there. 

​St Helens, who play in the Island League, are also in deep trouble, with so few players committing to the club.
Charlie Millington, a stalwart at St Helens for 40 years, put out an appeal for players, past and new, to join this coming season — and a stark warning.
"We had to cancel some fixtures last season, mainly through lack of players. It would break my heart if the club had to fold after all the hard work I, and numerous others, have put in — sourcing and building a very nice new pavilion, plus all the hard work done in providing a superb square and a lovely place to come and play village green cricket," said Charlie. 

Hursley Park has been deeply saddened by the sudden death, aged 71, of Nick Bacon, a prominent batsman/wicketkeeper for the club from the mid-1970s onwards and, since retiring, a valued and active member of the groundstaff at The Quarters.
Nick joined Hursley Park during the mid-1970’s and has continued to be associated with the club ever since.  He was a hugely respected history teacher at Hamble Community College for over three decades.
In the early days when HPCC had only two Saturday XI’s, Nick was a prominent member of the second team playing in South West Division II of the Hampshire Cricket League as a wicket keeper and batsman. His enthusiastic, unorthodox style in both these disciplines proved very successful and in 1980 he topped the batting averages for this division. He took a great deal of pride in both his and the team performance.

Opportunities for 1st XI cricket as a wicket keeper were limited in the 1980’s with Paul Wright and Adrian Aymes behind the stumps, and later Martin Kellaway, but when not required as the keeper, Nick played many times as a specialist middle order batsman in the first team. He was part of at least two of the three Park sides that won the First Division of the Hampshire Cricket League in that era.
I was fortunate to be the captain at that time and found Nick to be a very good team man, with impeccable availability, very helpful to the captain when behind the stumps, and a great character both on and off the field. 
As a qualified Coach, he coached the junior teams at Hursley Park for many years. This in addition to his commitment to coaching and organising school and association cricket in both Southampton and Winchester. 
Nick was a very good club man,  and after retiring from playing become a well respected member of the volunteer groundstaff at the club. He was adept at almost any task that he was confronted with, from repairing the drive to preparing and repairing the pitches .
He had a great sense of humour and was a long standing stalwart, good cricketer and willing worker who contributed much to the success of the club. He will be sadly missed by his family and remembered by all those who played and worked along side him.      An innings cut far too short.  Chris Westbrook.

The Hampshire League annual general meeting on Thursday (7.30pm) will once again be conducted by zoom.
Retiring chairman Denis Emery's report reads as follows -
Finch Group, the local Commercial Insurance Company, continued to sponsor the HCL for £3000 last year, the second of three years.  Finch Group already insure 80+ of our Clubs and I thank them for their continued support.   
This past year has been another testing one for the Committee and our clubs, the second season affected by COVID 19. The weather was indifferent at the start of the 2021 season.  We lost fewer clubs over the year and have 10 new entrants for 2022.  
I must congratulate the champions as I know it involved great effort to win a league over many games. We congratulate Havant II and Sway on their promotion to the Southern Premier League (SPCL).  We welcome Hythe & Dibden and Tichborne Park to HCL Division 1, teams I am sure that will want to return quickly to SPCL. 
The Women’s Hampshire League continues to grow, and we have now over 20 teams divided into three divisions.  This coming season we continue with our Development League Division 3, which proved successful last year. We are also providing a few T20s in readiness for the 2022, as again there will be no County Women’s team. 
The two presentation evenings returning to the Ageas Bowl were well attended and enjoyed by all. I must remind clubs that the Committee expects their members to behave themselves at these presentations, which was not the case for some clubs during the first evening. We have to thank our Secretary Anne Carter, with help from our Treasurer Clare Taylor for the superb arrangements.   Mike Vimpany again did a brilliant job as MC at the first presentation evening, it being his last for the HCL after some 30 years behind the ‘mic’, and Paul Turner at the second. 
Due to the difficulties of COVID reducing players’ availability we have not brought back the three strikes and out rule, waiting for another year before looking at it again. Teams cancelling will still be punished as normal. The Committee were sympathetic to pleas from clubs affected by COVID and quite rightly allowed games to be cancelled. We as a Committee listen to clubs and are always happy to put any proposals to the AGM.
Andy Stevenson has once more done his best to keep travel to a minimum in leagues 3-6.  I believe he has done a brilliant job with reducing travelling throughout the lower divisions. We are always going to have problems with the size of our county as some of our clubs will always be out on a limb.  On request, we have also provided teams with the HCL concessionary code for trips to the Isle of Wight. I believe it is 20% cheaper.
A special mention must also go to our Fixture Secretary, Stewart Frazier, who in conjunction with Andy gets the format and fixtures out before the year end, and from far away finds solutions to ground unavailability.
I would like to thank all the Committee again for their hard work throughout the year.  They spend many voluntary hours, running the Hampshire League.  The Rules & Discipline Sub Committee chaired by Paul Turner had a few discipline cases to manage last season.  The Vice Chairman Philip Wilson kept the web site ticking along in the absence of a media person, and he was instrumental in getting Play Cricket up and running last season. Play Cricket has been a great success with all our clubs able to use the system, and made the reporting of results much easier and convenient for all. Clare Taylor and Mark Heritage collated the important Club Ground marks, which are a priority in promotions and relegations. Neil Campone had the complex job of compiling the averages.  
Our Grounds Sub Committee chaired by Martin Livermore worked tirelessly all season to ensure the standard of our pitches did not fall. Clubs have to be responsible in marking the grounds as we cannot get around hundreds of matches each week to see if pitches and facilities are acceptable. We have used some of our income for free handbooks and try and help club umpires to attend courses.
I would like to thank our Vice Chairman Philip Wilson who has worked hard for the HCL for the past 14 years and, like me, is bowing out after the AGM.  He has been a rock we could all rely on for any problems, whether administrative, web site or discipline related.
I became Chairman of HCL in 2016 with some ideas to help move the League forward, and to pass on my experience of over 50 years playing and officiating at local cricket.  I have achieved what I set out to do, and hope that HCL carries on the initiatives going forward.  I have enjoyed my time, even though on occasions we have experienced difficulties trying to ensure HCL ran smoothly, with outside influences, ground shortages and the decline in the sport. COVID has also caused real problems over the past two years, but I salute our clubs and our committee in the way they have dealt with this adversity, now we are coming out of the other side.  
As the worst is now over, I have decided to stand down and let someone younger hold the reins.  I know you will give the new Chairman the same support that you gave me.  I thank you for letting me be Chairman, it was an honour to serve the HCL.  I will still be around appointing umpires and you may see me officiating occasionally at your game. As a player and as a Committee Member, the Hampshire Cricket League will always feature in my memories.

​Hursley Park stalwart Don Crossley, one of the best known faces around the Winchester club cricket scene, has died having suffered from dementia for the past year or so. He was aged 83 years.
In his playing days, Don was a very technically correct left-handed batsman, who spent most of his career for Hursley Park. 
He later served on the Club’s committee as secretary and fixture secretary, a busy task in those days, with league fixtures on Saturdays, Sunday matches, a number of midweek games, as well as evening league. 
Don was born in Blackburn and because of his formative years watching Lancashire League, he was always a great supporter of league cricket. 
He was a well-known character on Hampshire club grounds.  He held dear the traditions of the game, but was far removed from being a die-hard supporter, stuck in the past. He had been an advocate of city franchises for some forty years, though this was long before the advent of t20 cricket. 
His interests in the game were wide ranging, whether as a player, administrator, historian, collector, and spectator. 
He was co-founder of the Cricket Memorabilia Society and became Vice-President. He was an astute collector, always sensitive to the fluctuations in value of various items. His book and autograph collections were extensive. 
He also supported the Cricket Society movement as a whole and always enjoyed meetings of the Hampshire and Dorset societies. 
When watching cricket, he invariably wore his Hursley Park sweater. For formal occasions, he would take Sir Leonard Hutton’s England blazer from his wardrobe.    Alan Edwards.

​Shrewton have snapped up former England, Surrey and Warwickshire star Rikki Clarke.
The 40-year-old first signed terms with Surrey in 2000, going on to have a two-decade career in the professional game before retiring last year.
Clarke has been associated with Shrewton since moving to the area in 2017. And he is now set to compete for the Salisbury club from this season.
“I have given the majority of my life to cricket and even though I am now retired from the professional game, I still want to give something back," said Clarke.
"I want to have fun with friends while helping the club progress to higher levels and standards.
“Focusing on recruitment of new players to the club and developing the younger generation the best we can is at the forefront of our minds as a club."
Clarke, a 6ft 4in all-rounder, scored almost 18,000 runs during his illustrious career, also taking more than 800 wickets.
He represented England on 22 occasions, including two Test matches, between 2003 and 2006.
Clarke shone on the county scene. Aside from a tough year as captain at Derbyshire, Clarke started and finished his pro career at Surrey, with an eight-year stay at Warwickshire in between.  He won three County Championships, two T20 titles and two ODI trophies.
Shrewton are set to compete in Division Two of the Hampshire Cricket League in 2022, starting their season at Rowledge on May 7.

Havant seconds managed to play just over half their scheduled 16 matches, winning eight of them and having seven either abandoned or washed out altogether. But a points per average record of 21.22 enabled them to finish comfortably ahead of Sway and take the Division 1 title.  The pair will both play Southern Premier Division 3 cricket in 2022.
Opener Andrew Galliers hit 50 or more three times in scoring 352 runs, partner Faizan Tahsin scoring 200. Bowling credits to left-arm spin pair Graham Burns and Steven Matthews. ​

MUDEFORD romped to the Division 3 title, winning all 11 completed matches alongside having seven scheduled games rained off.  
​Harry Dye's return of 421 runs and 16 wickets included one remarkable performance against Verwood, when he made 92 and later ran through the opposition batting with a 6-22 return.  Ronak Patel's 105 in the key win over runners-up Fair Oak II was Mudeford's sole hundred for the season, while Ryan Attree's 28-wicket haul included 6-12 against Southampton Community.

BRAMSHAW
Standing (from left): Zane D’Monte, Daniel Eckton, Jamie Martin, Bailey Loveless, Jonty Loveless, Simon Booth.  Front: Joe Coombs, Johnny Murray, Jack Booth, Tom Arnold, Michael Kingston 

Tom Arnold led from the front as Bramshaw lifted the Division 1 crown, his 587-run tally being complemented by 14 dismissals behind the stumps. 
The New Forest village side won all bar one of their 11 matches, the initial three rounds of games falling to the inclement weather. In all, they lost six matches to the weather and one to Ferndown Wayfarers, the only side to physically beat them.
Arnold's run haul included two centuries - a best 156 against promoted Odiham & Greywell - and four scores of fifty or more.  Simon Booth and Jonny Murray each made over 225 runs, while Jonty Loveless, Michael Kingston and Joe Coombes enjoyed the spoils with the ball. 
​

​​The Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal has received a £170 boost from cricketers attending the first of the Hampshire League's awards presentation dinners at the Ageas Bowl.
​Their generous contributions enabled the Fareham branch of the RBL to raise a staggering £32,000 to such a worthy cause.  Well done guys !
Photographs from the two dinners can be seen on https://davevokes.photography/galleries. They will appear on this website in the next week or so.