Fresh from a rain-induced break last weekend, Petersfield’s Second XI were keen to build on the three consecutive victories that had propelled them to the promotion spots of Division 5G with a visit to local rivals Hambledon and the picturesque Broadhalfpenny Down ground. On a what look a green and slow pitch following the rain of the past couple of weeks, visiting Captain Tom Horwood was delighted to have correctly called “Tails” and have the choice, a choice that resulted in Petersfield fielding first. (Tosswatch, honours even with three wins from six tosses thus far).

Petersfield openers Steve Gibson (2-45) and Nathan Barlow (1-54) began proceedings against the host’s openers of Steve Parvin (23) and Steve Rudder (9). Despite a couple of lusty blows from Rudder off Gibson, the latter got the early breakthrough, clean bowling Rudder with an in-swinging delivery that snuck between bat and pad. Gibson repeated the feat shortly after, with the in-swing undoing the defenses of Parvin in a similar manner. Tom Allen (45) and Rafi Abdeen (38) took the score into three figures for the hosts, scoring reasonably freely against Stuart Kidd (0-47) who struggled to find the right length on such a slow pitch, and youngster Harry Roots (0-17) who can be proud of maiden Second XI spell even if leaving wicketless. The introduction of Tom Horwood (3-14) began to turn the tide back in the visitor’s favour, with sharp turn and, more importantly, consistent accuracy that made runs hard to come by. Horwood soon has his reward, removing Allen LBW as he attempted to leave one that turned back on his front pad. With Horwood going for few runs and creating a number of wicket opportunities, he turned to his second spinner in the lineup, Jacob Clay (0-36), to bowl in tandem with him at the other end. It remained Horwood’s end where the threat came from, with the captain taking another two wickets in one over – first removing Lucas Chandler (20), bowling him through the gate with a classic off-spinners trap of drift and turn, before two balls later repeating the trick and removing Zach Bembridge (0) with a carbon copy of Chandler’s dismissal. With that reducing Hambledon to 138-5 (having been 108-2), Petersfield sensed an opening… Sadly, it wasn’t exploited. Horwood concluded his tidy eight-spell, and with runs leaking elsewhere, turned back to his openers Barlow and Gibson to finish the job. Barlow did make a breakthrough to remove Abdeen, clean bowling him, but the rest of the innings belonged to Simon de Fraine (56*) who, having feasted on a few loose Clay deliveries, continued to unleash his long levers, riding his luck on occasion, but bringing up an important half-century that took the host’s total well beyond par for the surface. There remained time for one last bright spark in the field, with Jake Dalton excellently and calmly running out Jamie Birch (1). This brough the host’s captain, Kevin Wingham (2*), out to support de Fraine through to the end of the innings – Hambledon ending 215-7 from their forty overs, too many for Petersfield’s captain’s liking who had a quick committee meeting with the team to talk about what just happened with the ball and in the field… “Phil Brown” moment over, and the players were free to enjoy a rare treat – an Away Tea! Thank you to Hambledon for laying that on for us.

Tea concluded, it was over to Petersfield to navigate a challenging chase – Tom Horwood (19) and Steve Gibson (33) beginning proceedings in circumspect fashion again accurate bowling from Jamie Houlberg (0-28) and Hamish Duncan (1-35). Having battled through the early stages, the Petersfield pair began to bring the chase back towards required rate – things starting to look a little rosier, until Horwood had one stop on him a little and somehow saw the ball balloon to point… 42-1, so a reasonable platform set, and Chris Driver (25) joined Gibson at the crease and looked assured, playing some nice shots to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The innings began to turn, however, with the introduction of Zac Bembridge (4-21) and Simon de Fraine (1-35) in favour of the hosts… Despite a couple of unsavory moments involving comments made by certain Hambeldon players towards umpires that required a conversation between the two captains, Bembridge in particular just plugged away with his ‘undercutting’ deliveries that caused problems for the Petersfield middle-order… Gibson was the first of Bembridge’s victims, being adjudged LBW, before de Fraine got one to stop in the pitch that Driver popped up to extra-cover. That took the score to 100-3, so whilst still in with a shout, Petersfield needed a robust middle order performance – sadly, Bembridge went on a savage rout… He clean-bowled James Longland (17, almost all in boundaries!), before then having Suraj Sashidharan (5) caught sharply down the leg side by the wicketkeeper – a sharp grab up the stumps! Bembridge then made a slightly hungover Jake Dalton (0) question more life choices by clean bowling him first ball… Hattrick ball time, but Nathan Barlow (2) successfully navigated a straight delivery and avoided the various fielders around the bat. Ned Kelly (19), who had been patient in building his innings was unfortunately removed by Steve Rudder (2-15), playing around a straight one. Reduced to 135-7 and the tail exposed, matters had descended into a damage limitation in pursuit of additional batting points, with the remaining 80 runs looking a long way off… Matters were made harder with a miscommunication between Barlow and Jacob Clay (3) saw the latter regrettably stranded at the same end as his partner and run out. With that next point in doubt, Petersfield needed a hero – cometh the hour, cometh the fifteen-year-old, with Harry Roots (9*) on debut striding to the middle. He in fact opened his Second XI runs account with a Six (okay, a two with four overthrows, but a MASSIVE six over third man in the book!) which secured the next batting point for the visitors. With Barlow getting a little too excited at the introduction of loopy bowling from Kevin Wingham (1-14) that saw him bowled coming down the wicket, it left the injured Stuart Kidd (3) to join Roots at the crease. Sadly, the final blow came in strange fashion, with a Rudder full toss deceiving Kidd which saw him clean bowled. Petersfield all out for 158, with Hambledon winning by 57 runs.

So Petersfield winning run comes to end, in regrettably lackluster fashion. The top order battled hard to set a platform that saw Petersfield probably get about a par score, but some poor bowling and uncommitted (at times) fielding costing the Second XI about the margin of victory. Plenty to work on with ball and in the field, but some positives to focus on moving forward – a resolute effort from the top order and a positive debut for young Harry Roots. Petersfield return to the Heath next week, where they will hope to actually complete a match for the first time this season with the visit of Purbrook.