After all the recent heavy rains, only the sterling work of the Bashley ground staff enabled Bashley to the start the new season with their home fixture against Hambledon . Bashley won the toss and elected to bat first in the welcome warm sunshine. Openers Greg Havard and Tom O’Sullivan were both in good touch to give the Bashley innings an excellent start. They completed a century opening partnership but the wet outfield made boundaries hard to find against the spin dominated Hambledon bowling attack. O’Sullivan was eventually caught for 52 as he attempted to increase the scoring rate. Havard and Patrick Lewis took the score to 141 in the 36th over before Havard was caught for 61 and Lewis run out for 18. Wickets then fell at regular intervals as Bashley tried to accelerate. Late innings contributions from Michael O’Sullivan (14), Neil Taylor (10) and Graham Pardey (15 not out) eventually saw Bashley to a competitive total of 197 for 8 from their 45 overs. For Hambledon, the experienced Mark Le Clerq took 4 for 42 from his 9 over allocation.
After tea, Bashley got off to a great start as Sammy Laurent had Mark Le Clerq caught behind in the first over. Morris and Vickers then started the Hambledon fight back and began to score freely as the outfield quickened in the hot afternoon sun. They had taken the score to 77 of just 16 overs when Scott had Vickers caught for 37. Opener Rory Morris was batting well and continued to build partnerships. Lewis Le Clerq (20) and Crouch (14) were both caught off Ransom (9 overs 2 for 44). Neil Taylor bowled a controlled 9 over spell for just 16 runs to pull back the run rate and to leave Hambledon needing 33 runs off the last 8 overs. Sean Read (1 for 42) returned to the attack and immediately had the dangerous Morris caught for 71. Sam Laurent (3 for 31) claimed another couple of wickets from the other end to leave Hambledon requiring 10 runs of the last Laurent over to win. Amid the mounting tension, they were restricted to just 7 runs. This left a relieved Bashley as winners by 2 runs of an excellent match played in good spirits by both sides
