Hallett hits ton to take him into dozen club

Mike Hallett struck his 12th Hampshire League century as Hayling Island maintained their Division 6 South East promotion challenge.

Hallett has been a consistent scorer for the islanders for more than a decade - compiling four league hundreds in 2017 and two more in 2018.

At the weekend he hit an undefeated 109 as Hayling’s 2nds defeated Portsmouth 4ths to remain in the second promotion place behind 100 per cent table-toppers Kerala 3rds.

Hallett, below, struck nine fours and a six in his 86-ball innings, sharing stands of 56 for the fourth wicket with Neil Wellington (11) and an unbroken 71 for the sixth with Jack Shore (28 not out) as Hayling posted 192-5.

Chris Hayward (8-4-12-3) then removed Portsmouth openers Oscar Davis (0) and William Lunn (1).

Jordan Howard (22) and Ed Holmes (20) put on 42 for the third wicket, but 50-2 quickly became 59-6.

Alex Higson (25) and Richard Marston (18 not out) eventually took Portsmouth’s reply into triple figures, but they closed on 106-7 from their 40 overs.

James Swan returned 2-12 off six overs while Roland Barnard only conceded 16 runs in his eight overs.

Dean Rockett gave third-placed Waterlooville 3rds lift off in a one-sided Hampshire League game that was finished in under 16 overs.

Rockett tore through the Sarisbury 5ths order as the hosts were skittled for 27 in 11.4 overs.

He finished with the amazing figures of 5.4-0-9-7 with Charlie Ellis - the only other bowler used bagging 3-16.

Sarisbury had been staring down the barrel of total humiliation at 11-7, but No 9 D Byles (11) - the only batsman in double figures) shared stands of eight for the eighth and ninth wickets.

Ellis sent down three wides, which was more than eight Sarisbury batsmen managed to score.

Ville openers D Gault (19 not out) and Dan Broome (9 not out) required just four overs to knock off the required runs for a very early finish.

Portsmouth Community, who started the season with six straight wins, have now suffered back-toback defeats.

They suffered a three-wicket loss to Bedhampton Mariners after being bowled out for 113 at Cockleshell Gardens.

Captain John Creamer (35) and Jamie Nottage (27) top scored against Spencer Hovey (3-19) and Sean Swift (2-24).

Bedhampton lost skipper Josh McQuade (8) and fellow opener Paul O’Leary (9) cheaply, but Chris Berry (32 not out) and Sanj Patnaik (27) helped them triumph in the 39th over.

Jack Whiteaway (2-30) was Community’s leading wicket-taker, but there were tidy eight-over spells from Creamer (1-12), Nottage

(1-18) and Den Housley (0-20).