Portsmouth & Southsea extend winning Southern Premier League run – but Purbrook still search for opening Division 3 success

P & S stormed to their eighth successive win with an eight-wicket victory that kept them 28 points ahead of Sway at the top of the Division 3 table.

More importantly, Ben Saunders’ side are 38 points clear of third-placed Langley Manor - with only the top two winning promotion.

They are one of only two clubs across the SPL’s four divisions to have won all their fixtures so far, along with Division 2 leaders Hambledon.

P & S boast the best bowling attack in the division - they have taken five more bowling points than anyone else. And that was clearly on show as they won the toss, inserted Gosport, and skittled them for 88.

The hosts quickly nosedived to 20-3 with openers Mark Toogood (6) and skipper Lee Harrop (7) removed by Jono Willey (3-22).

New ball partner Matt Benfield (2-29) accounted for Jayaram Jayaraj (4) and Viv Richards (1) as Gosport slid into more troubled waters at 28-4.

No 5 Jacob Harris averted total humiliation for his side by hitting 40 not out, but the final four batters - Greg Kitchin, Muhammad Ali, Sampath Prathapasinghe and Jack Richards - all failed to score.

Amidst the ducks, there were cheap wickets for Keiron Dunstan (3-12) and Saunders (2-8) as Gosport’s innings ended in the 32nd over.

Opener Chris Bollom (37 not out) and Jack Davies (24 not out) brought up P & S’ latest win inside 23 overs.

Davies now has 408 league runs in 2022 at an average of 102. The only batter in the fourth tier with more runs is Langley Manor’s Jack Budd (420 from seven innings, one fewer than Davies).

Next up for P & S is a ‘top v bottom’ encounter with Purbrook.

While P & S are no doubt targeting promotion, Purbrook are currently favourites to be relegated to the Hampshire League.

They have lost all eight of their games so far and trail third from bottom Trojans by 49 points, with the bottom two relegated to the county league.

Purbrook’s latest setback was a 91-run defeat against Havant 2nds.

Though Ben Feeney (35) was top runscorer, hosts Havant still posted 220-8. Six other batters recorded scores in the 20s, including tailenders Steven Matthews (27) and Warren Turner (27 not out). There were also 26 extras.

Former Hawks, Gosport Borough, Moneyfields and AFC Portchester footballer Sam Pearce opened for Purbrook in reply. He made 21 but lost partner Brad Mengham for a duck with No 3 Jahanzeb Habib run out without scoring.

Matthews (3-19) and Turner (2-9) followed up their runs with wickets as Purbrook careered to 70-9.

There followed easily the best stand of their innings, with No 8 James Gurney (56) and Tom Amis (21 not out) putting on 59 for the final wicket.

Elsewhere, David Steadman completed back-to-back league hundreds as Sway defeated Paultons.

A week after hitting 127 against Basingstoke & North Hants 2nds, Steadman - batting at No 5 - hit 101 off 81 balls. With Alex Hall (72), former England Under-19 international Hugh Bernard (46 off 23 balls) and skipper Tim Noble (42) also impressing, the New Forest side posted 310-6. Paultons replied with 259-8.