Hurstbourne Priors v Holybourne.

Hurstbourne Priors concluded the season with their third win on the bounce and ensured they finished above local rivals Wherwell. Priors won the toss for only the second time this season and immediately put relegation bound Holybourne into bat and made the perfect start with Ady Budd clean bowling skipper Neal Ship with his third ball. Budd followed up in his third over by removing Wakefield with Mark Hamson taking a simple catch at cover. It could have much worse for Holybourne with the aggressive Tom Robinson being dropped by both Ravi Hopkinson and Jonty Blyth off Stewart Samways in quick succession. Holybourne gained some stability with Paul Taylor (41) batting steady for a long period until he was nearly run out when Blyth sprang from the covers. Priors didn't help their cause by dropping several easy catches with Samways in particular feeling the pain. Budd and Samways bowled 20 overs straight through and Holybourne seemed to struggle to get the run rate going. Priors’ second string bowlers failed to make the same impact and once again it was Richard Carter and Hamson who turned the screw. Carter (4-29) bowled in his usual candid way and Holybourne seemed unable to get him away. Carter removed Taylor with Steve Trinder swooping to stump him then Jay Patel (28) looked dangerous and hit Hamson for three fours on the bounce until the piratical Hopkinson took an excellent catch at long on. Hamson (3-12) was on a hat-trick after removing Roberts with a one handed caught and bowled as Holybourne reached 147 when Hamson took another caught and bowled to remove Dan Horseman.

With no pressure on Priors made a decent start against the military medium bowling of Holybourne. Steve Cady looked in positive mood until he lost patience and was bowled by Roberts and leading scorer Ashok Nautiyal was unlucky with a dubious LBW decision and a mini collapse followed leaving Priors at 84-5. Holybourne's back up bowlers seemed unable to control things and the hard hitting Budd (44) punished a number of bad deliveries. Mark Matthews (22) looked in decent knock and supported Budd to get Priors over the winning line and claim 23 points and secure a mid table finish in County 4.

Hurstbourne Priors Cricket Club would like to thank Deb Samways for making teas and John Golding for umpiring for the season.