Sarisbury’s Josh Hill hammers 12 sixes in racing to 223 off 98 balls in Hampshire League win against Portsmouth & Southsea

The 1st XI skipper dropped down into the county league for a fixture against Portsmouth & Southsea 2nds at Allotment Road due to his team’s Southern Premier League fixture with Calmore being rained off.

How P & S must have rued the wet weather as Hill - playing six tiers below his usual standard in the second division of the SPL - blasted a career best 223 off just 98 balls.

He struck 26 fours and 13 sixes, racing past his previous best of 203 not out off 100 balls in a Village KO Cup tie against Bramshaw in 2019.

Hill put on 161 for the second wicket with Chris Mottol (67), 87 for the third wicket with Max Martin (12) and a further 90 for the fourth wicket with Chris Sanders (26 not out).

Harry Yard (0-77 off five overs) was the bowler to cop the most punishment as Sarisbury raced to 365-5 off their 40 overs.

Maxwell Goddard (1-49 off five overs) and Connor Saunder (1-64 off seven) didn’t escape the mayhem that was only ended when Goddard caught Hill off the bowling of Ollie Kanavan (2-30 off 16 balls).

P & S were staring down the barrel of a truly massive loss when they slipped to 128-8.

But No 9 Dean Wilson (47 not out off 40 balls) put on 41 for the ninth wicket with Mani Noor-Spencer (8) and 42 for the 10th with Muhammad Ali (17).

In the end, though, Matt Reeves (3-22) and Jason Allmark (3-27) impressed as P & S were dismissed for 211 - still losing by a huge 154-run margin.

Extras (41, including 17 byes and 15 wides) were P & S’ second highest score.

Locks Heath are bottom after a seventh loss in nine completed games.

They let New Milton 2nds off the hook before losing by just 13 runs.

Tom Griffiths (3-25) had helped reduce Milton to 123-7, but No 7 Connor Tomkins (42) helped his side reach 171.

In reply, opener Joe Baker (34) was the only member of Locks’ top six to score more than 12.

Griffiths (32) and Dillon Coe (28) revived Locks’ hopes, but they were dismissed for 158.

United Services Portsmouth suffered another batting collapse as they suffered a huge defeat against Calmore 2nds at HMS Temeraire.

A week on from crashing from 17-0 to 38-7 against Portsmouth & Southsea 2nds, US were skittled for 81 to lose by a mammoth 217 runs.

Opener Seshadri Nadathur hit 15, while the other six members of US’ top seven mustered just 13 between them.

Ijaz Tarakhail (27) top scored at No 8 against Dan Croft (4-27) and Jono Maton (3-7).

Calmore had romped to 298-5 with opener Darren Vann hitting 94, Michael Cook 66 not out and Sam Moss 49.

Vineet Vajpayee (2-48) was the hosts’ most successful bowler, while US contributed 28 wides to Calmore’s daunting total.

A century stand helped condemn Hayling Island to defeat against Langley Manor 2nds at Knellers Lane.

Restricted to 157-9, there was a glimmer of renewed hope for Hayling when their hosts slipped to 25-3 (Mike Hallett 3-32).

But opener William Budd (91) and Jamie Brown (44 not out) took the game out of their reach with a fourth wicket partnership of 131.

Josh Gilham and extras had joint top scored for Hayling - 31 apiece - as Kaine Stanton’s 5-29 haul stopped any hopes of a big total as 74-3 became 112-8.