SPCL2 Week10 - Shock defeats good news for St Cross

St Cross Symondians are firmly in the Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 driving seat after surprise defeats by Old Tauntonians & Romsey and Easton & Martyr Worthy, their nearest rivals.

While St Cross were beating Gosport Borough by 62 runs, OT's crashed to a 15-run defeat against Sparsholt, and Easton were toppled at Burridge.

Run happy opener Steve Shaw was once again the St Cross star, cracking an unbeaten 96 - to send his season's aggregate rocketing to 569 in seven knocks - and sharing useful stands with Graham Barrett (40), Rhys Morgan (24) and Mark Padwick (23) as the leaders raced to 229-7 (Craig Stares 3-36).

Although Lee Wateridge and Stuart Magee each made 42, Gosport's reply never got into any rhythm, especially against Morgan and Matt Perry-Lewis.

Appropriately, it was Shaw's part-time bowling which finished Gosport off, the `all-rounder' taking 2-5 to reduce the Borough to 167 all out.

Ironically, it was former St Cross opener Nick Wolstenholme who gave his old chums a helping hand by top scoring with 71 in Sparsholt's Romsey triumph.

He overcame a miserly spell by Jeremy Ord (1-18 in 12 overs) to share a productive second-wicket stand with Bill Gunyon (45) as Sparsholt, with a helping hand from Will Jacobs (29), defied the attentions of three-wicket pair Raj Naik (3-50) and Max Smith (3-53) to post 198-8.

OT's were unable to force the pace, with Smith (62) struggling to impose himself during a 42-over stint at the crease.

It put pressure on the other batsmen - seven of whom reached double figures - who were asked to score at seven runs an over - a situation left-arm swingman Mike Ball (4-56) exploited as Romsey finished 15 runs adrift at 183 all out.

With Zimbabwean Gary Brent retruning to the fold after next weekend's ODI final, Burridge will be a difficult side to encounter during the second half of the summer.

But even without Brent, Burridge have beaten Sparsholt - and now Easton & Martyr Worthy - in quick succession.

Dave Jackson (54) top scored in a Burridge total of 193-9 which was always likely to stretch Easton, who tumbled to 61-5 against a fine spell by Hampshire Vets aspirant Roger Cawte (3-22) before the innings took any shape.

Opener Dave Birch (56), who had witnessed the collapse, and Steve Green (54) turned the tide with a 93 sixth-wicket stand, but when the pair were parted, Easton fell from 154-5 to 177 all out.

A five-wicket spell by Stuart Wilson (5-35) ripped the heart out of United Services and set up a 103-run win for Hursley Park at St John's College.

In-form Paul Edwards (51), Ben Smyth (33) and James Lush (32) led Hursley to 249-6 before Wilson got to work on Services' middle-order.

The Portsmouth side was well placed at 111-3 (Tom Clarke 67) when Wilson emerged to cut through the heart of the batting and send US crashing to 146 all out.

Lymington's depressing four-match losing sequence ended with a somewhat unconvincing three-wicket victory at Purbrook, the winless Premier Division 2 basement boys.

They bowled Purbrook out for a modest 159, but dipped to 34-3 and later 122-6 before victory was assured.

Purbrook, last season's Division 3 champions, collapsed themselves - a promising 96-2 becoming 159 all out, with Eugene Burzler (3-24) and Mike West (2-21) producing the telling spells before Ben Craft (2-12) wrapped up the tail.

Craft (46) and Burzler influenced proceedings again as Lymington rallied from 34-3, but a middle-order wobble, initiated by Will Prozesky (4-45), left the outcome in doubt until Burzler (45) located a reliable partner in Mike West (15 not out) to secure the win.