South Wilts will be crowned ECB Southern Premier League champions if they win at Alton on Saturday – but they’ll make the trip to the Jubilee Ground with a warning from Ben Draper, their 23-years old skipper, ringing in their ears.
“Alton are bottom of the table and have two matches left to save their immediate Premier Division future, which essentially means they’ve got to beat us,” he stressed.
“We’re going to have to work for the 18 points we need to win the title, but that said the incentives for South Wilts are enormous.
“You don’t get a chance to win a league championship every day and only three of the lads that are currently playing were first team regulars when we last won it in 2015, so this is all very new and very exciting.”
South Wilts took an emphatic step towards the title by beating Lymington by 38 runs – but the New Forest visitors, who aren’t mathematically safe from relegation, gave them a tough time and, but the untimely loss of wickets in mid-innings, would have taken the scores even closer.
Asked to bat, South Wilts made a positive start with Tom Morton (36) taking them through to 99-2 (Jack Mynott 21) but after South African spin all-rounder Ximus Du Plooy (2-38) picked up him off a return catch, the stage was set for James Hayward and Ben Draper to take centre stage.
Playing his own brand of audacious switch hits – a distinct variation on the shots the MCC coaching textbook taught him years ago at Taunton School – Hayward plundered a six and 11 fours in a run-a-ball 75 and added 109 with Draper (64) as South Wilts built a powerful total.
Another 69 for the fifth wicket between Draper and Raff Hussey (31) pointed South Wilts to 288-8, the figures of leg spinner Dan Cox (3-67) including with the wickets of Hayward (pictured above) and Mynott to raise his season’s tally to 25 for the season, the fourth highest in the Premier Division.
Lymington flew out of the traps, with Terry Crabb (31) smashing a six and six boundaries and Ben Rogers (21) scoring 51 by the start of the fifth over.
Ryan Scott (17) joined Du Plooy (whose 55 included 8 fours) in a stand of 54 before the South African added more for the fifth wicket with Oxford University bound Josh Royan, whose 61 was his first SPL half-century since July 2018.
Du Plooy’s dismissal – leg before to Steve Warner at 184 – enabled South Wilts to reassert control, but Royan and Josh Proctor (20) kept the scoreboard moving until the Oxbridge teen fell at 248-8, the pair having added a further 36.
Lymington had given it their best shot but, once again, didn’t bat their 50 overs and were back in the clubhouse in the 45th over, a creditable 250 all out.
“Alton are bottom of the table and have two matches left to save their immediate Premier Division future, which essentially means they’ve got to beat us,” he stressed.
“We’re going to have to work for the 18 points we need to win the title, but that said the incentives for South Wilts are enormous.
“You don’t get a chance to win a league championship every day and only three of the lads that are currently playing were first team regulars when we last won it in 2015, so this is all very new and very exciting.”
South Wilts took an emphatic step towards the title by beating Lymington by 38 runs – but the New Forest visitors, who aren’t mathematically safe from relegation, gave them a tough time and, but the untimely loss of wickets in mid-innings, would have taken the scores even closer.
Asked to bat, South Wilts made a positive start with Tom Morton (36) taking them through to 99-2 (Jack Mynott 21) but after South African spin all-rounder Ximus Du Plooy (2-38) picked up him off a return catch, the stage was set for James Hayward and Ben Draper to take centre stage.
Playing his own brand of audacious switch hits – a distinct variation on the shots the MCC coaching textbook taught him years ago at Taunton School – Hayward plundered a six and 11 fours in a run-a-ball 75 and added 109 with Draper (64) as South Wilts built a powerful total.
Another 69 for the fifth wicket between Draper and Raff Hussey (31) pointed South Wilts to 288-8, the figures of leg spinner Dan Cox (3-67) including with the wickets of Hayward (pictured above) and Mynott to raise his season’s tally to 25 for the season, the fourth highest in the Premier Division.
Lymington flew out of the traps, with Terry Crabb (31) smashing a six and six boundaries and Ben Rogers (21) scoring 51 by the start of the fifth over.
Ryan Scott (17) joined Du Plooy (whose 55 included 8 fours) in a stand of 54 before the South African added more for the fifth wicket with Oxford University bound Josh Royan, whose 61 was his first SPL half-century since July 2018.
Du Plooy’s dismissal – leg before to Steve Warner at 184 – enabled South Wilts to reassert control, but Royan and Josh Proctor (20) kept the scoreboard moving until the Oxbridge teen fell at 248-8, the pair having added a further 36.
Lymington had given it their best shot but, once again, didn’t bat their 50 overs and were back in the clubhouse in the 45th over, a creditable 250 all out.