SOUTH WILTS, Southern League champions 1990 Standing (from left): Geoff Osborn, Peter Sadler, John Cropper, Angus Small, Neil Prigent, Andy Cooke Front: Jason Bulpit t, Bob Cowlard, Dave Parry, Stephen Benbough, Ben James.
South Wilts are hoping to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their first Southern Cricket League championship success sometime later this summer – but club historian Andy Cooke has a problem as four influential members of the 1990 title winning side are living abroad.
Skipper David Parry, who led from the front with 588 runs (including two centuries) that season, is now living quite (okay, very ..) comfortably in Florida, while South African paceman Gus Small, who weighed in with 50 wickets, retired several seasons later through injury problems and continues to live with his family at home in Durban.
Opener Jason Bulpitt has moved to live in Northern Ireland, while Geoff Osborn, who ran a dentists practice in Salisbury, has emigrated north of the border to Scotland.
South Wilts, 12th the previous summer, won 13 and lost four of their 17 matches in a summer in which, quite remarkably, every game in the Senior Division of the British Gas sponsored league was played. They finished 12 points ahead of Havant at the top, with Hursley Park third.
Inspired
Ironically, the season began poorly with South Wilts bowled out for 99 and beaten at Hursley Park, but, by the end of May, left-arm all-rounder Neil Prigent (who finishes the season with 43 wickets) had inspired a victory over Gosport, Parry and Peter Sadler had scored runs to set up a win over Havant, and Brian White had teased a 5-23 spin spell to destroy 1989 champions Old Tauntonians.
The pint sized Wiltshire left-hand opener was to enjoy himself with the bat seven days later – his 102 in the defeat of Calmore Sports at Loperwood Park being his first Southern League century for seven years and what turned out to be his last.
The winning sequence continued at the expense of Trojans and Winchester KS before an unbeaten century Parry guided South Wilts to an eighth straight win at Andover – and to the top of the Southern League table for the first time in ten years !
Finger nails
A follow-up ten wicket win over Poole Town (52 all out) extends the winning run, but finger nails are bitten a week later as South Wilts scrape a rain-adjusted two-run win over Portsmouth, who lie second in the log. Then Parry strikes a glorious 133* as the Bemerton club crushes Alton to move into a commanding 32-point lead over Portsmouth.
The win bubble bursts with an 89-run defeat at Bournemouth, but a blistering 5-13 spell by Small puts paid to Petersfield and restores momentum. Seven days later, when New Milton are reduced to 63-8 another win looks likely, but the Green & Golds recover to post 151 and South Wilts are bundled out for 114. Their lead at the top is trimmed to six points !
Now there is a wobble. Going into August, South Wilts are beaten by two wickets by United Services, but Portsmouth lose too and Havant tie with Poole. A week later, SW trim Lymington (124) by three wickets – the hard hitting Sadler being spectacularly caught at cover by the Daily Echo scribe fielding as substitute for Shaun Morris (broken finger) - and then go on to secure a decisive six-wicket win over Trojans (182-7) to move to within 16 points of the title with one match to go.
Celebrations run long into the night after South Wilts beat Waterlooville to clinch a first ever Southern League title, David Parry (89*) prospering after a century opening stand by Brian White (70) and Jason Bulpitt (65). Dentist Geoff Osborn (5-37) drills his way through the Ville batting to extract a maximum-point win.
Skipper David Parry, who led from the front with 588 runs (including two centuries) that season, is now living quite (okay, very ..) comfortably in Florida, while South African paceman Gus Small, who weighed in with 50 wickets, retired several seasons later through injury problems and continues to live with his family at home in Durban.
Opener Jason Bulpitt has moved to live in Northern Ireland, while Geoff Osborn, who ran a dentists practice in Salisbury, has emigrated north of the border to Scotland.
South Wilts, 12th the previous summer, won 13 and lost four of their 17 matches in a summer in which, quite remarkably, every game in the Senior Division of the British Gas sponsored league was played. They finished 12 points ahead of Havant at the top, with Hursley Park third.
Inspired
Ironically, the season began poorly with South Wilts bowled out for 99 and beaten at Hursley Park, but, by the end of May, left-arm all-rounder Neil Prigent (who finishes the season with 43 wickets) had inspired a victory over Gosport, Parry and Peter Sadler had scored runs to set up a win over Havant, and Brian White had teased a 5-23 spin spell to destroy 1989 champions Old Tauntonians.
The pint sized Wiltshire left-hand opener was to enjoy himself with the bat seven days later – his 102 in the defeat of Calmore Sports at Loperwood Park being his first Southern League century for seven years and what turned out to be his last.
The winning sequence continued at the expense of Trojans and Winchester KS before an unbeaten century Parry guided South Wilts to an eighth straight win at Andover – and to the top of the Southern League table for the first time in ten years !
Finger nails
A follow-up ten wicket win over Poole Town (52 all out) extends the winning run, but finger nails are bitten a week later as South Wilts scrape a rain-adjusted two-run win over Portsmouth, who lie second in the log. Then Parry strikes a glorious 133* as the Bemerton club crushes Alton to move into a commanding 32-point lead over Portsmouth.
The win bubble bursts with an 89-run defeat at Bournemouth, but a blistering 5-13 spell by Small puts paid to Petersfield and restores momentum. Seven days later, when New Milton are reduced to 63-8 another win looks likely, but the Green & Golds recover to post 151 and South Wilts are bundled out for 114. Their lead at the top is trimmed to six points !
Now there is a wobble. Going into August, South Wilts are beaten by two wickets by United Services, but Portsmouth lose too and Havant tie with Poole. A week later, SW trim Lymington (124) by three wickets – the hard hitting Sadler being spectacularly caught at cover by the Daily Echo scribe fielding as substitute for Shaun Morris (broken finger) - and then go on to secure a decisive six-wicket win over Trojans (182-7) to move to within 16 points of the title with one match to go.
Celebrations run long into the night after South Wilts beat Waterlooville to clinch a first ever Southern League title, David Parry (89*) prospering after a century opening stand by Brian White (70) and Jason Bulpitt (65). Dentist Geoff Osborn (5-37) drills his way through the Ville batting to extract a maximum-point win.
Natal pace bowler Angus Small, who took 50 wickets for South Wilts in their 1990 Southern League championship winning season. In this picture (taken by leading Salisbury photographer Dominic Parkes) Small cracks Shaun Morris on the hand and breaks his finger.
