JORDAN Hobday and Ben Thane's excellent opening stand set Hook and Newnham Basics on the way to a 55-run victory away at Hursley Park on Saturday.

Hook skipper Matt Love had described the fixture as a "must-win game" for his side, who have made a slow start to the season.

They got off to the perfect start, with openers Hobday (91) and Thane (55) putting on 135 for the first wicket after Love won the toss and elected to bat.

The visitors weren't able to build on this as they would have liked, with no other batsman scoring more than 15 runs, but they posted a competitive total of 226-8 from their 50 overs.

Spencer Champ then got the visitors off to an equally good start with the ball, dismissing the top three batsmen with 34 on the board on his way to figures of 4-25.

Hursley were unable to put together a significant partnership as Hook took wickets on a fairly regular basis, eventually bowling their hosts out for 171 as spinner Anik Divecha took 3-16.

The result saw Hook move up to sixth in the Southern League Division One table.

Hartley Wintney sit fourth in Division Two after claiming a good 31-run win away at Calmore Sports.

Jack Hersh top-scored with 65, while Danny Plume made 45 as visiting Hartley reached 226-7 from their 50 overs, having lost the toss.

Calmore were always behind the rate and ended up on 195-8, with Mark Teale taking 3-33 and Ari Karvelas and Jack Cockram taking two wickets each.

Chris Chandler produced a fine all-round display as Basingstoke and North Hants II climbed to the top of the Division Three standings with a four-wicket victory over visiting South Wilts II.

The visitors won the toss and chose to bat, making 245-8, with captain Chandler taking 3-34.

After an unsteady start, George Chaffer (57) and Dean Nurse (42) put on 66 for the fourth wicket, but Basingstoke looked in trouble at 161-6.

However, Chandler was able to recover the situation with an unbeaten 56, guiding his side to victory alongside Rakitha Parera (23 not out) in an unbroken winning partnership of 85.