Crofton and Fareham U13s v Petersfield U13s

Petersfield U13s arrived at Bath Lane recreation ground on a lovely early summer morning. Under 13 captain Matt Friend lost the toss and was asked to bat. The innings did not get off to the best of starts with Joe Clarke being bowled first ball by Fareham's tall right arm seamer O Southon (1 for 10 off 4). This brought captain Friend to the wicket and with Ben Turk (21) they proceeded to punish anything offline with some wonderful stroke play in a 57 run partnership. This was ended by M Fitsel (2-17 off 4), who clean bowled Ben who was attempting a pick up shot over mid on. Tommy Matthews joined Matt in the middle and the runs continued to flow before and after Matt retired on 30 not out. Matthews (15) and Thomas Stevens then pushed the scoring along with some quick signals with Thomas lucky to survive one mix up from the Fareham fielders when it seemed easier to hit the stumps than miss them. Eventually Thomas (8) was run out with some very good fielding attempting to carry on pushing the score along. Tommy Matthews eventually was caught out right towards the end of the innings. Petersfield had managed to post what looked to be a very competitive 93 -5. With the wind picking up and after a shed load of bacon butties and biscuits were consumed by both sides Fareham started out with a solid opening stand between Southon (17) and M Frost (16) who punished anything short or wayward from the Petersfield opening bowlers of Matt Friend (2-15 off 3) and Joe Clarke (1-19 off 3.5). The stand of 34 was broken with a caught and bowled from Matt Friend as Southon mistimed a cover drive. Ben Turk (2-12 off 4) removed Frost and Petersfield then looked to have taken control of the game with Harry Richards (3-6 off 3) and Tommy Matthews (2-1 off 2) removing the next 3 batsmen without them scoring a run. Ben Turk took 2 in 2 and was unlucky as his hat-trick ball was seen off with a perfectly straight bat, this left Fareham tottering at 42-6. To Fareham’s credit they did not buckle and top scorer M Fitsell (26) pushed the scoring along at every opportunity. There were a couple of nervy run out attempts but as the pressure built on Petersfield there was one amazing all run four where there were 3 opportunities to run one or other of the batsmen out and in a scene reminiscent of the keystone cops they survived. Ben Turk took 2 in 2 Matt Friend and Harry Richards returned to pick up the final 2 wickets before Matt Friend capped a fine all round performance with a direct hit to remove Fitsell in the final over. A very good win for Petersfield against a good Fareham side. Moment of the day was the strictly farcical attempt to run one or other of the Fareham batsmen out. Man of the Match - with some very good performances with bat and ball from Matt and Ben. Harry Richards superb bowling it is difficult to choose between them so I have decided to award the man of the match to the whole team in what was a very very good team effort. Well done lads.