South Wilts 236-9

drew with

Hampshire Academy

193-9

ECB Southern League

Premier Division One

AFTER scraping a draw with BAT Sports last week, South Wilts were disappointed not to turn a day of domination into an outright win against Hampshire Academy.

Winning the toss, South Wilts skipper Paul Draper batted first and despite the early loss of Russell Rowe to the impressive Matt Metcalfe, 4-54, Draper and Jamie Glasson began to stamp their authority.

When Draper fell for 34, Tom Caines carried on the good work with Glasson.

Benefiting from a move up the order, Glasson looked the quality batsman everyone at South Wilts knows he is. Solid in defence and punishing anything over-pitched, Glasson looked well set for a ton when his innings ended on 74.

Tim Lamb now took up the challenge and, as always when Lamb is batting, the run rate smoothly increased.

When Lamb misjudged a second run and fell for 47, Simon Woodhouse and Alex Senneck added useful runs to take South Wilts to 236-9 off the 66 overs.

With the highly-rated James Adams heading the Academy line-up, it looked an intriguing target, but Adams was trapped by Jimmy Seeary's first ball and when Chris Benham was beaten by Senneck, South Wilts were well on top.

The Academy youngsters might have bowled and fielded well but their batting looked ill at ease as Senneck, 4-66, and Seeary, 3-48, reduced them to 58-6.

Ian Hilsum, 37, offered some resistance as Academy tried to play out time but at 114-9 with 20 overs left, a South Wilts win looked inevitable.

That it did not turn out that way was entirely down to Giles White.

South Wilts skipper Rob Wade said: "It has often been the custom in such development sides and County 2nd XIs that the senior player and captain bats 11 to give the youngsters a chance. This was bizarre though, as White was opening the batting for Hampshire only last year and is still clearly a quality player."

White monopolised the bowling, protecting the higher order batsman James Manning and as the South Wilts bowlers wilted secured some valuable batting points for his side. He finished 67 not out as the game fizzled out into a draw at 193-9.

"The sadness of this was that if White had batted at the top of the order, it may have been a competitive game," Wade added.

This week fourth-placed South Wilts travel to fifth-placed Bournemouth.

A strong team is expected with the return of Jason Laney and the possible availability of James Tomlinson.