ALTON will play Southern Premier League Division Two cricket next season.
The champions-elect only need to win against a faltering Portsmouth II side at St Helens this week to clinch the title. Much jubilation at the Jubilee Field.
Their defeat of fourth-placed Rowledge – their 12th on the bounce – was not their most efficient, but the relief at gaining promotion outweighed any need for self-analysis.
For the villagers, meanwhile, this is a major setback to their promotion hopes, despite Trojans' surprise triumph at Ventnor. Furthermore, skipper Dave Booton knows that his side ran the nervous leaders closer than the six-wicket margin suggests.
Booton had elected to bat first on a benign wicket that offered early movement but little else to the bowlers.
Chris Yates and Nick Morant had looked unflustered, but watchful early on against an Alton seam attack that kept a tight rein on affairs, but did not threaten. But two balls in the ninth over changed all that, as Rowledge slipped to 16-2.
First, Yates attempted to pull a shorter, quicker Jeremy Pang-Kessler delivery and dragged the ball on to his stumps.
Pang-Kessler, who again bowled superbly, immediately struck again when Chris Brinsden apparently gloved the ball to a grateful Richard Morgan at a square-leg.
But Australian Justin Larresey, having easily survived the hat-trick ball, showed why he has scored more than 800 league runs this year, though he enjoyed a moment of outrageously good fortune in Pang-Kessler's eighth over.
The Queenslander, wristy, nimble-footed and especially severe on anything close to his legs, had moved effortlessly to 24 when he was badly dropped by a disbelieving Andy Balcombe at mid-on.
Thereafter, Larresey eschewed the flamboyant stroke-making for a more cautious approach. He and Morant had added 60 for the third wicket without any alarms, when Morant seemed to play over Ben Jansen's ninth ball and was bowled.
Larresey quietly eased to his half-century but then fell in a manner that was as inexplicable as it was surprising.
He clipped a leg-side full-toss from Julian Ballinger and Bruce Oliphant, running in from the backward square-leg boundary, took a sprawling catch. Alton's celebrations were probably audible in Brisbane.
Dave Lloyd, who had announced himself with a delicious cover-drive off Balcombe, became the second of Ballinger's five victims when he attempted one sweep too many and was trapped leg before.
At 128-5 with 16 overs left, the visitors still had hopes of posting 200 or more, but a combination of some X-rated shots and intelligent bowling from Jansen and Ballinger saw Rowledge tumble to 156, the last seven wickets falling for just 40 runs.
Ballinger's 5 for 29 was his best return of the year and he once again showed his worth bowling at the death.
Chasing moderate targets can be full of pitfalls and Chris Yates, full of fire and menace, made instant inroads into the home batting.
He bowled the prolific Michael Heffernan in the eighth over as the opener drove loosely at him and, in his next, claimed another prize scalp when Ben Jansen, pushing forward, was adjudged lbw.
With their two top batsmen back in the pavilion, Alton's nerves were frayed still further when Morgan was caught behind off the persistent Simon Bonser six overs later. Alton 49-3.
In the following over, Huw Ross almost perished twice in one Yates ball, surviving a desperately close lbw shout and a run-out attempt as he wandered away from his crease.
But Ross, frustrated at the lack of batting opportunities this season, began to frustrate the visitors with his unwavering concentration in the face of some high-quality seam bowling from Bonser and the effervescent Yates.
With their team-mates applauding every nick and nudge as if it were a straight six, Ross and Howard Gadsby added a priceless 40. But it was game on again in the 24th over when an aghast Gadsby was given out to a bat-pad catch at slip off Lloyd's off-spin.
The left-hander's calm 41 full of cuts, nudges and pulls, ultimately proved crucial to Alton's cause.
At 89-4 after 25 overs, the game was finely balanced, but Oliphant's arrival settled the game.
The tall South African immediately played two sizzling straight drives and when the reintroduction of a pumped-up Yates failed to bring any reward, the fifth-wicket pair eased their side home with a flurry of boundaries. Alton won with almost nine overs to spare.
Ross will play prettier innings: he faced 91 balls and batted 26 overs for his unbeaten 31, but he will play fewer more important ones.
Alton have achieved their primary target of promotion and will aim for a perfect defeat-free season; for Rowledge, their promotion hopes are all but gone and they will soon be saying farewell to the talented Chris Yates Jnr, who is emigrating to Australia. The villagers' loss will be the Aussies' gain.
ROWLEDGE
C Yates b Pang-Kessler 10
N Morant b Jansen 18
C Brinsden c Morgan b P-Kessler 0
J Larresey c Oliphant b Ballinger 52
D Lloyd Ibw Ballinger 19
R Yates c Ross b Jansen 6
D Booton b Jansen. 5
I Metcalfe c Balcombe b Ballinger 6
L Rogers c Jansen b Ballinger 5
R Forbes not out 4
S Bonser b Ballinger 4
Extras 27
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Total 156
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Bowling: J Pang-Kessler 10-2-21-2, J Halfacre 10-0-43-0, A Balcombe 6-0-28-0, B Jansen 12-5-27-3, J Ballinger 10.4-0-29-5.
ALTON
M P Heffernan b C Yates 9
R Morgan c Metcalfe b Bonser 25
B Jansen Ibw C Yates 0
H Gadsby c Rogers b Lloyd 41
H Ross not out 31
B Oliphant not out 36
Extras 15
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Total (for 4 wkts) 157
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Bowling: S Bonser 12-2-48-1, R Yates 6-0-25-0, C Yates 12-4-39-2, L Rogers 2-0-13-0, D Booton 1.1-0-2-0.