Waltham lose out a '˜cracker'... Benfield's side edged on final ball

He hit 116 runs and Dom Quincy made 95 as they put on 190 for the first wicket.

The home side posted an impressive 290 for six.

But the visitors took up the challenge to inflict a second defeat of the season on the hosts.

‘It was a cracking game of cricket with 580 runs scored in not many overs on a fantastic wicket,’ said Bishop’s Waltham director of cricket Dan Wheeler.

‘After setting such a big total maybe a little bit of complacency set in.

‘By the time we recognised the danger it was too late to change it.

‘The only consolation is that all the other teams around us at the top also had poor results so we didn’t lose any ground.’

Portsmouth & Southsea lost a last-ball thriller at promotion-chasing rivals Lymington II as the home side settled the issue with a last-gasp boundary.

The visitors, batting first, made a decent start with 59 from 15 overs and went on to make 256 runs on a slow wicket.

Jack Davies (46), Matt Benfield (65), Shaun Briggs (39) and Jake Peach (39) all made telling contributions.

Lymington arrived at the last over of their innings needing five runs to win with four wickets in hand.

Despite two run outs and a dot ball they sneaked over the line.

Some close calls went against the visitors and they let chances slip their fingers as well.

‘A couple of crucial run-out decisions didn’t go our way,’ said Portsmouth & Southsea all-rounder Matt Benfield.

‘We needed to get their overseas player out but dropped him when he was on 60 and he went on to get another 20 odd runs.

‘When we batted earlier we felt we did well to score what we did on a two-paced wicket.

In division two Bedhampton powered to their seventh-straight win as they easily beat Ellingham at Bidbury Mead.

Ellingham were bundled out for 95 as the hosts cruised to an eight-wicket win.