Petersfield’s 2nd XI took a trip up Bell Hill to renew their rivalry with Steep’s 2nd XI on Saturday.

Petersfield captain Steve Gibson won his fourth toss in six attempts and elected to field first.

A spirited and youthful Petersfield opened the bowling with Gibson (one for 20) and Adam Kidd (two for ten) against experienced Steep openers Sean Noble (14) and Graham Hughes (13).

Kidd was getting good bounce and carry from his end but the score moved on to 28 without loss.

Then Kidd struck twice in quick succession, removing both openers caught behind by young wicketkeeper Isaac Powerbank, who moved down low well to take one of them.

Gibson joined the party, clean bowling number three Roscoe Page (two) to leave Steep reeling at 31 for three.

Once Kidd’s age limitation came into effect, Nathan Barlow (three for 35) joined the attack and swiftly removed Sam Hulme for a duck. Hulme had looked to get off the mark with a lusty blow but found Suraj Sashidharan, the only man in front of square on the leg side, who took an excellent catch just above his head.

Oliver Simpson (three for 18) was brought on, with his extra pace causing issues for the Steep middle order, but Barlow leaked a few runs, including a monstrous six by Chris Allcock (22) from a leg stump full toss.

But the resulting enforced ball change seemed to do the trick for Petersfield, as first Allcock fell to Barlow, and then Simpson really got going on finding a fuller length, removing Charlie Forster (16), Alex Hulme (five), and Sam Childs for a duck, clean bowled after showing too many stumps to leave Steep on 86 for nine.

Minor resistance was put up by Rich Atherton (11 not out), but young seamer Georgie Russell (none for five) and finger-spinner Fraser Anstey (one for seven) finished the job, Anstey breaching the defences of George Childs (three) to bowl out Steep for 99 in 29.1 overs.

Isaac Powerbank (two) opened for Petersfield alongside Tom Horwood (54 not out). Thoughts that it would be a straightforward chase were initially put on hold, as the Steep openers Alex Hulme (one for 16) and Roscoe Page (none for 21) made life difficult in the early stages. Hulme in particular extracted good bounce from the pitch, made the ball swing through the air and had decent pace.

Resolute Powerbank was undone by a good Hulme bouncer, putting the ball straight up in the air to be simply caught by keeper Sean Noble.

This brought Fergus Maclean to the crease and he was dolly-dropped first ball off Hulme at cover after mistiming a cut shot.

Horwood expanded with pull shots and straight hits to put Petersfield ahead of the required run rate but Maclean never got going and was caught off the first change bowler Charlie Forster (one for 17).

Horwood was joined by James Longland (31 not out) and they ended the game rapidly. Longland pounced on anything short of a length, with Tom Brown (none for 27) and spinner Rich Atherton (none for six) unable to stem the tide.

Horwood brought up his half-century with a slog sweep off Atherton, then Longland struck three lusty sixes in quick succession, the final one winning the game in style by eight wickets in 19 overs.