Ramsdell v Steep: STEEP travelled to Ramsdell on Saturday, who went into the game with a 100 per cent home record in County Division 3 South of the Hampshire Cricket League so far this season.

Steep elected to bowl first and openers J Smith (1-34) and Atkins (2-33) opened up and bowled very accurately, with the former picking up the wicket of Abbott.

Burrows settled down to bat long and he continued to keep the score ticking over. However, Mercer (2-22) dismissed Nurse with a sharp short ball that the batsman top edged to be caught.

The home side continued to tick over with S Holbrook (34) and Simpson (25) supporting Burrows, who eventually fell for 75.

Ramsdell finished on 209-9 at the end of their allotted 45 overs. The pick of the Steep bowlers was S Smith, who bowled with excellent control and finished with figures of 3-38.

Steep opened up positively with Collins (19) and S Smith (14) looking to take the attack to the Ramsdell bowlers, but when they both fell, as well as Knight, Steep were in trouble at 57-3.

That brought Bone (70) and Hughes (54 not out) together, and, after a slow start, a combination of positive running and dispatching the bad balls to the boundary began to bring the visitors back into it.

Eventually the 130-run partnership was ended when Bone edged behind.

Atkins (14 not out) came in and hit a few lusty blows to get Steep over the line and complete an impressive six-wicket victory.