Once again we had another great day at our fixture at the Hampshire Hogs and we miraculously managed to squeeze a full days cricket into what has been an unfortunately wet summer up until that point.

A last minute injury meant at the start of play the Fantasians were put into bat with only 10 men on the team sheet. An early wicket meant that Andrew Broderick was was joined at the crease early on by Mo Verjee. The two batsmen put a sturdy partnership before A. Broderick was bowled for 26. M. Verjee then carried his bat with what can only be deemed as fairly intermittent support from the rest of the Fantasians battling line up, with everyone playing cameos around what was a fine knock of 65.

A special mentioned must go to David Reid who on arriving just after lunch on a spectators ticket promptly found himself donning some whites and making up our eleventh man. His 3 minutes at the crease and score of 1 does not give justice to his enthusiasm to help the Fantstians in their moment of need.

The Hogs bowled tightly and although we fought hard we were eventually all bowled out for a not insurmountable 155.

The Fantasians were not however dead in the water and came out to bowl determined to make a game of it. James Allen opened the bowling and came steaming down the hill for what turned out to be a very productive spell. By the 7th over J. Allen had taken 3 wickets for 14 runs and we had the Hogs reeling at 33-3 at tea. Our early wicket taker was ably supported by the very accurate and elusive off spin on a Fantasians first timer, Charlie Yerburgh (cousin of the now, Mrs Broderick). He finished on excellent figures of 9 overs, 29 runs and 1 wicket, which went some way to defending what was as expected, a very reachable total.

Unfortunately with another 50 runs on the board we could have applied a little more pressure on their subsequent batsmen. But for all our efforts our total was not great enough. Always lively and attentive in the field the Fantasians were unable to take any more wickets. The Hogs won the game by 6 wickets.

Thanks for everyone who played and we look forward to an improved performance next year.

Team sheet: A. Broderick, C. Wilders, M. Verjee, C.Yerburgh, A. Bell, J. Allen, D. Merrifield, O. Leach, D. Mackay, A. Josephides, D. Reid

Andrew Bell