Hampshire Seniors are set to play in two National Sixties Championship Vase finals on Tuesday – even though they were knocked out in the semi-finals of the 1st and 2nd XI cups last month !
Both Sixties teams were ready to store their kit in the loft after Surrey thrashed Hampshire (159) by nine wickets in the Vase first team competition and on the same late August afternoon in distant Torquay, Devon posted a towering 282-6 before giving Mark Jackson’s elders a 118-run beating.
But, incredibly, both Surrey and Devon have been booted out of the respective competitions for failing to comply with player qualification rules – giving Hampshire a walkover into two cup finals.
It means Neil Trestrail’s sixties first team trudging off to Grantham to play Durham in the National Vase final and Jacko’s troops taking a slightly shorter trip to Horsley & Send, near Leatherhead, to play (ironically) Surrey IIs. Both matches start at 12.30pm.
For the record, Hampshire plunged to 36-6 on a bowler friendly surface at Banstead before being rescued by Rowledge spin all-rounder Chris Yates (65) and Dave Simpson (41). Surrey polished off the 159 they needed with Sanjay Beri smashing 102*.
Meanwhile, in South Devon, former Saints midfielder Graham Baker took 3-34 and later made 40 as Hampshire II made 164-4 (Jackson 44) in response to that huge 282-2, every run of which proved in vain.
* Lymington old timer Tony Wharton is making an encouraging recovery in hospital following a recent hip operation and has just started walking with the aid of crutches. We wish him well.
Both Sixties teams were ready to store their kit in the loft after Surrey thrashed Hampshire (159) by nine wickets in the Vase first team competition and on the same late August afternoon in distant Torquay, Devon posted a towering 282-6 before giving Mark Jackson’s elders a 118-run beating.
But, incredibly, both Surrey and Devon have been booted out of the respective competitions for failing to comply with player qualification rules – giving Hampshire a walkover into two cup finals.
It means Neil Trestrail’s sixties first team trudging off to Grantham to play Durham in the National Vase final and Jacko’s troops taking a slightly shorter trip to Horsley & Send, near Leatherhead, to play (ironically) Surrey IIs. Both matches start at 12.30pm.
For the record, Hampshire plunged to 36-6 on a bowler friendly surface at Banstead before being rescued by Rowledge spin all-rounder Chris Yates (65) and Dave Simpson (41). Surrey polished off the 159 they needed with Sanjay Beri smashing 102*.
Meanwhile, in South Devon, former Saints midfielder Graham Baker took 3-34 and later made 40 as Hampshire II made 164-4 (Jackson 44) in response to that huge 282-2, every run of which proved in vain.
* Lymington old timer Tony Wharton is making an encouraging recovery in hospital following a recent hip operation and has just started walking with the aid of crutches. We wish him well.