St Cross Symondians’ 4th XI understandably fancied their chances of pulling off an easy Hampshire League County Division 4 North victory when they reduced their Basingstoke & North Hants counterparts to 17-5.
But emerging from the Green Jackets pavilion at number seven for Basingstoke was a ‘blast from the past’ in local cricket who knows a thing or two about scoring runs.
It was David Price, now 60, the fifth highest overall aggregate run scorer in Southern League cricket (before the advent of the ECB Premier League), making close on 7,000 runs at an average of 44.89.
He played through the 1980s and 1990s for Hythe & Dibden, Old Tauntonians and Bournemouth, winning the SL batting award in 1984 and helping OTs win the title five years later.
Price’s top job in the oil industry took his work to Europe and the USA but, playing off a low single-figure golf handicap, is now back living locally in Sutton Scotney and tip-toeing his way back into cricket with Basingstoke at May’s Bounty.
He showed he had lost none of his old run scoring touch by belting a boundary strewn century off a bemused St Cross Symondians attack – and turning the match on its head in the process.
Price hit four straight sixes and 11 fours in an innings of 101, which enabled Basingstoke to recover (from a later 45-7) and reach 170 before going on to bowl St Cross IVs out for 106.
His only glitch was to run out Basingstoke skipper Derek Dicker !
But emerging from the Green Jackets pavilion at number seven for Basingstoke was a ‘blast from the past’ in local cricket who knows a thing or two about scoring runs.
It was David Price, now 60, the fifth highest overall aggregate run scorer in Southern League cricket (before the advent of the ECB Premier League), making close on 7,000 runs at an average of 44.89.
He played through the 1980s and 1990s for Hythe & Dibden, Old Tauntonians and Bournemouth, winning the SL batting award in 1984 and helping OTs win the title five years later.
Price’s top job in the oil industry took his work to Europe and the USA but, playing off a low single-figure golf handicap, is now back living locally in Sutton Scotney and tip-toeing his way back into cricket with Basingstoke at May’s Bounty.
He showed he had lost none of his old run scoring touch by belting a boundary strewn century off a bemused St Cross Symondians attack – and turning the match on its head in the process.
Price hit four straight sixes and 11 fours in an innings of 101, which enabled Basingstoke to recover (from a later 45-7) and reach 170 before going on to bowl St Cross IVs out for 106.
His only glitch was to run out Basingstoke skipper Derek Dicker !