Henry Glanfield {The News] Gosport Borough were left devastated as their final-day defeat at Hambledon condemned them to relegation from the Southern League.
Borough began the day one place above the Division 3 drop zone but needed victory at Ridge Meadow to confirm their survival. Instead they collapsed in dramatic fashion to lose by 114 runs.
And their worst fears were confirmed when their two drop rivals – Havant II and Lymington II – pulled off shock wins to leapfrog above them.
Vice-captain Lee Harrop said: ‘It was heartbreaking. We needed to win to stay up but failed spectacularly.
‘After winning the toss, we backed ourselves to bowl them out and collect as many points as we could. On a decent track we were quite happy to restrict them to 204-9.
‘The bowlers put in a good shift and at tea we felt quite confident. Tom Larner and I made a decent start to our innings putting on 53 without loss and we were going along at four or five an over with few problems but then it all went badly wrong.
‘A triple-wicket maiden by Norwegian prospect Henry Glanfield (4-32) – he removed both openers and Simon Creal in the same over - rocked us back on our heels and from that point on we were in trouble. Hambledon kept the pressure on and we ended up being bowled out for 90, young Aussie Sam Beagley (4-21) and Ian Turner (2-4) blowing the lower order away.
Earlier, Indy Chakrabarti (59) and Glanfield (32) top scored for the Dons, the teenage Norwegian hopeful finishing a superb season with 467 runs, 31 wickets and 13 catches, statistics bound to have caught the eye of Norway’s selectors, regular visitors to this website.
Now Glanfield waits anxiously for a phone call from Norway’s cricket command centre in Oslo to see if he can win a place in the country’s side which has just won Division 6 of the World Cricket League T20 with an unblemished five-match record.
If Glanfield gets the nod – and remember he qualifies on account of his mother being Norwegian - then Hambledon could lose his services to the Stavanger Premier League in 2019.
Likely to go down with Gosport Borough are Havant seconds, even though a fine all-round performance by Andy Gorvin (3-18 and 55) enabled them to beat Bashley (Rydal) II (136-8) by six wickets.
In a tight finish, just four points separated the teams either side of the drop zone, with Fawley (average 10.88) and Lymington II (10.82) surviving at the expense of Havant II (10.65) and Gosport Borough (10.31).
Borough began the day one place above the Division 3 drop zone but needed victory at Ridge Meadow to confirm their survival. Instead they collapsed in dramatic fashion to lose by 114 runs.
And their worst fears were confirmed when their two drop rivals – Havant II and Lymington II – pulled off shock wins to leapfrog above them.
Vice-captain Lee Harrop said: ‘It was heartbreaking. We needed to win to stay up but failed spectacularly.
‘After winning the toss, we backed ourselves to bowl them out and collect as many points as we could. On a decent track we were quite happy to restrict them to 204-9.
‘The bowlers put in a good shift and at tea we felt quite confident. Tom Larner and I made a decent start to our innings putting on 53 without loss and we were going along at four or five an over with few problems but then it all went badly wrong.
‘A triple-wicket maiden by Norwegian prospect Henry Glanfield (4-32) – he removed both openers and Simon Creal in the same over - rocked us back on our heels and from that point on we were in trouble. Hambledon kept the pressure on and we ended up being bowled out for 90, young Aussie Sam Beagley (4-21) and Ian Turner (2-4) blowing the lower order away.
Earlier, Indy Chakrabarti (59) and Glanfield (32) top scored for the Dons, the teenage Norwegian hopeful finishing a superb season with 467 runs, 31 wickets and 13 catches, statistics bound to have caught the eye of Norway’s selectors, regular visitors to this website.
Now Glanfield waits anxiously for a phone call from Norway’s cricket command centre in Oslo to see if he can win a place in the country’s side which has just won Division 6 of the World Cricket League T20 with an unblemished five-match record.
If Glanfield gets the nod – and remember he qualifies on account of his mother being Norwegian - then Hambledon could lose his services to the Stavanger Premier League in 2019.
Likely to go down with Gosport Borough are Havant seconds, even though a fine all-round performance by Andy Gorvin (3-18 and 55) enabled them to beat Bashley (Rydal) II (136-8) by six wickets.
In a tight finish, just four points separated the teams either side of the drop zone, with Fawley (average 10.88) and Lymington II (10.82) surviving at the expense of Havant II (10.65) and Gosport Borough (10.31).
