South Wilts celebrate by putting Richard Swanborough's quality champagne to good use (Cookie picture)
The champagne corks popped merrily as South Wilts celebrated their first ECB Southern Premier Division championship since 2015.
Yet, with a fifth overall title clinched at Alton the week before, South Wilts’ final match against Burridge at Bemerton almost turned into an anti-climax.
Chasing a relatively modest Burridge total of 208, South Wilts sank to 26-4, with Jack Mynott, Tom Morton, Peter Rowe and James Hayward all back in the Wilton Road pavilion.
Sully White (2-32) and Dan Stancliffe (2-63) had bagged two each, the latter increasing his wicket haul for the season to 31 – and winning the Premier Division’s bowling award in the process.
The celebratory beers were in danger of going flat – until South Wilts showed off the depth in their batting and tremendous team spirit that has won them the title.
With Raff Hussey (42) steadying the boat, 26-4 became 99 before the Loughborough University student was caught behind.
Yet, with a fifth overall title clinched at Alton the week before, South Wilts’ final match against Burridge at Bemerton almost turned into an anti-climax.
Chasing a relatively modest Burridge total of 208, South Wilts sank to 26-4, with Jack Mynott, Tom Morton, Peter Rowe and James Hayward all back in the Wilton Road pavilion.
Sully White (2-32) and Dan Stancliffe (2-63) had bagged two each, the latter increasing his wicket haul for the season to 31 – and winning the Premier Division’s bowling award in the process.
The celebratory beers were in danger of going flat – until South Wilts showed off the depth in their batting and tremendous team spirit that has won them the title.
With Raff Hussey (42) steadying the boat, 26-4 became 99 before the Loughborough University student was caught behind.
 The tide had turned and with the Burridge out-cricket becoming increasingly ragged – they conceded 37 extras, 27 of them wides – South Wilts were on a roll. Arthur Godsal, who had shared that 73-run partnership with Hussey, opened up and once Ben Huntley joined him, the runs began to flow – quickly ! Both batsmen made half-centuries. Godsal hit ten fours in his unbeaten 66, Huntley, the farmer‘s son from South Newton, left-handed, big and powerful, hit it long. An upcoming second year student at Cirencester’s acclaimed Royal Agricultural University, Huntley has been a huge influence on South Wilts’ success. It’s no coincidence that his arrival (as a left-arm pace bowler and hard hitting left-hand bat) at Bemerton has moulded South Wilts into a title winning unit. And it was appropriate that he should have brought up his unbeaten 50 with a succession of fours and sixes before Burridge’s 208 was passed with some 13 overs to spare. Huntley earlier struck an immediate blow, forcing Burridge opener Matthew Norris to play-on in only his second over, up the slope from the Church Road end. Burridge overcame that initial blip with Azim Chowdhury (61), Hilio De Abreu (41) and James Hughes (29) lifting the visitors score to a healthy 167-3. Time then for skipper James Hayward (standing in for fractured ankle victim Ben Draper) to toss the ball to Kit Blomfield, a 14-year old off-spinner, the latest talent to emerge from South Wilts’ renowned youth academy. Success wasn’t long coming. Bowling with a hop, skip and a jump type of action from the pavilion end, Blomfield (2-36 off ten overs) promptly took two wickets which triggered a Burridge collapse. The last seven wickets fell for 41 runs, Matt Burton (3-31) taking his season’s tally to 30 as Burridge tumbled to 208 all out. |  Ben Huntley hits out |
