A very depleted Fawley side travelled to Andover for the last game of the season.

Fawley batted first and soon found themselves 39-2 with Dave Streather (24) and John Doe both out. Andy Parratt and Kieran Earl then added 48 for the next wicket which proved to be the biggest partnership of the innings. At 119-5 the innings could have gone the same way as the week before however good contributions from the lower order saw Fawley post a competitive 163-8 off 48 overs.

In reply Ben Bolton took his first wicket for the first team to reduce Andover to 8-1. Ben took 1-23 off his opening 6 over spell. However Andover had little trouble after that and despite a wicket for Ian Forrest and one more for Ben in his second spell they got past the Fawley total in the 38th over.

Fawley finished in 12th an improvement on the 15th place of the year before and showed some good signs for 2009.

Fawley II's Vs Brockenhurst

Fawley II's first game of the season ended in defeat at the hands of Brockenhurst. Fawley lost the toss and was put into bat for the first 42 overs, or so they thought!! At drinks it turned out that the games are now 45 overs per innings!
However after losing 2 quick wickets of Kieran Earl and Mike Shepeard, both Johns (Painter and Church) set about to battle for there runs. Both passing there 50's the Johns put Fawley into a good posistion. However when there wickets fell, Fawleys run rate slowed and Fawley ended up with a total of 161 off there alocated overs.

Fawley got off to a good start in the second innings with Dennins Atkinson taking his first wicket of the season however Brockenhurst consolidated and kept the score board ticking over. The 45 over ball was now doing nothing to help the bowlers were as the new ball in the first innings made life so much harder for the Fawley batsmen limiting there scoring early on. Brockenhurst ended up crusing to victory with 5 overs left and only 4 wickets down.

One posistve was how well Wakus bowled, making his debut for Fawley and also taking a wicket.

Fawley CC (141ao) defeated by EllinghamCC (143-7)

The FawleyCC Third eleven were away to Ellingham and with only 9 players struggled to pick up points. Ellingham won the toss and put Fawley in to bat ,on a very wet wicket. Mike Sheppard opened the innings and batted well in difficult conditions, apart from Ian McElhenny (25) no other Fawley batsmen could master the conditions and Fawley were bowled out for 141 with Sheppard 68 not out. In reply Ellingham also found the batting conditions difficult and at 24 for three two catches, although half chances, were missed. The fourth wicket was a long time in coming but when it fell there again was a flurry of 4 wickets but as conditions eased Ellingham got home with 7 wickets down.

The under 17's crashed to a heavy defeat against Milford On Sea. Batting first Fawley managed a modest 80/4 after 18 overs against some accurate bowling. Top scorer was A Williams with 26. L Smith also chipped in with 20.
The score never look enough especially once ex-Lymington colt W Thorp smashed a very quick fire 50 which included 3 sixes and 4 fours. The pick of the Fawley bowlers was B Bolton who bowled his 4 overs for 17 runs. A Cole and E Earl each picked up a wicked as Fawley lost by 8 wickets.

With most of the team still in the under 16 age group this year will be much tougher than the last but a good challenge none the less. Next week does not get any easier with a trip to Bashley. Thanks to Wayne for umpiring and Jason for turning up and supporting.

Monday saw the 2nd XI play Brockenhurst in an 18 over cup game. The game was played at the picturesque venue of Balmer Lawn.

The 2nd's lost the toss and was asked to have a bowl.

Two of the experienced players, Iffy and Rolly, opened the bowling. Brockenhurst got off to a good start going at just under 7 an over. Elliot Earl was introduced and he got the first break through of the evening. Elliot ended his spell with 3 wickets. The introduction of the 'nippers', Scott Rogers and Ben Bolton saw the run rate slow and the wickets continue to fall.

Brockenhurst ended on 117 after there 18 overs with Iffy taking 2 wickets in consecutive balls in the last over.
Fawley went out to bat optimistic that the total could be chased down with the ‘brothers’ opening the batting! Kieran got the innings off to a quick start as in the second over he hit 4, 6, 4. Elliot Earl was the first to fall, being caught down the leg side in the 3rd over. Scott Rogers then came to the crease. Having got his eye in walking to the crease he decided to smash his first ball to cow corner for a couple!! The leg side short boundary was bombarded by these two before Scott eventually fell for 16. The score was 72 off 8 overs when Kieran Earl fell caught and bowled, leaving 46 off of just under 10 overs to win. John Doe and Liam Smith kept the score ticking along and Alfie Cole with John Church saw the team through to victory, with around 2 overs to spare.

So an extremely good win for the young side and if anybody has found a left handed glove please could you return to Mark Strugess!
Thank You for the capacity crowd for turning up (including the cows!). Also thanks to Alan Sturgess for doing the scoring so professionally.

Fawley hosted the Kenilworth Wardens in a touring game on Thursday (26th June).

Led by Wayne Smith, who won the toss, Fawley batted first.

The Fawley innings was surprisingly opened by Painter and Rice, not the normal combination to set the score racing. However they both played some attacking strokes and ran well between the wickets. Rice was dropped twice in two balls and avoided the hat trick with a sound forward defensive. He was the first to be dismissed for 28 which started the fall of a flurry of wickets. Painter became the first of a numer of dubious lbw decisions.

Fawley soon found themselves 5 wickets down and at this point Kev McCarthy was brought onto bowl for Kenilworth. He proceeded to take the wickets of Parratt, Streather and Morgan (first ball) before ending the innings of Sturgess senior who had batted well to give some respectability to the Fawley innings.

Kev was denied a 5 wicket haul when Rollinson (who had also batted well to this point) ran out skipper Smith and Fawley ended on 157.

In reply Morgan opened the bowling and brought back memories of the Bramshaw game with a series of wides and boundary balls. He put this down to too much tea but it was too much for wicketkeeper Sturgess junior who claimed to have a broken finger and was substituted.

Skipper Smith tried numerous bowling options in order to get a break through and despite the veterans Rollinson, Streather, Sturgess senior and Parratt all turning their arm over Kenilworth strolled to victory with overs and wickets to spare. McCarthy had left already but has asked for the match ball as a trophy.

It was a well contested game despite the howling gale and we hope Kenilworth will come back next year.

Fawley: J Painter, S Rice, M Sturgess, J Ford, S Thomas, A Parratt, A Sturgess, D Streather, S Rollinson, D Morgan, W Smith