While 15-year old Kam Dhariwal was toasting his maiden century (115) against Hursley Park (see separate story), Fair Oak were suffering their first defeat of the season against Easton & MW and Longparish were being steamrollered by Alton.
At start of play on Saturday, Compton (18 points) lead the field from Fair Oak (16), Alton, Easton & Martyr Worthy and Longparish, all on 14 points.
Beach blonde Winchester College teen Wilf la Fontaine-Jackson was Easton’s star with the bat, anchoring his side’s innings with a steady 65 after early wickets for Freddie Eley (2-37) and James Gradwell (2-23)
Useful contributions from the Easton middle order took their 40-over total to 182-6, a good effort given the slow Lapstone Park outfield.
A lively third-wicket partnership between Harry Reed (30) and the consistent Charlie Kemp (47) gave Oaks hope, but scoring quickly was difficult against an accurate Easton attack.
Three wickets each for pacemen Ethan Brackstone and Sky Mitchell put the hosts on the back foot. A few big hits by Greig Stewart (16) were the nearest Oaks came to challenging the required rate, and they finished 17 runs short at 165-8.
Longparish suffered a crushing 162-run defeat by Alton, whose 236-6 was based around Michael Heffernan (56), Freddie Egleston (46) and Ryan Hale (42). Parish rolled over for 74.
A solitary run separated St Cross Symondians’ 244-7 from the 243-8 IBM Hursley made in reply.
Brad Aldridge smashed three sixes and 11 fours in his 94, while Charlie Bowden (45) and Ben Foster (38) chipped in. Max Cullen took 4-39 for IBM, Sri Raman hitting 62, but his side finished one run light.
RAM totalled 220-9 (Mahmood 67) and beat Sparsholt II by 16 runs, Jamie Skeoch hitting 62.
Compton & Chandler’s Ford moved alongside Hursley Park at the top of Division 2 after beating the overnight leaders by six wickets. They each have 18 points.
Hursley Park’s 159-7 was effectively blown away by a century second-wicket stand between Zac Williams (64) and Gary Scallen (55).
Fair Oak’s 3rd XI lost their 100 per cent record with a two-wicket defeat at Cockets Mead that was largely engineered by Easton & Martyr Worthy opener Spencer Lee.
18-year-old Lee, who wintered as an overseas player in South Africa, opened both the bowling and the batting for his side and cracked an unbeaten 113 as his side inched past Oaks’ total of 195 with seven balls to spare.
He got good support from Neil Rose (41) in the face of aggressive new ball bowling by Tom Merrill, whose return of 3 for 33 included clean bowling two batsmen with consecutive yorkers. The economical Dave Nevin (2-23) and Shaun Buttle (2-45) also impressed with the ball.
Earlier,in-form 14-year-old Tom Clark had been the mainstay of the Fair Oak innings with 60 not out. Buttle (28), Sam Reed (24) and Jake Salmon (30) also featured with the bat while ultra-slow spinner Sam Dickety took two wickets for Easton.
Jake Curtis (50), Alex Reidy (47) and Dan Watson (45) eased Twyford to 213-8 and into a winning position (by 135 runs) against Sparsholt III.
Evergreen Alan Whitman celebrated his first St Cross Symondians century in ten years as the Winchester club’s fourth team successfully chased down IBM Hursley’s 198-9 to win by six wickets.
Whitman hit six maximums and 12 boundaries in his 107 as St Cross won with four overs to spare.