Floyd stars in opening day win for Sarisbury
Sam Floyd struck an unbeaten half century as new-look Sarisbury lifted the curtain on their Southern Premier League Division 1 campaign with victory over Basingstoke & North Hants.
Asked to chase 216 at Mays Bounty, Floyd, Ricky Rawlins and Nathan Feltham impressed with the bat as Sarisbury won by six wickets with more than six overs in hand.
Floyd, below, batting at No 3, was 62 not out at the close, having hit eight fours and a six in his 110-ball innings.
Cameron Grierson, a close season signing from Paultons, had opened and was obviously determined to try and take the attack to the bowlers. He smacked two sixes and two fours - his only scoring strokes off the 15 balls he faced - before he departed.
Sarisbury were struggling on
52-3 when skipper Josh Hill (5) was dismissed. But that brought former captain Rawlins to the middle, and he hit 47 in a 98-run partnership with Floyd to get the visitors back on track.
Feltham - another player recruited from Paultons came in at No 6 and struck three sixes and three fours in a 37-ball unbeaten 40, helping Floyd put on an unbroken 64 for the fifth wicket.
Two other new faces - Western Australian overseas player Ronan DeGrussa and ex-Gosport Borough all-rounder Jacob Harris - were not needed to bat. They had shared the new ball earlier, though, with Harris picking up 2-37 but DeGrussa conceding 53 runs off the first seven overs of his SPL career.
Basingstoke were indebted to Bradley Neal, who came in at No 5 and smashed 14 fours and four sixes in a 57-ball unbeaten 93.
No 11 Jake Fincken (15) helped Neal add 75 for the 10th wicket, but was out - caught by Hill off the bowling off Rob Franklin - with his colleague within sight of a century.
Jordan Wright (4-64) was Sarisbury’s most successful bowler.
A much-changed Sarisbury
XI - none of the four new signings previously mentioned played failed in their bid to dump reigning champions Calmore Sports of the Voneus Village Cup.
Replying to Calmore’s 222-7 score in the 40-over tournament, Sarisbury lost their last five wickets for just six runs at Loperwood Park to be all out for 139.
Ben Johns, man of the match in the 2021 final, hit 56, sharing a 105-run stand for the second wicket Matt Taylor (70). James Manning then provided late order impetus, belting an unbeaten 42 off 25 balls with three sixes and a four.
Sarisbury were well placed at 100-2 thanks to Elliot Smith (31), Floyd (29) and Jack Lovett (27). But Floyd and Hill (2) were out in quick succession and, having reached 133-5, the middle order and tail quickly subsided.
Manning picked up 3-7 while opening bowler Dan Croft took 3-21.