Burridge on receiving end of record-breaker Tom Morton’s fifth Southern Premier League century of 2022

In the final weekend of the top flight season, Morton cracked an unbeaten 125 in an eight-wicket victory in Salisbury.

It wasn’t enough to see Wilts retain the title, though - they finished third, 13 points adrift of champions St Cross.

Asked to chase 252 for victory, Morton struck 18 fours and two sixes as he continued his stunning finish to the campaign.

In his previous two SPL innings, he had scored 124 against Totton & Eling and 95 against Havant.

Morton ended the season with 1,213 league runs, easily a new Premier Division record - surpassing Neal Parlane’s 2003 total of 1,074 for BAT.

He had to settle for second spot in the overall SPL run charts, however, with Hambledon’s Matt De Villiers setting a new all-time record of 1,234. Like Morton, De Villiers also scored five league hundreds in 2022.

Morton and Jack Mynott (69) shared a second wicket stand of 161 against Burridge with Ben Draper (35 not out) playing his part in an unbroken third wicket stand of 66.

Burridge skipper Joe Collings-Wells (75) top scored for his side after he had won the toss and batted.

Azimunnoor Chowdhury (40) and No 8 Francis Moore (39 off 28 balls) also impressed with Josh Croom bagging 4-50 in Burridge’s 251-9 total.

Croom ended as the leading wicket in the four-division SPL structure with 48 - four more than Portsmouth & Southsea skipper Ben Saunders.