SPARSHOLT BANKS FIRST DIVIDEND

Sparsholt 288 for 4 beat South Wilts II 201 for 9 by 87 runs.

Cala Homes sponsored Sparsholt bounced back from last week’s loss by comprehensively beating a young South Wilts team at the Norman Edwards ground. Tree’s captain Andy Worth won the toss and decided to bat first on a wicket perhaps softened by midweek rain, but dried in the warm sunshine of Friday and Saturday morning. Stuart Tognarelli (36) and Richard Kenway again set up the innings with a second consecutive half century partnership. Tognarelli offered a return catch to Christian Pain (2 for 56) with the score at 66, only for Kenway to be joined by this season’s other newcomer Dave Banks. This pair added a further 69 before Kenway was bowled by Paul Draper for an excellent 66, containing ten sweetly timed fours. Just as Kenway had been, Banks needed to be watchful against an accurate bowling attack which conceded just three wides in the whole innings. Banks, who is already the Southern League’s highest aggregate run scorer with over 7,000 career runs, moved past fifty with four fours and one towering six. A third half century partnership with Tom Foster (22) took the ‘trees’ to 185 with eleven overs left before Banks was joined by Jeremy Frith, and the pair launched a savage attack on the visitors’ bowlers – Banks moved onto a brilliant century, his sixth career Southern League hundred with five more maximums before holing out for 108 with just two overs left. In the meantime, Frith chipped in with three fours and three sixes of his own in an unbeaten 49 as the pair added a rapid 89 for the fourth wicket. Sparsholt’s 288 looked a formidable total, but nothing could be taken for granted against the batting line up that scored nearly 400 in its fixture the previous weekend. Sparsholt’s opening attack of Kyle Ruffell and Banks was much tidier than the previous week, and Ruffell soon bowled opener Owain Phillips. As the score passed fifty, Banks then removed Ben Draper. Tom Cowley (32) and Rob Pitman seemed to be moving on well when Cowley was needlessly run out by a Nick Doubell, Kenway and Adam Gough combination. South Wilts were already well behind the required rate, and the spin combination of Doubell and Frith slowed the rate still further. Wickets in successive balls for Frith (2 for 31) saw the fifth wicket fall at 102 after which the visitors seemed to lose any appetite for victory, and it just became a case of whether the bowlers could take the remaining wickets and secure maximum bonus points. Skipper Tom Pearce (49 not out) resisted, but there was little support at the other end and Jon Vokes took the sixth wicket to fall. The visitors inched past 200 for another bonus point of their own, and Dave Gough (3 for 29) took three late wickets but number eleven Matt Burton saw out the last three balls to deny Sparsholt the last bonus point on offer as the innings ended. Skipper Andy Worth was very happy with the result ‘Kenners and Frithy (Kenway and Frith) looked rusty in the pre-season game, but have looked much sharper as each match goes by’. Celebrating his fifty, Kenway could be seen in Winchester City Centre pubs, ‘dancing’ the night away, following the now legendary ‘stump run’ initiation for new players that he and centurion Dave Banks took part in earlier in the evening. Next week, Sparsholt look to build on their success as they visit unbeaten Calmore Sports.

Sparsholt’s Sunday National Village Knockout match against Godshill was cancelled as the New Forest outfit were unable to raise a team. Sparsholt will now go to Hambledon for a tough looking semi final match in two weeks time. 

Pictures:

1.Jon Vokes, Adam Gough and Tom Foster celebrate a run out

2.Dave Banks, great maiden century for Sparsholt

3.Richard Kenway, stylish 66 set up the Sparsholt Innings