Tom Nightingale, Sarisbury Athletic's match winner [Martin Gray]
Sarisbury Athletic’s prospects of nabbing the Southern Premier League Division One title from Bournemouth’s grasp depend entirely on them beating the perennial leaders in Saturday’s Allotment Road shoot-out.
While Bournemouth were marooned by Friday’s storm which swamped their Chapel Gate ground and led to the scheduled home match with Portsmouth being cancelled, Sarisbury grabbed a vital four-wicket win at Hook & Newnham Basics.
The lead pair will go into Saturday’s crunch match with Sarisbury trailing Bournemouth (252) by 26 points.
A victory would create a mad scramble for the finish line, with Bournemouth hosting Hook & Newnham Basics and visiting Calmore Sports, and Sarisbury needing to get more points off their final matches with Andover and OTs & Romsey.
Channel Islander Tom Nightingale was Sarisbury’s match winner at the KGV, where the visitors chased down Hook’s 144 in 29 overs.
Opening pair Josh Hill (3-30) and Jordan Wright (3-34) called the tune as Hook wobbled at 32-4 before Matt Love (59) and Rhodes Franklin (40) put together an 82-run stand.
Tom Kitcher (4-25) nipped out the pair before Hook fell to 144 all out, four batsmen bagging ducks and eight players contributing a mere ten runs of the bat between them.
Shane Brewer (2-44) removed Sarisbury opening pair Ricky Rawlins (16) and Sam Floyd (18) and Richie Willcock accounted for third man Dan Clouting.
But Nightingale then took centre stage with a match winning innings, hitting two sixes and 11 fours in his unbeaten 78, even if young Will Gardner took 3-37 on debut.
Hook’s defeat has the alarm bells ringing at the KGV, because if Liphook & Ripsley win at Hartley Wintney on Saturday, either they or 2017 SPL1 champions Calmore Sports could be in the relegation zone going into the last two weeks of the season.
Andover’s scheduled home game with Ventnor was called off.
While Bournemouth were marooned by Friday’s storm which swamped their Chapel Gate ground and led to the scheduled home match with Portsmouth being cancelled, Sarisbury grabbed a vital four-wicket win at Hook & Newnham Basics.
The lead pair will go into Saturday’s crunch match with Sarisbury trailing Bournemouth (252) by 26 points.
A victory would create a mad scramble for the finish line, with Bournemouth hosting Hook & Newnham Basics and visiting Calmore Sports, and Sarisbury needing to get more points off their final matches with Andover and OTs & Romsey.
Channel Islander Tom Nightingale was Sarisbury’s match winner at the KGV, where the visitors chased down Hook’s 144 in 29 overs.
Opening pair Josh Hill (3-30) and Jordan Wright (3-34) called the tune as Hook wobbled at 32-4 before Matt Love (59) and Rhodes Franklin (40) put together an 82-run stand.
Tom Kitcher (4-25) nipped out the pair before Hook fell to 144 all out, four batsmen bagging ducks and eight players contributing a mere ten runs of the bat between them.
Shane Brewer (2-44) removed Sarisbury opening pair Ricky Rawlins (16) and Sam Floyd (18) and Richie Willcock accounted for third man Dan Clouting.
But Nightingale then took centre stage with a match winning innings, hitting two sixes and 11 fours in his unbeaten 78, even if young Will Gardner took 3-37 on debut.
Hook’s defeat has the alarm bells ringing at the KGV, because if Liphook & Ripsley win at Hartley Wintney on Saturday, either they or 2017 SPL1 champions Calmore Sports could be in the relegation zone going into the last two weeks of the season.
Andover’s scheduled home game with Ventnor was called off.
