SOUTH WILTS 190 ALL OUT BEAT ST CROSS 174 ALL OUT BY 16 RUNS

South Wilts’ player/coach James Hibberd put in a terrific all-round display to secure a fourth straight win for South Wilts in their Southern Electric Premier League campaign.

In the absence of injured skipper James Hayward (broken thumb), Tom Morton led the side on their visit to St Cross. After a successful first season in the top flight, St Cross have struggled for the most part this time around, but their performances have noticeably improved in recent weeks and that has been in no small part due to the availability of Hampshire batsman Jimmy Adams. South Wilts suffered a crushing defeat last season at the picturesque Winchester ground and were determined not to let the loss of Hayward affect them too much.

Tom Morton took a long look at the wicket before making his decision after winning the toss, but despite some reservations elected to bat on a warm dry day.

South Wilts’ top order has had limited success this season and so it proved again as they immediately plunged into trouble. Morton mistimed a hook shot off Charman, Abel was cleaned up by Fryer and when House drove Charman to mid-off, South Wilts stood precariously at 16-3. The wicket was assisting the bowlers with inconsistent bounce, but South Wilts batsmen could largely blame themselves for loose shot making.

St Cross were buoyant, new ball bowlers Charman (2-29) and Fryer (1-16) were bowling with great discipline and South Wilts looked in disarray with Wade and Hibberd new at the crease.

Hibberd who has been enjoying a successful first season in his player/coach role at the club needed to rein in his natural attacking game, whilst Wade, who has found runs hard to come by in the middle order needed to take his chance back in his old role at number four. The pair set their stall out to bat for a long period. Showing admirable patience and great caution, leaving alone as many balls as possible, the pair saw off the new ball threat and slowly but surely got the scoreboard ticking over.

Seamers Motaung and Adams continued to plug accurately away for St Cross, making run-scoring a tricky business and the difficulty was most apparent against off-spinner Matt Perry Lewis, who used his height to full effect to extract extravagant turn and bounce from the surface.

Wade and Hibberd batted until well after lunch and put on a crucial 107 run partnership before Wade fell just short of the fifty mark. It had been a determined effort but he was deceived by a Jimmy Adams’ slower ball and departed for 45. With overs running out, any thoughts of a late run blitz were kept in check as Adams dismissed Steve Riddle and Andy Hayward to leave South Wilts at 145-6. Simon Branston joined Hibberd and attempted to up the tempo, as he hit Perry-Lewis (2-42) for a superb straight six. However, bowlers were always on top and Branston holed out to give Adams a fourth wicket (4-39). The last two overs saw a clatter of wickets as South Wilts attempted to scramble crucial runs, with Hibberd one of those to fall, stumped for a superb 85 – what was to prove to be only part of a match-winning performance.

Tom Morton was satisfied with his team’s efforts; “At 16-3 we were facing humiliation but Hibby and Wadey did a great job to get us a total to defend.” He continued, “The wicket was extremely difficult for batting and so given our recent record with the ball, we had to back ourselves”.

South Wilts had suffered a terrible start with the bat before recovering and it was to prove a similar story with the ball. Openers Jimmy Adams and Archie Fellowes knew that batting was going to be difficult so they would make the most of anything loose, and it was Fellowes rather than his more illustrious partner who got the innings off to a flier. A series of crisp shots saw the clearly under the weather Branston out of the attack and St Cross raced past the 50 mark in just eight overs.

Adams was looking equally dangerous and it was clearly a relief when the breakthrough came. Ross Crick, who had made an impact earlier in the week on his Minor County debut for Wiltshire, was immediately rewarded as Adams (23) sliced a well pitched up delivery to Hibberd at first slip. 57-1 quickly became 65-3 as Hibberd found the edge of Fellowes (37) flashing blade with Wade taking a sharp chance high to his right at second slip and then Crick had Jenkins caught behind by Morton. When Hibberd trapped Esson lbw at 77-4, South Wilts went to tea in much better spirits.

Shortly after tea, a sensational diving legside catch by Tom Morton dismissed Irvine-Fortesque and Ross Crick (3-38) had his third wicket. At 94-5 South Wilts were probably now favourites for the first time, but the balance continued to ebb and flow as Willie Motaung and Charlie Cooke dug in to build a sizeable sixth wicket partnership. Paul Draper was emulating Perry-Lewis’ spell from earlier in the day, with his quicker spin causing the batsmen constant problems, but as the score ticked over St Cross were edging towards an invaluable win.

Hibberd was reintroduced to the attack and Motaung survived a huge appeal for caught behind. The incident clearly rattled Motaung more than the South Wilts’ players as he changed tactics and went into all out attack, trying to smash Hibberd out of the attack.  After a couple of lusty blows and passing a valiant fifty he launched a shot high into the sky and Mark House ran in from the deep mid-wicket boundary to take a superb catch. There was no doubting the importance of the catch and South Wilts were back in the game with St Cross on 142-6.

Cooke (16) had fought a determined battle but he was undone by the erratic bounce as a Hibberd delivery reared sharply and took the glove, allowing Wade to run round from slip to take the catch. Two runs later and Draper finally had some reward as he bowled Fryer to leave St Cross on the ropes at 150-8.

Stuart Charman, who had started the day in such fine fashion, came to the crease intent on finishing in the same vein. He launched into the bowling and hit a quick fire 19 to take St Cross to just 20 runs short of their target. However, Hibberd (5-61) had not finished his day’s work yet and deceived Charman totally with a slower ball and bowled him.

The end was swift in coming as a mix-up allowed Branston and Morton to run Dampney out to leave South Wilts victorious by 16 runs.

Skipper Morton was delighted to register a win, “We stuck at it all day and got our reward. Full credit to St Cross, they battled really hard but we took our chances and Hibby was magnificent all day long.”