Sparsholt Cricket Club’s competitive season got off to a flying start this weekend, hot off the tails of a tour of Guernsey the week before.

Sparsholt were visitors to long-time rivals Easton & Martyr Worthy Cricket Club in the first round of the National Village Cricket KO competition, where both teams were hopeful of ensuring the game was played before the weather took a turn for the worse.

The Sparsholt players, led by new Captain Jeremy Frith showed their resolve early on by going through a rigorous warm up. It was during the warm up that wicket keeper Adam Gough, who is also the club’s Second team Captain for the 2017 season; became injured. Thus giving 12th man and Chairman, Andy Worth an afternoon of Cricket in the field – as opposed to watching his son from the boundary at his junior game. That is commitment right there!

The hosts, who were a man short, won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Stanbrook and Foreman seemed to hold their own against a strong opening bowling partnership of Mike Haworth and Tom Procter, and after 10 overs; Easton were on respectable 39 runs for no wicket.  At this point, the rain began to fall and Frith decided to shake things up, with himself coming on to bowl from the Pavilion end and Nayan Phagami coming on to bowl from the opposite. This decision proved to be fruitful with both bowlers taking wickets, bringing Easton’s run rate to a stop at 63 for 4 wickets, with some great catches coming from Nick Doubell, stand in keeper David Banks; and ‘Birthday Boy’ Tom Foster.

Phagami wasn’t content with two wickets and his bowling seemed to be problematic for the Easton batsmen as the run rate continued to drop, his wicket tally increased – finishing his spell taking 5 wickets for 26 runs. But it was Frith that put the final nail in the coffin taking the final two wickets of Easton captain Mark Dickety & Winchester old boy Rae Lockyer in quick succession, closing their innings with a total of 94 from 25 overs.

The captains decided to continue playing rather than stopping for tea as the rain started to clear. Sparsholt openers Mike Haworth and Richard Kenway took to the middle knowing that maintaining a run rate of 2.4 runs per over would ensure victory. Opening bowlers J Banks and B Stanbrook both bowled superbly as Easton looked to prevent run scoring at all costs. But with such a low target – this was always going to be an uphill struggle with both batsmen taking runs regularly. At the 16 over mark, when Easton changed bowlers Sparsholt required 40 more runs to move onto the next round. This target was reached within the next 8 overs as both batsmen took advantage of the bowling change, and continued the charge to the win – both played some beautiful shots. Haworth, who had been forced to miss the tour due to illness secured his first half century of the season, with Kenway scoring 36.

Winning Captain, Jeremy Frith said after the game “It was a good solid performance in what could have been a really tricky tie. Nayan and Mike put in two stand out performances but overall I was really pleased with the attitude everyone showed and we are now looking forward to the first league game. If we continue to go about our cricket like that we’ll keep getting better as the year goes on”.

The next round of the competition takes place on 14th May, with Sparsholt are hosting another local team in Hursley Park who beat Emsworth CC convincingly in their first round fixture – with Paul Marks scoring 174 and setting a new club record score.

Sparsholt’s league campaigns begin this coming weekend with the 1st team welcoming Hartley Wintney to the Norman Edwards ground, while the 2nd team visit Longparish. The 3rd team however, don’t kick off their season until 13th May, when they visit Compton & Chandlers Ford.

Should you be a cricketer that is still looking for a team, or a fan of the game that is looking to give back? Sparsholt are always looking for new talent to join their ranks – both playing and behind the scenes. To get in touch please visit our website (http://www.sparsholtcc.co.uk) or send in an email to info@sparsholtcc.co.uk