George Marshall hits back-to-back centuries as Hambledon celebrate a second successive Southern Premier League title

The Dons only needed three points from their penultimate game of the Division 2 campaign at Bashley 2nds to ensure they couldn’t be caught.

Thanks to Marshall’s second ton in eight days, they picked up 22 points from a 15th win in 16 completed games.

Hambledon’s latest title win is even more impressive bearing in mind they started the season on minus-20 points due to an administrative error.

A week after hitting an unbeaten 112 against Hartley Wintney, the left-handed opener struck 102 as the Dons posted 264-6.

He shared an opening stand of 113 with Dan McGovern (50) and a second wicket stand of 121 with Matt De Villiers.

De Villiers’ 68 was the 12th time in 16 SPL innings in 2022 that he has passed 50 - going on to three figures on five occasions.

The South African now has 1,202 league runs - 126 more than the previous all-time SPL record held by Will Prozesky.

Despite that, De Villiers is still not guaranteed to finish as the leading runscorer across the four-division structure.

That’s because South Wilts opener Tom Morton is 114 runs behind him going into the last round of games this coming weekend.

De Villiers is miles clear of Waterlooville skipper Archie Reynolds (672) in the race to finish as the leading runscorer in the third tier. Marshall, with 616 runs, is now up to fourth - St Cross’ ex-Hampshire pro Jason Laney (646) is third.

George Harding (4-34) and Henry Glanfield (3-44) helped to reduce Bashley to 69-5 (Finn Gordon 40).

They were eventually bowled out for 165 to lose by 99 runs - Hambledon’s 25th win in their last 27 league fixtures stretching back to start of last season.

Former Hampshire Academy bowler Mo Abbas tore through the Waterlooville top order as Fair Oak recorded a comfortable win.

Abbas, who turned out for Burridge in 2020, bagged 6-27 as Ville - asked to chase 181 for victory - were shot out for 73 at Rowlands Avenue.

Abbas dismissed six of the top seven with only Josh McGregor (30) reaching double figures.

Ville’s tail failed to wag, the last five wickets clattering for the addition of only six runs.

For the first time in 2022, Hambledon meet Waterlooville on the last day of the season this weekend.

The scheduled game at Rowlands Avenue earlier in the summer was cancelled due to travellers having parked their caravans at the venue.