Liphook and Ripsley III v Grayswood IV - Saturday 27 April 2019

Liphook and Ripsley III kicked off their career in the I'Anson League with a demolition of Grayswood IV.

Some might have said that the weather was too cold and windy for football, let alone cricket, and Toby was anxiously looking for a rule which said that a cricket match couldn't be played in the Ripsley Park conditions.

Captain Al was keen to start the campaign positively and after winning the toss, chose to bat.

After donning their thermals, Guy Faithful and Richard Jarrett took to the crease, and started the Liphook innings with some positive batting. Richard was the first man out when he was bowled by Jeremy Surstees for 23. Surstees was to take a second wicket soon after when John Strong departed without scoring, and he was soon followed by Al for 3. Guy continued to play sensible cricket and he and Toby Flack kept the scoreboard moving at pace. When Guy (38) was caught off the bowling of Howard, he was replaced by Andy Grimes who continued where Guy left off. Grimes was out for a wonderful innings of 51 but this was completely overshadowed by Toby's terrific 114. A late cameo by Mick Poore (23) helped Liphook and Ripsley to a massive 284 at the end of their 40 overs. Pick of the Grayswood bowlers were Richard Rigden (3-21) and Jeremy Sturstees (2-39).

Surpassing this score would require Grayswood to score at over 7 runs an over - and whilst Will Cresswell tried to attack the bowling of Richard Grimes (1-27 from 4 overs), son Dylan held the other end with a wonderful display of pace bowling, taking the middle stump out of the ground to take the wickets of Neil (1) and Will Creswell (28) and to record superb figures of 2-11 from 6 overs. This set the tone, and when John Strong (3-32 from 9 overs) and Nick Cansfield (1-1 from 6 overs) replaced the opening bowlers, they stopped Grayswood from scoring. Jeremy Surtees (18); Evangelos Gikas (19); James Howard (18) and John Howard (11) gave the Grayswood innings the respectability of lasting for 38 overs, but the game was over long before the end as the run rate continued to creep ever higher.

Man of the match was Toby Flack for his wonderful century, but Liphook can be proud of their overall team performance, with some good batting and bowling performances backed up by some tight fielding.