Petersfield Second XI made their way down to Drayton Park to take on Portsmouth’s 4th XI, looking to make it three wins on the bounce. Things started in typically farcical fashion, with numerous players arriving from the wrong side of the ground, perilously close but unable to get through the industrial estate separating them from their destination. After some detours around the residential streets of Cosham and Farlington, everyone was at the ground for a short warm before the toss. Looking at a used and well baked pitch, both captains were keen to have a bat – with visiting captain Tom Horwood making the incorrect call of ‘Tails’, it was down to Portsmouth club legend Ricky Marston to say “that’s good, we’ll have a bat please”.

On to the proceedings in the middle, Portsmouth openers R Higginson (25) and A Smith (4) wandered to face up to the Petersfield pair of Nathan Barlow (3-28) and Steve Gibson (2-25). The action was fairly even in the opening exchanges, with Higgingson punishing the odd bad ball, but Gibson in particular showed strong control to keep scoring a challenge. It was Barlow who made the decisive breakthroughs, clean bowling Smith, before in his following two overs removing Higginson, again clean bowled, and then dismissing T Newman (1), adjudged LBW. That brought L Brown (27) and E Thompson (21) to the crease, bringing about a period of relative stability to proceedings for the hosts, with the pair adding almost 50 to the total, before Tom Horwood (1-38) and Stuart Kidd (1-36) struck in short succession to remove the two set batters. First, Kidd snuck one through the defenses of E Thompson, before Horwood then bowled Brown through the gate. A Thompson and R Rai became thorns in Petersfield’s side for a while, both playing unorthodox shots that squirted to odd angles for the fielding team to cut off, but R Rai was eventually bowled by Derek Kelly (1-18). With Petersfield sniffing an opening with the score now at 124-6, Horwood turned back his trusted “T-Rex in chief” Gibson, looking to blow through the tail with some initial avail – Gibson striking twice to remove M Awan (6), caught off a full toss by Chris Driver at midwicket, and removing the host’s captain Ricky Marston (2) who was caught behind by James Longland. Suraj Sashidharan (1-16) also got in on the act, celebrating his return from a month away in India by claiming Petersfield’s ninth wicket of the day in taking a smart caught & bowled off A Thompson, who was finally removed to the delight of the visitors. That was, however, where the fun ended. Petersfield, with the hosts at 148-9, hoped to limit them to as little over 150 as possible, but Sashidharan and Jacob Clay (0-16) were unable to make the final breakthrough to secure maximum bowling points – a bit of a lapse in the field, seeing a couple of drop catches and a couple of avoidable boundaries leading to Portsmouth seeing out the 40 overs, ending on 181-9, 20 or so more than they really should have been allowed – credit to Tim Bailey (11*) and J Wiseman (18*) for adding the roughly run-a-ball 33 to the tally for the unbeaten final wicket.

Momentum arguably with the hosts as the players wandered off to enjoy a ‘bring your tea’, but with four and half an over feeling gettable provided the dry pitch didn’t begin to crumble too much, it was over to the Petersfield top order to go about a chase…

Petersfield’s regular opening pair of Tom Horwood (62) and Steve Gibson (7) wandered out to wage war with J Wiseman (0-39) and the experience of Ricky Marston (1-17). Petersfield began brightly, with both batters getting early boundaries in, but Gibson fell to the wily Marston, being bowled on off stump attempting to work the ball through the leg side. Horwood went on the attack, hitting Wiseman for a substantial straight six, and showed measured aggression to keep the scoreboard ticking along… Chris Driver (4), having helped Horwood see off the early Marston threat, then fell to the talented leg-spinner E Thompson (4-25), attempting to use his feet but plinking the spinning ball up to be caught at cover-point. Ned Kelly (19), having been informed by the departing Driver that an offspinner was bowling at him, got the surprise of his life when the first ball turned sharply away from him! Having survived the early shock, Kelly settled into his business, turning the strike over well with Horwood (including what was technically an “all-run six” with the help of some overthrows) and hitting a couple of lusty boundaries. Kelly was then, however, a little unluck to be removed by a short, quicker ball from Thompson that didn’t really get up, bowling him through his legs having set up to pick it up through the leg side.

With score at 97-3, and over half of the total attain, despite Kelly’s loss, Petersfield looked reasonably comfortable – all the visitors needed from here was to rotate the strike, put the odd bad ball away and they’d be home dry – just a case of keeping wickets in hand. Cue the inevitable calypso collapso… First, James Longland (4) chipped one of Thompson into the air and was caught at cover, with Derek Kelly (0) falling in exactly the same manner moments later. From here, a lot of pressure was on Horwood to consolidate, but was himself (like Ned Kelly before him) undone by a half-tracker that didn’t really bounce, but this time off the bowling of Tim Bailey (1-40), with a ball expected at stomach height, cannoning into middle stump half way up… Petersfield now reeling at 101-6 with four wickets falling for the same number of runs being scored – the target of 182 suddenly looking a long way off. Thankfully for the visitors, there’s some steel, grit and (importantly) experience in lower order, with Suraj Sashidharan (15) and Stuart Kidd (31*) setting about consolidating and rebuilding momentum. The hosts didn’t make it easy, with E Thompson still bowling well, and R Rai (0-33) proving some darty left arm orthodox on a pitch that was starting to show more signs of its wear… The pair plugged on courageously until M Awan (1-23) stuck to remove Sashidharan, being caught at extra cover off a well-struck backward punch that was sadly straight at the host’s best fielder who made no mistake. The real shock wasn’t that a wicket had fallen, but that the wicket wasn’t a run out, after several miscommunications, one of which left Kidd on the floor in the middle of the strip, somehow then not run out after a comedy of errors in the field! This left Petersfield now 150-7, with 32 runs still to score – thankfully, the visitors still had batting in the tank, with Nathan Barlow (21*) wandering out to join the set and resolute Kidd in the middle. The pair batted sensibly, picking off ones and twos to narrow the deficit down to the teens – Barlow rode his luck on a couple of occasions, being dropped at mid-wicket by a lad who was being filmed for his GCSE in PE (I suspect video evidence of this moment will have been deleted…), but hit an important boundary shortly after to get the runs required into single digits and relieve some of the building pressure. A couple of plays and misses later, the runs required were down to just four, and the winning moment game with Barlow hitting one down the ground off Rai past the fielders who had all been brought in to cut off the singles – Petersfield win by 3 wickets, with almost two overs to spare. “Easy”.

So, after leaking a few more than desired towards the end of the Portsmouth innings, and then almost throwing away a very positive start with the bat, the Second XI battled hard – the experience in the lower order proving Petersfield had a tail that could really wag to bring the win home. A really pleasing outcome on another warm away day – a third consecutive win that moves the Second XI into the promotion spots, with just over a quarter of the season completed. Lots of hard work to go, but winning hard-fought games without being at your best is a good sign for when complete performances begin to click…

Next week, the Second XI return to the Heath for the visit of Froxfield (and importantly, a provided tea courtesy of the Horwoods), who will be keen to climb up towards midtable and away from the perils of the periphery of the relegation zone.