
St Cross Symondians face defending ECB Southern Premier League champions South Wilts at Bemerton on Saturday (12.30) with their confidence dented by two pre-season defeats.
Belted around the field for 319-5 and eventually beaten by 123 runs by South Wilts in their opening friendly, St Cross lost by two wickets to Hook & Newnham Basics at the Green Jackets Ground.
Teenager Ben Foster (41) thrived at the top of the order for St Cross, whose top scorer was former Fai Oak left-arm spin all-rounder Charlie Gwynn, left, who made an unbeaten 52 on debut before the side was dismissed for 170.
Aniket Divecha (4-17) and Max Simpson (3-36) took the bowling credits for Hook, who slipped to 55-4 (Sam Lockwood 28) before Josh Buckingham (42) and Harry Warner (24) tilted the match the visitors’ way. But Hook dropped to 126-7 before Jack Murrell and Max Simpson got them across the line.
St Cross Symondians II were shot out for 133 and soundly beaten by ten wickets by their Hook & Newnham Basics counterparts at the KGV.
The writing was on the wall when St Cross lost their first three batsmen for only three runs and but for George O’Connor (33) and the evergreen Graham Barrett (35) they would have been pressed to reach 133.
Rhodes Franklin (55) and Sam Bruin (49) polished off the target with a flurry of boundaries.
Burridge, who begin at promoted Totton & Eling, trimmed Fareham & Crofton by seven wickets in their only warm-up match at Bath Lane.
Jez Bulled, who has left Havant after 15 years to join Fareham top scored with 48 and Ievan Carney hit 34 for the hosts, Chris Blake (3-5) buying the drinks after taking a hat-trick.
Burridge polished off Fareham’s 145 with 14 overs to spare, James Hughes hitting an unbeaten 38, Oli Creal 34 and Cape Town teenager Nathan Schultz 29, having earlier kept wicket tidily.
Dan McGovern hit 105, but finished on the losing side at Ridge Meadow, where Sarisbury Athletic overhauled Hambledon’s 269-7 to win by six wickets with 11 overs to spare.
McGovern shared century stands with George Marshall (45) and Henry Glanfield (76), but Sarisbury responded in kind, with Sam Floyd (66), Cameron Grierson (43) and Ricky Rawlins (38) in good nick before Nathen Feltham blazed 46 off 22 balls, several of his sixes landing in the adjoining cornfield.
Gosport Borough’s Mark Toogood, a prominent Royal Navy cricketer in his prime, hit his second fifty of the season, but was unable to prevent a seven-wicket defeat by Portsmouth & Southsea at Privett Park.
Toogood’s 53 spared Gosport’s blushed after five of the top six batsmen managed only ten runs between them, West Indian import Tyrel Chilcot trapped leg before for one. The St Lucian’s day didn’t get much better as his 7.5 overs were wicketless for 49 runs.
Given a healthy start by Matt Benfield (31) and Shaun Briggs (22), P & S overcame a mid-innings wobble before Max Goddard (43) and Dean Lee (27) steered them home.
Belted around the field for 319-5 and eventually beaten by 123 runs by South Wilts in their opening friendly, St Cross lost by two wickets to Hook & Newnham Basics at the Green Jackets Ground.
Teenager Ben Foster (41) thrived at the top of the order for St Cross, whose top scorer was former Fai Oak left-arm spin all-rounder Charlie Gwynn, left, who made an unbeaten 52 on debut before the side was dismissed for 170.
Aniket Divecha (4-17) and Max Simpson (3-36) took the bowling credits for Hook, who slipped to 55-4 (Sam Lockwood 28) before Josh Buckingham (42) and Harry Warner (24) tilted the match the visitors’ way. But Hook dropped to 126-7 before Jack Murrell and Max Simpson got them across the line.
St Cross Symondians II were shot out for 133 and soundly beaten by ten wickets by their Hook & Newnham Basics counterparts at the KGV.
The writing was on the wall when St Cross lost their first three batsmen for only three runs and but for George O’Connor (33) and the evergreen Graham Barrett (35) they would have been pressed to reach 133.
Rhodes Franklin (55) and Sam Bruin (49) polished off the target with a flurry of boundaries.
Burridge, who begin at promoted Totton & Eling, trimmed Fareham & Crofton by seven wickets in their only warm-up match at Bath Lane.
Jez Bulled, who has left Havant after 15 years to join Fareham top scored with 48 and Ievan Carney hit 34 for the hosts, Chris Blake (3-5) buying the drinks after taking a hat-trick.
Burridge polished off Fareham’s 145 with 14 overs to spare, James Hughes hitting an unbeaten 38, Oli Creal 34 and Cape Town teenager Nathan Schultz 29, having earlier kept wicket tidily.
Dan McGovern hit 105, but finished on the losing side at Ridge Meadow, where Sarisbury Athletic overhauled Hambledon’s 269-7 to win by six wickets with 11 overs to spare.
McGovern shared century stands with George Marshall (45) and Henry Glanfield (76), but Sarisbury responded in kind, with Sam Floyd (66), Cameron Grierson (43) and Ricky Rawlins (38) in good nick before Nathen Feltham blazed 46 off 22 balls, several of his sixes landing in the adjoining cornfield.
Gosport Borough’s Mark Toogood, a prominent Royal Navy cricketer in his prime, hit his second fifty of the season, but was unable to prevent a seven-wicket defeat by Portsmouth & Southsea at Privett Park.
Toogood’s 53 spared Gosport’s blushed after five of the top six batsmen managed only ten runs between them, West Indian import Tyrel Chilcot trapped leg before for one. The St Lucian’s day didn’t get much better as his 7.5 overs were wicketless for 49 runs.
Given a healthy start by Matt Benfield (31) and Shaun Briggs (22), P & S overcame a mid-innings wobble before Max Goddard (43) and Dean Lee (27) steered them home.