46 wides in 22 overs – Fareham & Crofton get big helping hand from Tichborne Park in latest Hampshire League victory

F & C were only chasing a relatively small target after Ollie Southon, Sam Stoddart and Dan Reader had combined to bowl Tichborne, bottom of the table, out for 136.

But Park then sent down a whopping 46 wides in just 22 overs to help F & C stroll to an eight-wicket victory in County Division 1 of the Hampshire League.

Extras (53) top scored, with Jeremy Bulled (47) - the fourth highest runscorer in the division with 634 at 48.77 - and opener Tom Kent (37 not out) helping to ease their side to victory.

Southon (3-36), Stoddart (3-12) and Reader (3-14) had sparked a major Tichborne collapse - the visitors losing their last eight wickets for 47 runs.

F & C’s third straight win sees them trail second-placed Parley by 12 points with just three weekends remaining.

Next Saturday F & C travel to face a table-topping Compton & Chandlers Ford side fresh from annihilating Bramshaw.

Former Zimbabwe U19 international Tinashe Chimbambo was close to recording the fourth double century of the Hampshire League season as Compton romped to a 313-run success in the New Forest.

Chimbambo, who a fortnight earlier had hit 167 against Bournemouth 2nds, blasted an unbeaten 191 off just 103 deliveries.

Given another over, he would probably have followed Gareth Phillips (Medstead), Shrewton’s Rikki Clarke and Alistair Barrett (Amport) in making HL double hundreds in 2022.

Chimbambo cleared the boundary rope 14 times, and also hit 15 boundaries in a brutal assault.

With Will Fisher hitting 72 and Andy Gorty (38) sharing a fourth wicket stand of 112 with Chimbambo, Compton posted a whopping 422-7 off their 50 overs (two of which were maidens!)

Mathew Scorey then tore through Bramshaw’s batting line-up as their day went from bad to worse.

Scorey bagged 6-22 as the hosts tumbled to 109 all out. Unsurprisingly, skipper Tom Arnold - with over 1,600 runs to his name in all forms of cricket in 2022 - top scored with 45.

A superb late order stand was the highlight of relegation-threatened Portsmouth 2nds’ defeat against promotion-chasing Old Basing.

After being inserted, the visitors plunged to 85-7 with Euan Rixson (5-36) doing most of the damage.

No 7 Joe Eales (48) and No 9 Ishafaque Ahmad (46) stopped the rot with a defiant eighth-wicket partnership of 81.

No 10 Charlie Collins (28) produced some more tail wagging as Portsmouth’s final score crept up to 215.

That didn’t look a large enough total once opener Tyler Sylvester - with 71 off 54 balls - got into his stride.

At 165-6, though, the game was still in the balance. But Ryan Murray (32 not out) and Sanjay Sridhar (22 not out) shared an unbroken eighth wicket stand of 51 as Old Basing won in the 39th over.

Nick Damley-Jones struck a new career best as Burridge 2nds defeated Winton by four wickets.

Asked to chase 237 for victory, Damley-Jones hit an unbeaten 80 - with 11 boundaries - to underpin his side’s winning reply

Openers Simon Creal (37) and Srujith Wickramasinghe (28) had provided a solid foundation, while Winton also contributed 27 wides in a total of 37 extras.

Brad Griffiths (4-59) had been Burridge’s leading wicket-taker, with Joe May, batting at No 6, top scoring with 82.

The home bowlers had also been wayward at times - sending down 51 wides in a total of 60 extras.