Fletcha Middleton's 80 v Havant was a Premier Division best [Roy Honeybone]
Hampshire can have every reason to be extremely satisfied with the performances of their Academy side in ECB Southern Premier League cricket this summer.
Accepted their fifth placed finish was two lower than last season, but their 2018 successes leaned heavily on the near 1,500 runs and 51 wickets Felix Organ and Tom Scriven got between them.
Twelve months on and it’s the youngsters like Fletcha Middleton, George Metzger, Tom Prest and Tom South who have begun to make their mark, not only in the Premier League, but also in the ECB county competitions in which Hampshire were 50-over Cup finalists (they lost to Northants) and semi-finalists in the three-day Championship, won last week by their conquerors, Surrey YCs.
Middleton, with a Premier League best 80, and South (58) led the way with a 129-run partnership as the Academy posted a handsome 274 against Havant, Hartley Wintney’s Harry Broderick (50) underlining his growing potential with a maiden fifty coming in a six and putting on a handy 70 with Mo Abbas (25).
Broderick (2-30) then struck twice with the new ball as Havant lurched to 57-4 before Pete Hopson (52) and Jez Bulled (57) brought an air of respectability to proceedings. But the last six Havant wickets (which fell to spin) – Bradfield’s Kamran Khanna taking 3-26 – yielded only 50 runs and the visitors, nursing a lean seventh-placed finish, were dismissed for 185.
Accepted their fifth placed finish was two lower than last season, but their 2018 successes leaned heavily on the near 1,500 runs and 51 wickets Felix Organ and Tom Scriven got between them.
Twelve months on and it’s the youngsters like Fletcha Middleton, George Metzger, Tom Prest and Tom South who have begun to make their mark, not only in the Premier League, but also in the ECB county competitions in which Hampshire were 50-over Cup finalists (they lost to Northants) and semi-finalists in the three-day Championship, won last week by their conquerors, Surrey YCs.
Middleton, with a Premier League best 80, and South (58) led the way with a 129-run partnership as the Academy posted a handsome 274 against Havant, Hartley Wintney’s Harry Broderick (50) underlining his growing potential with a maiden fifty coming in a six and putting on a handy 70 with Mo Abbas (25).
Broderick (2-30) then struck twice with the new ball as Havant lurched to 57-4 before Pete Hopson (52) and Jez Bulled (57) brought an air of respectability to proceedings. But the last six Havant wickets (which fell to spin) – Bradfield’s Kamran Khanna taking 3-26 – yielded only 50 runs and the visitors, nursing a lean seventh-placed finish, were dismissed for 185.
Harry Broderick, maiden Academy fifty [Dave Vokes]
