Sotton Travellers II 53-4, Sway 205-8. Match Abandoned

Sway travelled to Lordshill hoping to pick up a victory to further their push for back to back promotions. Sway lost the toss and were put into bat on a wicket, that despite the odds being stacked against it due to marauding monkey bikes and other assorted local nutters, was a decent hard flat track However with some tight bowling by skipper G Langley partnered with dad J Langley combined with long grass in the outfield meant Sway got off to a pretty slow start. Sway opened with Ross Clark partnering professional jug avoider Dan Stevenson. Clark seemed in reasonable nick with Stevenson looking a bit more scratchy, however, the paid had put on 95 without loss by the end of the 25th over. Clark passed a nice half century however then holed out for 53, bringing in Chris Hammond to partner Stevenson. With Stevenson on 48, the Sway players held their breath willing Dan to make his maiden 50. It seemed to be there when Dan hit a ball into the deep quickly completing the first run but as he turned for the second he was sent back by the slightly less fleet of foot Hammond. The agony was then compounded as he was shortly after bowled without adding a further run. At this point the promising young Soton skipper took a calculated gamble by bringing his opening bowlers back into the attack early. The gamble very nearly paid out big time as the Sway middle order collapsed. Firstly Henry Thornton was bowled by the skipper for a duck - deceived by a ball that seemed legside that swung back. Then Chris Hammond (14) was bowled whilst seemingly not ready -  needless to say Ross Clark who was umpiring will not be receiving any complementary bay trees!. Almost straight away FJ Charton was bowled through the gate by G Langley then in a repeat of the Thornton dismissal, Sam Nailor was done trying to turn a ball to leg. Langley then picked up a well deserved 5 wicket haul when Steve Hannibal mistimed a drive to mid on.

At 130-8 Sway had almost folded and the skippers decision seemed good. However, Dave Marshall and Pete Bennet knew Soton had "gone off prematurely" and dug in to see off the two openers. With this done, the batting point milestones of first 150 then 175 were passed. With a defendable total assured, Marshall in particular launched into the Soton attack scoring 6 fours and 4 sixes on his way to 59*  and along with a determined Bennet (15*) in a 75-run partnership that took Sway up to 205-8 at tea .

At tea, remarks were made that there was only one cloud in an otherwise blue sky - and it was dangerously near Lordshill. However, the Soton innings started in the dry and a fully charged up Matt Bramwell was positively hostile on the hard track striking the first over. The home side dug in, however with LH opener P Locke (clearly no relation!) looking particularly dangerous. However when Marshall yorked him for 25 with the score on 38 there was a flurry of wickets. First Sam Nailor claimed a wicket well caught by Hammond at 2nd slip, then with a ball so rank it was positively putrified, Nathan David's half tracker was smashed low straight to Hammond at short mid wicket. With Soton on 43-4. Sway seemed on course for a big win, but the only black cloud in Hampshire was beginning to make its presence felt. It got dark as Sway desperately tried to rattle through the overs but with 17.1 bowled, the heavens opened for a good 40 minutes. There only remained the the sorrowful site of an ever hopefully Bennet standing alone on a wicket/swimming pool with just seagulls for company before eventually the council groundsman turn turned up and predictably sent both sides packing preventing any further cricket or monkey bike antics for the day.