Hampshire’s Brad Taylor will have to wait another week before he can make his Basingstoke & North Hants debut following the cancellation of the scheduled ECB Southern Premier League opener against New Milton at Fernhill.
The game, which would also have been Basingstoke’s first in the ECB Premier Division, was called off on Friday tea-time following an umpire’s ground inspection.
“It’s just too wet and we’ve not been able to get on it to do any pre-season work,” explained New Milton chairman Steve Taylor.
“It’s been impossible to get any machinery on the ground and if we’d tried to get any plant on the outfield it would have created great trenches, which we wouldn’t have been able to get rid of.”
For Taylor, who captained England Under-19s in the 2016 ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh, playing for Basingstoke marked a ‘return home’.
“I played all of my junior cricket at May’s Bounty before joining the Hampshire Academy ranks.
“I played through the age groups from Under-13 upwards, so it’s nice to go back, especially as they are now in the Premier Division,” he recalled.
“My last two Premier League seasons were curtailed by ankle injuries, so I’m keen to put in a decent shift this time around.”
Taylor has played for Ventnor (one match) and eight times for Havant (scoring 131 v Andover last June) after finishing his stint as Academy captain.
He had mixed views on the cancelation of the New Milton match.
“We obviously all want to play, especially with such a fine forecast, but the last time I played at Fernhill for the Academy, Toby Edwards went ballistic and hit probably the fastest Premier League century of all time,” Taylor recalled.
“He had drivers rushing to move their cars. There were sixes everywhere – eight of them and 13 fours – as he smashed 109 off only 58 balls.
“They chased down our 213-7 to win with 23 overs to spare.”
The game, which would also have been Basingstoke’s first in the ECB Premier Division, was called off on Friday tea-time following an umpire’s ground inspection.
“It’s just too wet and we’ve not been able to get on it to do any pre-season work,” explained New Milton chairman Steve Taylor.
“It’s been impossible to get any machinery on the ground and if we’d tried to get any plant on the outfield it would have created great trenches, which we wouldn’t have been able to get rid of.”
For Taylor, who captained England Under-19s in the 2016 ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh, playing for Basingstoke marked a ‘return home’.
“I played all of my junior cricket at May’s Bounty before joining the Hampshire Academy ranks.
“I played through the age groups from Under-13 upwards, so it’s nice to go back, especially as they are now in the Premier Division,” he recalled.
“My last two Premier League seasons were curtailed by ankle injuries, so I’m keen to put in a decent shift this time around.”
Taylor has played for Ventnor (one match) and eight times for Havant (scoring 131 v Andover last June) after finishing his stint as Academy captain.
He had mixed views on the cancelation of the New Milton match.
“We obviously all want to play, especially with such a fine forecast, but the last time I played at Fernhill for the Academy, Toby Edwards went ballistic and hit probably the fastest Premier League century of all time,” Taylor recalled.
“He had drivers rushing to move their cars. There were sixes everywhere – eight of them and 13 fours – as he smashed 109 off only 58 balls.
“They chased down our 213-7 to win with 23 overs to spare.”
