Hampshire Hogs v Bryanston Butterflies

On a glorious sunny day at Warnford but with a slightly damp wicket from the preceding week of rain, the Hogs won the toss and elected to bowl. With a testing but unrewarded opening spell from John Portal and ably backed up by Ed Nangle and Rob Portal, the Hogs made some early inroads into the Butterflies’ batting line up; the highlight being Charlie Covell’s fine impersonation of Jonty Rhodes with a stunning one handed grab only inches from the turf. His comment that “I didn’t see it, I was chatting to the umpire” are now the blueprint for his season. Some high quality tweakers sent down by Freddie Nevill and the evergreen Tim Durston ensured the Hogs went into lunch well on top at 107-5.

 

As the Hogs feasted on the Crawfords’ culinary delights, the pitch dried out to assemble something similar to the M1 and the Butterflies, cocooned in the morning sun, began to spread their wings. A wicketless session ensued and the Butterlies declared in a commanding 261-5.

 

As the Hogs had done, the Butterflies made full use of the new cherry to decimate the Hogs top order with some wily bowling up the hill but some buffet bowling down the hill. Going into tea at 25-5, the win looked somewhat unlikely. Yet, with John Portal resembling Brigadier Block Paul Collingwood in his prime, the Hogs managed to take the game deep into the final 20 overs following 6. Portal’s demise after a dogged half century was swiftly followed by that of his teammates and a loss of 106 runs was the result.
 
A disappointing result but a glorious sun-drenched Warnford made for a cracking day’s cricket