 Joe Cranch's 94 set up South Wilts' win. [Roy Honeybone] |  Ben Fisher 5-18 was an SPL best |
Joe Cranch hit 94 and teenager Ben Fisher produced a personal best spell of 5-18 as South Wilts seconds boosted their prospects of Southern Premier League Division 2 survival with an emphatic 100-run win over fellow strugglers Fair Oak at Bemerton.
Cranch hit two sixes and nine fours in his 94 and shared key partnerships with opener Sam Arnold (39) and later Luke Hansford (37) as South Wilts built a match winning 228-9 (Ross Stewart 4-46).
Fair Oak, now third from bottom and below South Wilts in the log, began promisingly through Tom Hockenhull (20), Max Watson (25) and Ed Kemp (33), only to plunge alarmingly from 82-1 to 118 all out (Rufus Bullough 22) – nine wickets falling for 36 runs, five of them to Fisher and two each to Tom Pearce and Rob Pittman.
South Wilts’ win left a 16-point gap between themselves and Basingstoke & North Hants II, who pulled off a six-wicket victory over Waterlooville at May’s Bounty.
The Ville’s 168 – Alex Shephard 42, Archie Reynolds 39 – was chased down with four balls to spare by Steve Bucksey (34), Scott Dyer (32), Richard Vinn (31) and Mitchell Stokes, who came out of temporary ‘retirement’ to make a key 28 not out after conceding only 18 runs off his ten overs.
Cranch hit two sixes and nine fours in his 94 and shared key partnerships with opener Sam Arnold (39) and later Luke Hansford (37) as South Wilts built a match winning 228-9 (Ross Stewart 4-46).
Fair Oak, now third from bottom and below South Wilts in the log, began promisingly through Tom Hockenhull (20), Max Watson (25) and Ed Kemp (33), only to plunge alarmingly from 82-1 to 118 all out (Rufus Bullough 22) – nine wickets falling for 36 runs, five of them to Fisher and two each to Tom Pearce and Rob Pittman.
South Wilts’ win left a 16-point gap between themselves and Basingstoke & North Hants II, who pulled off a six-wicket victory over Waterlooville at May’s Bounty.
The Ville’s 168 – Alex Shephard 42, Archie Reynolds 39 – was chased down with four balls to spare by Steve Bucksey (34), Scott Dyer (32), Richard Vinn (31) and Mitchell Stokes, who came out of temporary ‘retirement’ to make a key 28 not out after conceding only 18 runs off his ten overs.
