Liphook & Ripsley v Hartley Wintney: A LIPHOOK and Ripsley side with six changes from last week’s fixture produced a spirited effort to try to overcome Hartley Wintney at Ripsley Park but finally fell short by 73 runs.

Hartley Wintney got off to a superb start, scoring 30 in three overs. Openers Will Kerr (19) and the proficient left-hander Jason Knibbs (59) put on 32 before George Neave had skipper Kerr acrobatically caught by skipper for the day Ric Williams.

Thereafter each new batsman got into double figures but none went on until the arrival of number seven Jonathan Kerr (39) and number eight James Beckwith (21). The visitors were bowled out for 226 in the 45th over.

The wickets were shared between Oscar Amis (3-47), Sam Harvey (2-44), Rob Nicklin (2-36), Neave (2-22) and Dave Oliver (1-34).

Williams led the side positively, using his bowling resources wisely, and the spinners were able to offer the most control.

Liphook made a promising and impressive start to their reply, thanks to regular openers Chris Martin (35) and Nicklin (53).

However, nobody was able to capitalise on their fine stand of 82 as wickets began to tumble steadily.

Again it was spin that did most of the damage, with man-of-the-match Knibbs (3-12) catching the eye.

Jamie Teale and Anthony Parson took two wickets each and there was one wicket for Dan Reynaldo, as tight bowling restricted Liphook to 153 in 39.1 overs.