Fawley won their last three matches of the season to ensure Southern Premier Division 2 safety, their six-wicket win at Lapstone Park planting summer long promotion outsiders Fair Oak in an eventual fifth place.
The hugely influential Sufian Munir (2-19) was the main architect of Oaks’ defeat, bagging a couple of early wickets, as did Aqab Ahmed (5-35), to leave the home team reeling at 55 for 5 (Charlie Gwynn 19).
Fair Oak did better in the second half of their innings, with Harry Reed making 25 and Monty McKenzie 22. But Wayne Smith’s late 2-18 left Oaks to defend a distinctly under-par total of 112 all out.
The ever-reliable Gwynn took 3-20 to reduce Fawley from 52-1 to 76-4. But Munir, left, who batted throughout the innings, hit a six and twelve fours to finish unbeaten on 72 from just 76 balls after getting good support from Callum Earl (21*). Fawley reached 116-4 with 13 overs still unused to chalk up a convincing win, which guaranteed their own survival.
Hartley Wintney’s season has tailed off badly with the one-wicket defeat at Waterlooville being their sixth successive loss, a sequence of results which has left the one-time SPL2 leaders in fourth place.
Promotion prospects looked so bright when they beat Liphook & Ripsley, the eventual champions, in early July, but since then the side, with its ever-changing personnel, has lost direction.
They looked as though they had halted that losing trend when, defending 166-8 on a demanding Rowlands Avenue surface, they reduced the Ville to 94-7, Danny Nightingale taking 4-31.
But being the last game of the season and with no lingering fears of relegation, Waterlooville had rejigged their batting order, with Alex Shephard (normally number three) coming in late to hit a key 48.
Angus Brown (2-12) removed Shephard and one-time Basingstoke man Dan Birch (21) to give Hartley Wintney a sniff, but last pair Archie Reynolds and Jon Hudson – normally top four in the order – got Waterlooville home by one wicket with two balls to spare.
Earlier, Brown top scored with 43 to take his run aggregate for the season to 304 (from seven knocks) but Hartley’s hopes of a competitive total were dimmed when Roy Cockram, the season’s leading run scorer with 369, pulled up lame and had to retire hurt having only made ten.
Old Tauntonians & Romsey secured a third-placed finish by inflicting a crushing nine-wicket defeat on Paultons, whose 106 was propped up by teenager Ben Rogers (43). Spin pair Joe Vaughan and Matt Bampton shared six of the Paultons wickets before Bothwell Chapungu hit an unbeaten 49 to finish things off.
The hugely influential Sufian Munir (2-19) was the main architect of Oaks’ defeat, bagging a couple of early wickets, as did Aqab Ahmed (5-35), to leave the home team reeling at 55 for 5 (Charlie Gwynn 19).
Fair Oak did better in the second half of their innings, with Harry Reed making 25 and Monty McKenzie 22. But Wayne Smith’s late 2-18 left Oaks to defend a distinctly under-par total of 112 all out.
The ever-reliable Gwynn took 3-20 to reduce Fawley from 52-1 to 76-4. But Munir, left, who batted throughout the innings, hit a six and twelve fours to finish unbeaten on 72 from just 76 balls after getting good support from Callum Earl (21*). Fawley reached 116-4 with 13 overs still unused to chalk up a convincing win, which guaranteed their own survival.
Hartley Wintney’s season has tailed off badly with the one-wicket defeat at Waterlooville being their sixth successive loss, a sequence of results which has left the one-time SPL2 leaders in fourth place.
Promotion prospects looked so bright when they beat Liphook & Ripsley, the eventual champions, in early July, but since then the side, with its ever-changing personnel, has lost direction.
They looked as though they had halted that losing trend when, defending 166-8 on a demanding Rowlands Avenue surface, they reduced the Ville to 94-7, Danny Nightingale taking 4-31.
But being the last game of the season and with no lingering fears of relegation, Waterlooville had rejigged their batting order, with Alex Shephard (normally number three) coming in late to hit a key 48.
Angus Brown (2-12) removed Shephard and one-time Basingstoke man Dan Birch (21) to give Hartley Wintney a sniff, but last pair Archie Reynolds and Jon Hudson – normally top four in the order – got Waterlooville home by one wicket with two balls to spare.
Earlier, Brown top scored with 43 to take his run aggregate for the season to 304 (from seven knocks) but Hartley’s hopes of a competitive total were dimmed when Roy Cockram, the season’s leading run scorer with 369, pulled up lame and had to retire hurt having only made ten.
Old Tauntonians & Romsey secured a third-placed finish by inflicting a crushing nine-wicket defeat on Paultons, whose 106 was propped up by teenager Ben Rogers (43). Spin pair Joe Vaughan and Matt Bampton shared six of the Paultons wickets before Bothwell Chapungu hit an unbeaten 49 to finish things off.
