By Mike Vimpany

Hampshire’s Brad Taylor will have to wait another week before he can make his Basingstoke & North Hants debut following the cancellation of the scheduled ECB Southern Premier League opener against New Milton at Fernhill.

The game, which would also have been Basingstoke’s first in the ECB Premier Division, was called off on Friday tea-time following an umpire’s ground inspection.

“It’s just too wet and we’ve not been able to get on it to do any pre-season work,” explained New Milton chairman Steve Taylor.

“It’s been impossible to get any machinery on the ground and if we’d tried to get any plant on the outfield it would have created great trenches, which we wouldn’t have been able to get rid of.”

For Taylor, who captained England Under-19s in the 2016 ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh, playing for Basingstoke marked a ‘return home’.

“I played all of my junior cricket at May’s Bounty before joining the Hampshire Academy ranks.

“I played through the age groups from Under-13 upwards, so it’s nice to go back, especially as they are now in the Premier Division,” he recalled.

“My last two Premier League seasons were curtailed by ankle injuries, so I’m keen to put in a decent shift this time around.”

Taylor has played for Ventnor (one match) and eight times for Havant (scoring 131 v Andover last June) after finishing his stint as Academy captain.

He had mixed views on the cancelation of the New Milton match.

“We obviously all want to play, especially with such a fine forecast, but the last time I played at Fernhill for the Academy, Toby Edwards went ballistic and hit probably the fastest Premier League century of all time,” Taylor recalled.

“He had drivers rushing to move their cars. There were sixes everywhere – eight of them and 13 fours – as he smashed 109 off only 58 balls.

“They chased down our 213-7 to win with 23 overs to spare.”

FORMER Lymington batsman/wicketkeeper Ed Ellis makes his St Cross Symondians debut against an all-teenage Hampshire Academy side at the Green Jackets Ground.

Ellis, who has made over 1,000 SPL runs in the past two seasons, has taken up a player/coaching role with the Winchester club.

St Cross still have injured Hampshire all-rounder Ian Holland and Southampton Solent University skipper Matt Stokes to come into their side.

Felix Organ, who skippers the Academy, played his junior cricket at St Cross, helping the club with the ECB Under-15 national club championships several seasons ago.

St Cross Symondians: T Foyle, Young, Came, Ellis, Mead, H Foyle, Bransgrove, C Ayres, Lunn, Veillard, Mitchell.

Academy: F Organ, Kantolinna, Middleton, Scriven, South, Metzger, S Currie, Pardoe, Mo Abbas, Searle, Dale.

CHAMPIONS for the past two seasons, Havant open their Premier Division title defence against Lymington, who include five Isle of Wight based players in their line-up.

They have lost the injured Ben Walker (to Totton & Eling) and Rob Gibson (Richmond) and neither Chris Morgan nor left-arm spinner Steve Matthews (injured shoulder) are listed play tomorrow.

Ryan Scott could skipper a patched-up Lymington, who are without their regular captain Simon Beetham and leading strike bowler Matt Metcalfe, winner of the SPL bowling award for the past two seasons Three Ventnor teenagers, plus Ryde’s Josh Proctor, are named by Lymington, whose batting division has a frail look.

Havant: Stone, Gorvin, Hopson, Ransley, Gadd, Hindley, Bulled, Prentice, Burns, Jerry, Ord.

Lymington: Scott, Hand, Cox, Grady, Attrill, Woodward, Calcott, Proctor, Willis, C Moors, Layman.

TOM Morton is back on familiar Bemerton soil this season after two seasons playing for Middlesex County League winners Ealing and makes his competitive Wilton Road return against Burridge.

Morton has carried off individual Premier Division batting awards in each of the past three seasons – in 2015 and 2016 for South Wilts, and last season as leading run scorer for Ealing in Middlesex.

Former Ealing team-mate Arthur Godsal, who played for England Under-19s in India two winters ago, joins Morton in the home dressing room.

But Miami bound James Hayward is missing and replaced by off-spin all-rounder Rob Franklin.

South Wilts: Morton, Cowley, Wade, Draper, Godsal, Franklin, Mynott, Hibberd, Evans, Murray, Warner.

MARCO Marais, who struck the fastest triple century ever scored in first class cricket in South Africa this past winter, is set for his Alton debut against Bashley (Rydal) at the Jubilee Ground.

The hard hitting 24-year old made 300 not out off 191 balls in a three-day match for Border against Eastern Province in East London.

Bashley (Rydal), who are expected to be among the challengers this season, have been bolstered by the arrival of Bournemouth University trio Tim Taylor, Dan Andrew and Devon’s Dan Goodey.

But only Taylor, who hails from Leicestershire, will play the whole season in the SPL.

Alton: Alex Hammond, Mike Heffernan, Marais, Harris, Myers, Mark Heffernan, Hugo Hammond, Mortimer, Salmon, Bochereau, Ballinger.

Bashley (Rydal): Porter, C Ridley, Digby, Andrew, Taylor, P Morris, Holly, Thomson, Goodey, B Currie, Nash.