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Hampshire Academy win - but how remains a mystery!
Mike Vimpany (as published in Daily Echo) - 4 August 2002
Cricket can be a cruel game at times - and don't Easton & Martyr Worthy know it !
They had the better of the Hampshire Academy in a riveting Southern Electric Premier League, Division 2 top-of-the-table struggle in the Cockets Mead "bowl". But, after calling the tune for the bulk of a tense, gripping and often tetchy affair, played for the most part in slippery underfoot conditions, had nothing - save a handful of bonus points - to show for their efforts.
They lost - and probably undeservedly so - by one wicket off the penultimate ball of a game which crammed drama and twists galore into a rain-cut 75 overs of absorbing cricket.
For the neutral, it was wonderfully entertaining, none more so than the enthralling climax, played out in the gathering gloom, where any of three outcomes was possible.
The Hampshire youngsters won it in the end, chasing a much reduced 88 off 27 overs, after Easton had batted their allotted 48 overs and posted 158-7.
Quite how they won it will remain a mystery in their inexperienced cricketing minds for some while to come. "We were fortunate to have the best of the weather and the best of the wicket," admitted Academy skipper Tony Middleton.
"The fact that we ended up winning by only one wicket speaks for itself.
"Did we deserve to win ? Probably not," he conceded.
Easton owed a huge debt to the considerable ability of the ultra-competitive Green brothers. They initially rescued their side from a perilous 40-0 ... before getting to work with the ball - and almost bowling the Academy out on their own.
And how close they came to achieving it !
Quite how the match stayed its course was remarkable in itself.
For the bulk of a prolonged stop-go afternoon session, menacing black clouds swirled around overhead, with many of the surrounding countryside roads awash from flash flooding.
It rained everywhere it seems bar Cockets Mead, where Easton found themselves put into bat on a puttylike surface - the pitch had apparently been rock-hard until being left uncovered and at the mercy of overnight rain - and quickly plunged into trouble.
They lurched to 18-3 and later 40-4 before Australian all-rounder Francis Gill, on his farewell appearance, initiated a partial recovery.
Incessant appealing by the often over-exhuberant Hampshire close fielders fuelled the tension as Gill and Shaun Green gradually improved Easton's lot.
They had moved on to 83-5 after 37 overs, when the first of three rain interruptions drove the players off.
Steve Green, the Easton captain, was fortunate not to be `timed out' as he was twice unready - and unpadded - when umpires Jeff Rees and Brian Woolley wanted play to resume.
When he did get to the crease, Steve, batting with wholesome aggression and cracking a quite superb 62 not out, really got the score going.
He added exactly 100 with his younger brother Shaun, who departed for an important 32 shortly after a second rain break.
With captain Green at the helm, Easton's score moved from 83-5 to 158-7 in the last 11 overs.
"I was very impressed by the way Easton played, particularly the Green brothers. They batted really well in the middle of the innings when it was particularly difficult, and were always going to make it very difficult for us," Middleton said.
Taking into account time lost to rain, that left the Academy to score 89 runs for victory from 27 overs.
It took some time for the Academy innings to get underway.
Middleton asked for a heavy roller but no one, it appeared, could find the key to the machine shed - or actually knew how to drive the roller !
Fortunately, a fiasco was averted when Ian Butcher, clad in his wicket-keeping togs, eventually got the rolling underway.
Middleton had sent his youngest-yet team of Academy recruits to the Easton front-line - Irfan Shah was the only professional in the side, three of whom are nervously awaiting the results of their GCSE examinations.
And what a roller-coaster ride the county hopefuls were about to embark upon ! Easton, defending a low total, would scrap and contest every run - and how the Academy would have to earn them.
Mark Stone struck an immediate blow, trapping Martin Bushell leg before. Sarisbury Athletic's Peter Hammond (22) produced three exquisite back-foot boundary shots, only to be lured out of his ground at 29-2 by the wily Steve Green, now exerting a major influence with the ball.
But it was younger brother Shaun, coming down the slight slope, who caused most of the trouble.
He had both Kevin Latouf and wicketkeeper Tom Burrows caught off leading edges, clean bowled the dangerous David Wheeler and then had Shah well held at deep mid-off by Dave Moyes.
At 57-6 in the 18th over, the Academy were in deep trouble.
Easton, applying incredible pressure, were flinging themselves about in the field and were almost beside themselves with delight when Ian Hilsum spooned a return catch to Steve Green (5-42) and young Mitchell Stokes ran himself out.
The game - and possibly the Premier Division 2 championship - was Easton's for the taking as the Academy tottered at 67-8 and then 71-9 when James Manning was run out.
Hampshire, needing 18 runs off the last four Green overs, could ill afford another mistake when skipper Middleton joined Oxfordshire-based Luke Merry for the final act of a drama now being played out in the fading light.
Middleton, calling upon all his First Class experience, and Merry, keeping an incredibly cool head, whittled the target down to 11 runs off two overs and six off Shaun Green's crucial final over.
The tension was almost unbearable before Middleton square-cut Green's second ball for three - a shot which relieved the anxiety in the Academy camp.
Merry cut the next ball for a single, Middleton on-drove the fourth for another. Then Merry leg glanced the penultimate ball of the match to the long-on boundary to give the Young Hawks a thrilling victory.
The Academy had got out of jail - and how they knew it !
Merry, the Hampshire hero, confessed that he had never experienced pressure quite like it.
"It was incredible being in there at the end. The pressure was intense - something I've never previously experienced.
"I knew that if I stuck around, and hit the bad ball we could make it.
"Tony was an invaluable source of support at the other end. He kept telling me he was confident I could do it," he said.
A much relieved Middleton paid tribute to Easton's out-cricket. "Their fielding, in very difficult conditions, was superb - better than ours.
"Easton are a good, very competitive side and a lot of young lads will have learned a lot from that game," he said.
© SPCL / Daily Echo / Mike Vimpany
| Players/Umpires | Tony Middleton, Imran Shah, Ian Hilsum. |
| Tournaments | Southern Electric Premier League |
| Season | English Domestic Season |
| Grounds | David Roth Memorial Ground, Cockets Mead, Easton |