Petersfield 3s v Colden Common 2s

The last game of the season arrived on Saturday and Petersfield finished with a home game

Colden Common won the toss and decided to bat on hard and bouncy Penn’s Place pitch

Petersfield started with 9 players as the Vincent’s were travelling back from Turkey in the morning (great commitment to the cause).

Young Alfie Hitchin was given the new ball by skipper Dave Squires and proceeded to justify that decision as he removed the Colden Common opener Ben Ward (1) with a beautiful left arm over swinging delivery which Sam Curran would have been proud of. At the other end Nigel Chapman (150) was punishing anything wide or down the legside. It would have made no difference if Petersfield had had 15 players as Chapman raced to 50.

Mark and Wilf arrived 20 mins after the start and both had an influence straight away on the game, Wilf bowling countless no balls (we need to work on that in the winter) and his dad Mark dropping Chapman at deep mid-wicket just after he had made his 50. Champan was still hitting it very hard but was dropped twice more as the scoring rate touched 7 an over.

Mark (1-28) started to work back into credit for game as he removed Mcintyre (33) well caught at short fine leg by Hitchin. Jake Lloyd picked up Frankham (18) and Suraj Sashidharan (1-21) removed Colden Common skipper S.Paul with a very good caught and bowled.

Alife Hitchin (3-29) returned to the attack with Colden Common giving it the long handle and removed Chapman and D Jacobs (13) with identical balls which took out the top of stump.Colden Common finished on 288 leaving Petersfield a very tough chase indeed.

The Petersfield innings started slowly but just before the openers had seen off Colden Commons opening bowlers, Marcus Sampson (6) and Isaac Bowerbank (0) were both removed in consecutive overs with the score on 10. David Longland (11) and Mark Vincent (53) set about rebuilding the innings. The opening bowlers Abdul Rasooli (1-18) Steve Paul (1-7) bowled their 16 overs out and David Longland seemed to relax as first change bowler Khan replaced Paul but produced a beauty which pitched on middle and hit off.

Mark Vincent changed his bat as his new piece of willow did not have a middle. He proceeded to find the middle of Squires’ bat (scored more runs than the skipper has with it) hitting some lovely shots over the top of mid-wicket. Alfie Hitchin (17) joined Mark and the pair scored well in the middle overs. Hitchin then came down the wicket to Phil Smith once too often and was stumped by a good yard. Vincent got to his 50 but then mistimed a driver to cover. He was quickly followed by skipper Squires who had found his cut shot for the first time this season but then got one on the toe of his bat to be caught in similar fashion to Vincent.

Suraj (6) was left with the tail and played one straight back to the bowler. Jake Lloyd (18 not out) and Fraser Ansty (7) took the game to the 37th over before Anstey was caught at mid-off. Jake Lloyd hit some nice shots as he and Alex Morrison (1 not out) ensured a losing draw as they saw off the last 3 overs without any trouble

With only 1 win this season it has been tough but there are some seriously good young cricketers coming through the ranks. With their dads contributing massively to the 3s. A total of 25 players have played their first league games for the club this season. I would like to think that all will be back next season and be able to use this season's experience to their advantage moving forward.

Thank to everyone who has played and supported the 3s this season