This was a disappointing result for Lymington as the side were on top for much of the game but with the thumping loss endured by the previous leaders Bashley Lymington now head the Premier Division. It turned out to be a day for left arm spinners, taking 12 of the 17 wickets to fall. For Lymington the highlights were Monam Abbas taking 6-39 and another excellent batting performance from Terry Crabb with 78 runs. As captain Gareth Berg said “the wicket played differently and took more spin during the day that the Academy exploited with tight bowling during the Lymington innings”. He added the side “might be top of the league but is still not firing on all cylinders despite having the ability to blow teams away”.

Berg won the toss and put the Hampshire Academy into bat but the Lymington seamers were unable to penetrate the somewhat weaker batting line-up as Oliver Williams (36), who normally bats at number 7 or 8, played a responsible innings putting on 81 runs for the first wicket with Finn Gordon (42) before Monam Abbas had both out as three wickets fell for 5 runs. This though marked the entry of Sam Ashman (87) who played a captain’s knock that included a partnership of 44 with Andrew MacEwen (11) and 63 with Sam Davies (23). With Monam Abbas then brought back into the attack including in tandem with father Asad (2-62) the Academy innings subsided. But this was not before Asad suffered at the hands of Oliver Cordery (17) who smashed 16 runs in the second to fourth balls of the 56th over before being bowled with the fifth much to Asad’s delight. The last four wickets fell for 26 runs as the Academy chased an extra batting point. Jovan Dhariwal (1-24) was the only seamer to take a wicket in the innings with Ben Shoare (1-22).

In reply Terry Crabb (78) led the Lymington reply for the second week running with another responsible assured knock and was on his way to a hundred until he was out sweeping at Sam Davis (4-28). With fellow opener Ben Shoare (18) the pair put on 34 for the first wicket but it was the 89- run partnership with Robbie Hemmings (29) that saw Lymington take the initiative until Hemmings made the cardinal error of being stumped by his opposition keeper Andrew MacEwen. Thereafter the Academy spinners took control with Davis only conceding 1.75 runs per over bowling in tandem with Finn Gordon (1-16) and at one stage they only conceded 14 runs in 11 overs. The batters found themselves behind the required run rate that contributed to getting out to poor shots including Jovan Dhariwal (13) stumped being well down the wicket. Likewise, Conor Moors (16) was bowled by leg spinner Abdullah Iqbal (1-41). Gareth Berg (21 not out) and Josh Royan (6 not out) failed to take the initiative back from the spinners and so eventually shut up shop with Lymington falling 58 runs short.

This coming Saturday the side are away to Salisbury side South Wilts, who have had a disappointing start to the season, with an 11.00am start.

Photo of Monam Abbas courtesey of Ian Thacker