Midhurst field and bowl well ... shame about the batsmen

Alton II v Midhurst

Hampshire League division one

For the second week running Midhurst’s top order failed to score runs – but this time it cost them victory at Alton.

Alton batted first and lost early wickets to Chris May and Tim Powell with pace and movement in the air and off the pitch.

Andy Postles (71) and Jack Penn (48) took to laying the foundations before Steve May and Ryan Lewis stopped the flow of runs, May picking up three for 16. This left Alton with a respectable but gettable 193 all out.

Midhurst, however, were never in the hunt for victory as wickets fell.

Only Nalinda Premachandra and Chris May managed to score more than the extras total.

However there were lots of positives to take from the game, namely bowling another team out for a low score and good fielding.

When the batting clicks, as it surely will, there will be nothing stopping the firsts from securing a good position in county one this year.

Midhurst will certainly need to improve their batting if they’re to beat Portsmouth & Southsea this week.

Hambledon III v Salthill

Hampshire regional south east three

Salthill won an important toss and chose to bowl on an initially-tricky wicket.

Hambledon were restricted to just 37 for one at the halfway stage of the innings. A superb performance with the ball from Steve King, which included a hat-trick in figures of five for 27, helped contain Hambledon to a final total of 134 from 42 overs.

Salthill lost an early wicket, but a composed half-century from Jez Abbott saw them home in the 37th over for the loss of only four wickets to claim 22 points out of a possible 24.