The latest news from Ventnor Cricket Club.
Lymington victory sends Ventnor down
A year ago Ventnor were about to celebrate promotion to Division 1 of the Southern Electric Premier League for the very first time. Twelve months on, a season which started so promisingly has ended in relegation and a swift return to Division 2.
In the final round of matches on Saturday, Ventnor produced a desperately disappointing performance to lose by 78 runs to Alton while at Chapel Gate, relegation rivals Lymington triumphed over champions Bournemouth to send the Islanders down.
Groundsman ensured play despite previous bad weather
The hard graft of Newclose groundsman Andy Butler ensured the match went ahead with Charlie Freeston’s side knowing that a win would be enough to survive regardless of Lymington’s efforts against the newly crowned champions.
After the incessant rain of the preceding days, skipper Freeston had little hesitation in asking Alton to bat first on winning the toss and was rewarded when Sean Nowak and Rob Snell struck two early blows to reduce the visitors to 50-2. From that point, however, Alton took complete charge as Ryan Hale and Scott Myers took full toll of some wayward bowling and less than impressive fielding to leave the home team with a mountain to climb.
In an unbroken partnership of 254, Hale cracked 159 before a delivery from Nowak struck him in the face, while Myers went on to hit 100 in a massive total of 333-3.
A decent start in pursuit of such a daunting total was paramount, but the loss of Matt Compton, Adam Hose and Ian Hilsum inside the first ten overs with just 37 on the board left the middle and lower order with a thankless task. With the chances of victory remote, it was important to secure enough bonus points to remain ahead of Lymington, a ploy solely dependent on Bournemouth successfully chasing the New Forest side’s total of 228.
Although never able to threaten that huge Alton total, Neil Westhorpe (81) and Roger Miller (49) took the score past 175 to bag four potentially decisive bonus points as news filtered through from Chapel Gate that Bournemouth required three runs from the final delivery to beat the bottom placed club and ensure Premier 1 survival for Ventnor. In an ironic twist, however, Island based Tommy Barton ran out the Dorset team’s last man to clinch a dramatic one run win for Lymington and send Ventnor back to Division 2. With their fate already sealed, Nowak’s rapid fire 55 not out was purely academic as the innings closed on 255-9.
Blackman hits 93 as Ventnor cap a perfect campaign
In complete contrast to the first eleven’s struggles, Mark Woodhouse’s second team won at Basingstoke to cap a marvellous season.
Their 36 run victory made it 16 wins from 16 games as they finished in pole position in Hampshire League Division 3.
On a tricky pitch, Richard Wilson (45) Ben Woodhouse (27) gave their side a solid start before Martin Blackman’s splendid knock of 93 not out enabled them to reach 220-5, Kyle Sharp contributing 28.
The home side made a decent fist of their response but were eventually dismissed for 184, James Cheek (3-42), Darren Taylor (3-27) and Adam Wilson (2-23) doing the damage.
Holland century hits Ventnor
Nick Holland with a fine 108 not out and Mark Ringer with 93 led Shanklin to 279-4 against Ventnor’s third team in the Harwoods League at Steephill on Saturday.
The home team could only muster 105 in reply, Andy White taking 5-14 for the visitors.
That’s my grandson!
Nine year old Isaac Herridge did his grandfather proud at Steephill on Sunday.
In a light hearted match to celebrate his grandfather Ray’s 65th year, the youngster took two wickets for just five runs, including the prized scalp of Gloucestershire wicket keeper and former Ventnor hero Steve Snell! His second victim was his father Danny!
Just to complete a memorable day, junior Herridge then hit the winning run for his grandad’s team!
Image: TC7 under CC BY-ND 2.0
