Graham Burns bags another cheap five-wicket haul as Havant 2nds celebrate promotion back to the Southern Premier League

A priority of the club at the beginning of the 2021 Hampshire League season, the 2nds clinched the County Division 1 title by hammering Easton & Martyr Worthy.

Andrew Galliers hit a half-century and Graham Burns bagged his second cheap five-wicket league haul of the campaign as the visitors stormed to a 173-run win.

Havant’s top order all contributed after they had been inserted.

Faizan Tahsin (44) and Galliers put on 71 for the first wicket before Ben Walker (32) helped Galliers add another 66 for the second.

Charlie Whitfield (27) and Galliers shared a third wicket partnership of 40 before the latter was dismissed for 69 (11 fours in his 80-ball knock).

Oliver Jones (35 not out off 20 balls) and Alex Whitfield (11 not out) added a further 46 for the fifth wicket as Havant closed on 250-5.

If that target didn’t look distant enough, it must have seemed even further away for Easton after they collapsed to 24-4.

Burns ran through the tail to finish with 5-9 as the hosts were skittled for 77, Havant winning for the eighth time in nine completed matches (a further seven had been rained off).

Burns had previously taken 5-3 in a league win against Lymington 2nds this season, and had also bagged 6-4 in a pre-season friendly against Portsmouth 2nds.

Fareham & Crofton would have followed Havant 2nds up to the SPL if they had beaten St Cross 3rds in their final game.

As it was, they posted a respectable 227-8 total - but were still caned by seven wickets.

It was only Fareham’s seventh completed game of the Hampshire League campaign - no club suffered more than their nine cancellations/abandonments due to wet weather and the pandemic.

After Fareham had been inserted, Viraat Sahu (53) and opened Tom Kent (52) shared a second wicket stand of 105.

The middle order failed to spark and it needed a flurry of big hitting from No 8 James Headen to take Fareham past 200.

Headen swatted six sixes and three fours in racing to an unbeaten 65 off just 34 balls as Fareham recovered from 136-6.

Three of St Cross’ top four all scored half-centuries - James Burridge (61 not out), Raj Naik (52) and Paul Hawkins (51) - as Fareham’s promotion hopes withered away.

Their defeat enabled Sway, who had finished their fixtures the previous week, to return to the second promotion place.

The New Forest club will feel it’s more than a deserved elevation - they did win 13 of their completed 14 matches!

Tom Wallis hit a career best 89 as Portsmouth 2nds suffered a three-wicket loss to Compton & Chandler’s Ford in their final game.

Indy Chakrabati (29) was next highest as the visitors were dismissed for 185 with three balls remaining.

Compton opener Ethan Sharpe (62) underpinned the hosts’ victory chase. Andy Gorty was 42 not out and Portsmouth failed to help themselves by sending down 28 wides in a total of 39 extras.

Jai Thakrar took a hat-trick with the only three balls he bowled as Burridge 2nds defeated Old Basing by four wickets.

Thakrar wrapped up the Old Basing innings for 115 after Sampath Prathapasinghe (4-24) and Srujith Wickramasinghe (3-21) had done the earlier damage.

Oliver Southon (36 not out) ensured Burridge romped to victory with 10 overs in hand.