End of Season Report by Martin Peters

Frustrating, disappointing & unfulfilled are just some of the words that could be used to describe the first XIs 2009 season, a final league placing of 14th out of 18 telling its own story.

5 defeats in a row at the start of the season was not the ideal start for, a 151 mauling away at East Tytherley, despite an excellent debut innings of 57 from Charlie Evans, was followed by an unbelievable 2 run loss at Hamble ASSC where we managed to lose our last 5 wickets for just 9 runs! Bobby Wood 4-34 & 48 from Evans were the only bright spots.

Wood continued his good start with 5-18 to bowl New Milton out for just 132, but the batting collapsed to 84 all out, this was followed by a comprehensive 6 wicket drubbing at the hands of eventual champions Shrewton, Marco Teixeira scored his first league half century (68) before making an early exit for some stitches in a head wound! Lymington inflicted the 5th defeat, again the batting failed as only Martin Peters (47) resisted in 124 all out chasing 172.

The first victory came at Cadnam, where we scored exactly 200 runs more than our 2008 effort there as we posted a challenging 232 run target (Peters 121* & Tom Wood 46). All of the bowlers chipped in to record a nervy 7 run victory achieved in the very last over. Another nail biter followed as we beat a strong Old Basing side by just 5 runs, again achieved in the last over of the game. Tom Wood 62 & 3 wicket hauls for Teixeira & Mark Munday were the major contributions in a good team effort. Another team eventually promoted, Burridge, ended our mini revival with a 67 run defeat, Teixeira 60 & Peters 47* made good use of a nice batting wicket but the bowlers struggled to make an impact.

Spinners played the major role at lowly US Portsmouth, where our under par score of 172 (Stuart Currall 45) was ably defended by Munday 2-30, Peters 3-35 & Barry Newton 3-18. Another comfortable win at Hungerford, by 5 wickets, had us hoping for a mid table finish. Tom Strouds maiden 1st XI 50, supported by 67 from Peters saw us ease past the 221 target, however, defeats in each of the last 4 games of the season had us looking over our shoulders at the bottom teams.

Victory was again tossed away at an under strength but high flying Ellingham, Munday 5-55 had restricted the target to only 207, but despite again appearing to be cruising to victory mainly thanks to Teixeira 89, we contrived to lose our nerve at the crucial time to lose by just 2 runs despite having 6 wickets left. Pylewell Park gave us a lesson at home, they batted positively & bowled aggressively to hand out a 63 run defeat (Teixeira 65 & 2 wickets for Stroud, Munday & Newton being the bright spots). A demoralising 6 wicket defeat followed at relegated Basingstoke, only Tom Wood 54* shone.

The final game at home to Hythe & Dibden was a fittingly disappointing conclusion, an under strength side was beaten by 7 wickets as again Wood 3-33 & Teixeira 45 excelled.