Clanfield Cricket Club enjoyed an excellent day on June 14, with the first and second teams both winning on the same weekend for the first time this season.

The 1st XI were away to the Bedhampton Mariners 2nd XI and the 2nd XI were at home to the Sarisbury Athletic 5th XI.

When the 1st XI’s game started at Bidbury Mead, Bedhampton’s decision to bat first looked mistaken, with two early wickets falling to Kuthub Malikoo and Mickey Rossouw.

While Aaron Saunders (27), Harvey Hounsome (29) and Gary Hounsome (29) were able to give some stability to proceedings for Bedhampton, solid spells from James MacGregor (two for ten ), Matt Bradley (two for 16) and Ollie Sedgwick (one for 29) saw wickets fall regularly.

The returning opening bowlers Rossouw (two for 26) and Malikoo (three for 23) probably produced some of their best bowling of this season to polish off the final wickets and leave Bedhampton 132 all out.

Despite the early loss of Mike Collins, attacking batting from newcomer James MacGregor (20) saw the total advance to 36 before he was caught and bowled.

Bedhampton made no further inroads, with strong displays from Matt Bradley (67 not out) and Tom Wright (38 not out) achieving the target in the 27th over to give Clanfield victory by eight wickets. This was a strong fourth win of the season to take them up to third in the table.

The second XI hosted Sarisbury hoping to build on the strong performance in the previous week’s match which was abandoned because of rain.

Clanfield elected to field and their opening bowlers had mixed fortunes, with Alex Graham unfortunately bearing the brunt of catches not quite carrying or sticking and some solid hitting from Steven Patrick.

Initially Lily George, in another fine spell, was the main threat, taking three wickets for 25 in her four-over spell, one of which was a maiden.

Sarisbury’s innings then looked solid until a fine catch by Rob Page saw the end of Patrick on 50, with new bowler Ben Cox taking the first of his two wickets for 37.

Captain Thomas Layland continued to play a fine innings, pushing the score along until, when he was on 70, change bowler Rob Page clean bowled him.

While Page, in an exceedingly economic spell, took another two wickets, finishing with three for 19, Sarisbury managed to hold out to score 209 for nine in their 40 overs.

When Clanfield batted, a solid start from Rob Page and Kevin Goodship (23) saw the run rate matched and the score at 52 for two.

The loss of a wicket shortly afterwards saw the captain, Alex Graham, coming to the crease to partner Adam Smith, with the score on 64 and a game to play for.

With explosive batting, especially from Smith, 109 had been reached by the 20-over mark and the game was evenly poised.

However, with both batsmen continuing to strike the ball strongly, a partnership of 149 saw Clanfield overcome the target as early as the 33rd over, with Graham on 49 not out and Smith - making his highest score for Clanfield - on 94 not out, completing an impressive seven-wicket win.

On June 21 Clanfield’s 1st XI host Steep’s 2nd XI and Clanfield’s 2nd XI travel to Locks Heath’s 4th XI. Both games start at 1pm.