Marshall law imposed as Hambledon celebrate back-to-back Southern Premier Cricket League promotions

The Dons stormed to a 150-run win at Ridge Meadow to chalk up their 24th success in 26 league games since the start of the 2021 campaign.

A year after romping to the SPL Division 3 title, they need just three points from next weekend’s trip to lowly Bashley 2nds to lift the championship silverware for the second year running.

Back in mid-June, Marshall struck 108 as the Dons defeated Hartley Wintney by 148 runs.

That was the day record-breaker Matt De Villiers smashed 168 - the highest of his five Division 2 hundreds in 2022.

This time De Villiers only made four - his lowest score of the year - but Marshall hit 11 fours in an unbeaten 112 as the hosts posted 253-6.

He received back-up from Henry Glanfield (28), Jonty Oliver (22) and Mark Butcher (21 not out). There were also 49 extras, including a whopping 40 wides.

Having recorded a rare failure at the crease, De Villiers made sure he enjoyed success with the ball.

In amongst his huge success with the bat this year - he has set an all-time SPL run record of 1,134 (with two matches to go) - it can easily be overlooked that he has been a regular wicket-taker too.

Indeed, his 3-22 off five overs took his seasonal league tally to 23 - the sixth highest in the division - at an average of 20.04.

Angus Brown and Ryan Bone took the attack to Dons, at one stage hitting six boundaries off eight balls in the seventh and eighth overs.

But 46-1 quickly became 46-3 when De Villiers dismissed Bone and skipper Hugo Hammond in successive deliveries.

There was no way back for Hartley after that. George Harding took 4-12 as the visitors nosedived to 103 all out, to suffer their second heavy loss against the Dons in three months.