Felix Organ [James Robinson] Hampshire’s Felix Organ struck a match winning 83 as St Cross Symondians cruised to a five-wicket victory over the Hampshire Academy in the only ECB Southern Premier League game to survive the bad weather.
While they were successfully chasing down a reduced target score of 151, the other 19 scheduled SPL matches were either abandoned or, in seven of the cases, cancelled without a ball being bowled.
It was Symondians’ second win and puts the Winchester side in a confident mood ahead of Saturday’s important visit to Havant, who are expected to be among St Cross’s main challengers this season.
St Cross expect to have South African all-rounder Michael Booth – a prominent middle-order batsman and pace bowler from Durham University – making a delayed debut at Havant Park.
Organ ensured he carried his bat through the 35-over duration of the St Cross innings, making sure there were no hiccups on the way as menacing black leaden clouds circled overhead.
He hit three sixes and seven fours in his 107-ball knock, adding an important 68 with county team-mate Brad Taylor (21).
They eased the St Cross reply to 108-2 when Taylor was bowled by 14-year old Perrins schoolboy Ollie Cordery, plucked out of Hambledon’s junior ranks for the afternoon.
Working up a fair pace from the church end of the tree-lined ground, the fair haired Cordery had Harry Trussler caught behind by Wilf La Fontaine Jackson next ball and suddenly found himself on a hat-trick – on his Academy debut !
Commendable
Harry Foyle edged Cordery’s potential hat-trick ball through the slips for four – but the Hambledon youngster got his man soon after, trapping Foyle (14) leg before to finish with commendable figures of 3-16 off his eight overs.
The spell by the teenager – whose parents run the popular Baker’s Arms in Droxford - left St Cross 132-5, but two big hits by Jack Bransgrove soon settled it.
Earlier, emerging Newbury teenager Toby Albert underpinned the Academy’s score of 169 all out.
The 19-year old talent has been handicapped by knee injuries in recent seasons, but made a superb 93 against Middlesex II last month before his eye catching 121-ball stay at the crease, which glued the Academy innings together. His 77 included a six and seven fours.
His only real support came from Dorset YC’s spin all-rounder James Barker (29), although skipper James Tomlinson, who once hit a County Championship fifty at Northlands Road, played three sumptuous straight boundary drives before Organ (3-33) and Harry Came (2-2) brought the innings to a close.
The spectators peering from the roadside savoured those three moments of magic …
While they were successfully chasing down a reduced target score of 151, the other 19 scheduled SPL matches were either abandoned or, in seven of the cases, cancelled without a ball being bowled.
It was Symondians’ second win and puts the Winchester side in a confident mood ahead of Saturday’s important visit to Havant, who are expected to be among St Cross’s main challengers this season.
St Cross expect to have South African all-rounder Michael Booth – a prominent middle-order batsman and pace bowler from Durham University – making a delayed debut at Havant Park.
Organ ensured he carried his bat through the 35-over duration of the St Cross innings, making sure there were no hiccups on the way as menacing black leaden clouds circled overhead.
He hit three sixes and seven fours in his 107-ball knock, adding an important 68 with county team-mate Brad Taylor (21).
They eased the St Cross reply to 108-2 when Taylor was bowled by 14-year old Perrins schoolboy Ollie Cordery, plucked out of Hambledon’s junior ranks for the afternoon.
Working up a fair pace from the church end of the tree-lined ground, the fair haired Cordery had Harry Trussler caught behind by Wilf La Fontaine Jackson next ball and suddenly found himself on a hat-trick – on his Academy debut !
Commendable
Harry Foyle edged Cordery’s potential hat-trick ball through the slips for four – but the Hambledon youngster got his man soon after, trapping Foyle (14) leg before to finish with commendable figures of 3-16 off his eight overs.
The spell by the teenager – whose parents run the popular Baker’s Arms in Droxford - left St Cross 132-5, but two big hits by Jack Bransgrove soon settled it.
Earlier, emerging Newbury teenager Toby Albert underpinned the Academy’s score of 169 all out.
The 19-year old talent has been handicapped by knee injuries in recent seasons, but made a superb 93 against Middlesex II last month before his eye catching 121-ball stay at the crease, which glued the Academy innings together. His 77 included a six and seven fours.
His only real support came from Dorset YC’s spin all-rounder James Barker (29), although skipper James Tomlinson, who once hit a County Championship fifty at Northlands Road, played three sumptuous straight boundary drives before Organ (3-33) and Harry Came (2-2) brought the innings to a close.
The spectators peering from the roadside savoured those three moments of magic …
Toby Albert, in good form for Hampshire Academy [Roy Honeybone]
