Hawkley vs Buriton

Played at Buriton on Sunday 28th June

Sunday’s game saw the travel averse Hawkley cricketers venture as far as Buriton for their inaugural fixture against this local village.

Buriton were first into bat and the Hawkley seam attack quickly found the humid, overcast conditions conducive to swing bowling as runs were hard to come by and wickets fell at regular intervals. The home team’s middle order batsmen put up more resistance against the first change bowlers, Durrent, Bradley and Francis all scoring useful runs and helping Buriton past the hundred mark which in the bowler-friendly conditions looked a competitive total. Buriton were finally all out for 105 with Todd, Mullard, Dunstand and Batten capturing two wickets apiece.

In reply Hawkley lost McLean early on, but Chris Head and Henry Batten batted well together and the score quickly mounted. Head was out for 17 but the in-form Batten hit out freely in scoring a fine 69 not out to add to his century earlier this season as Hawkley scored the winning runs in the 22nd over for the loss of five wickets.

This was a good confidence boosting win and gives Hawkley some useful momentum in the build up to the season’s big local derby in the keenly awaited “Hangers Ashes” game against Steep in a fortnight’s time.