Nostalgia: Portsmouth and Havant set to renew old cricketing rivalries at St Helens

The pair meet in a Southern Premier League Premier/Division 1 East cup group encounter.

The teams last met at St Helens on the final day of the 2007 SPL top flight season.

At the end of that campaign, Portsmouth were relegated after having 87 points deducted for playing ineligible players. They have never returned to the Premier Division since.

The last meeting in any competition in Portsmouth was a SPL T20 Cup tie in 2011.

Here, The News strolls down memory lane to recall some memorable league games between the two clubs in Portsmouth.

August 1991

Mark Copping was in the wickets as Havant took another step towards winning the British Gas Southern League title.

He bagged 4-29 as Portsmouth collapsed from 92-4 to 109 all out.

Ian Chaplen (29) top scored and Robin Johns weighed in with 3-33.

Opener Jon Osborne ended on 30 not out as Havant collected a five-wicket victory.

June 1993

Andy Parker and Barry Boorah starred with bat and ball as Portsmouth defeated Havant en route to winning the Southern League crown.

Parker’s unbeaten 100 helped the hosts post 232-4 with Paul Ancell hitting 10 fours in his 58 before he was run out.

In reply, Boorah picked up 6-48 as Havant were bowled out for 188.

Opener Paul Gover top scored with 68, before he was dismissed hit wicket - Boorah the bowler.

Portsmouth finished top of the table with a 17.7 average, with city rivals US Portsmouth runners-up with 15.5

Ex-Hampshire all-rounder Jon Ayling was Portsmouth’s leading runscorer with 493 runs - even though he only made seven visits to the crease.

Parker was next best with 480, from 14 innings.

July 2005

Australian Michael Thistle was in seventh heaven after Havant claimed a narrow victory at St Helens.

The pace bowler returned 7-40 as Portsmouth, chasing 173 for victory, were all out for 156.

Bryan Pietersen - brother of KP - top scored with 48 while James Manning hit 37.

Earlier, skipper Andy Perry (52) had top scored as Havant were dismissed for 172 (James Schofield 4-36).

July 2006

Portsmouth survived a dismal start to record a thumping 111-run victory over Havant at St Helens.

The hosts were 0-2 after openers Sam Lavery and Dan Margerum collected ducks.

But Lawrie Prittipaul (52) and Derek Kenway (38) engineered a revival which saw Portsmouth reach 176.

No 10 James Manning was third top scorer with 27.

In reply, Manning took the new ball and dismissed opener Ben Walker (1) and captain Richard Hindley (0) as Havant dipped to 12-2.

Only two players reached double figures - Oliver Knight top scoring with 29 - as the visitors were skittled for 65.

Manning finished with 3-22 while Pete Hayward cleaned up the tail with 3-8 off six overs.

August 2007

Havant won the Southern Premier League title on the final day of the 2007 season in what was their last league visit to St Helens.

Will Prozecky (89), Ben Walker (51) and Stuart Ransley (40) helped the visitors post 271-9 off 50 overs.

Portsmouth captain Sam Lavery (39) was the only one to offer sustained resistance in reply as his side were shot out for 97.

Ex-Portsmouth player Lawrie Prittipaul was one of five Havant players to take two wickets - his 2-11 haul coming off six overs.

Though Portsmouth finished above the drop zone, they ended up bottom after being hit with a massive 87-point deduction for fielding two ineligible players.

They had first been docked 29 points for fielding Slough left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed in two matches after the former Pakistan Test player had failed to get a transfer from the Home Counties Premier League.

Then they were hit with a further 58-point deduction in respect of Alamgir Khan, who had played first class cricket in Pakistan and had turned out 41 times for Rawalpindi in the past ten years.

In the end, Portsmouth paid a heavy price - the SPL relegated them two divisions.