Portsmouth players caught up in nasty crash

PORTSMOUTH captain Rich Locke felt he had no choice but to pull the plug on their Southern Electric League division One game at Totton & Eling.
Rich Locke. Picture Ian Hargreaves  (160599-5)Rich Locke. Picture Ian Hargreaves  (160599-5)
Rich Locke. Picture Ian Hargreaves (160599-5)

Four Portsmouth players were involved in a nasty car crash on their way to the game.

Thankfully all the players were okay but were badly shaken up by the experience.

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Two of them, Ishi Ahmad and Rajeev Verma, who were sat in the back of the car, were taken to hospital in an ambulance to have neck and back injuries checked over.

James Christian, the driver, and 15-year-old Joe Kooner-Evans, who was going to be making his debut, were unscathed but in no condition to play.

It was the right decision not to play for Locke.

He said: ‘We were all at the ground and waiting for them to arrive.

‘Then we got a phone call saying they had been in an accident.

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‘There was a collision in front of them and they ran into the car in front.

‘Then they were run into from behind by a lorry so the car was squashed at both ends.

‘Luckily they got away with it, though, it must have been a frightening experience for them.

‘We could have carried on and played the game with seven players.

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‘But none of us were in a frame of mind to play after what happened.

‘It wouldn’t have seemed right to carry on playing with a couple of team-mates going off to hospital.

‘We didn’t feel comfortable with it.’

‘Totton & Eling were very understanding about the whole thing.

‘There is no precedent for this happening before in the Southern League but I have no doubts we did the right thing.’

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Sarisbury Athletic slumped to a disappointing 94-run home defeat against Basingstoke & North Hants.

Once again it was poor batting that caused their downfall.

Shayne Freemantle (two for 24), John Floyd (two for 41) and Matt Journeaux (3 for 21) helped restrict the visitors to 187 for nine.

In reply, though, seven of the home batsmen failed to reach double figures.

Sarisbury were skittled out for just 93 runs.

Sam Floyd enjoyed his day in the field with a run out and a hat-trick of catches.

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