Old Hurstjohnians

Fresh from a great game at the castle the day before, the Martlets visited the beautiful school grounds of Hurstpierpoint College to take on the Hurstjohnians. Martlets were put into the field with Harry Walker and Ben Whelpton opened the bowling and kept it tight on a very good batting surface. They reached 90-0 at the lunch break which I believe both sides would have been pleased about at the fish and chip Friday break! Spin from one end and seam rotation at the other was the order of the day after lunch and Nick Trotter was rewarded with the wicket of Warrender for 38. Nick continued to be the threat on the slow but bouncy surface, offering much more support for the spinners. He took Willson caught and bowled before another caught in the ring as wickets began to fall at regular wickets. Gander moved to a well deserved 100 and upped his run rate as the overs ticked past 50. P Walker came on to once again tempt the batsmen into some false shots and did so successfully as he got the prize wicket of Gander for an excellent 132. Our spin twins bowled in tandem for 25 overs unchanged as Martlets eventually bowled out the Johnians for 239 off 59.3 overs at pretty much 4 runs per over. N Trotter bowled beautifully to take 7/71 off 17 overs while Walker took 3/64 as all 10 wickets fell to spin.

Toby Pullan and Alex Heaseman opened the batting and Pullan started as he always does, scored in double time. He took 6 fours in succession off one unlucky Bloomfield over as he raced to 44 off 34 balls before he departed. Heaseman fell cheaply to a leading edge caught in the ring before Loughton and Forster steadied the ship moving the Martlets from 54/2 to 143 before Loughton departed 39 ball 62. Loughton always scores more quickly than you think with fluency and timing! Attacking fields meant wickets still fell, but runs were flowing at a rate of knots as Forster moved past 50 himself. Alex Watkins fell cheaply before Forster (71 excellent runs) and Whelpton also fell in succession before captain Rebbetts saw the troops home with a 36 ball 32 not out. Martlets chasing down 240 in just 36.4 overs! As always, an excellent game, spectacular lunch and tea, wonderful setting and supporters watching us against our oldest opponents which reaches 100 years next year. We are very much looking forward to it.