Going into the season I had a clear picture in my mind of how we would play, and who would provide the ammunition for me to win the required number of games to get us promotion.
To say that things did not quite work out as planned is an understatement! People who were expected to be available for the First team were not. People who started off playing for the Seconds either got promoted to the Firsts or drifted away from the game completely.
Either way the team that I expected to be able to field was no where near what materialised, and played together for the last six to eight weeks of the season.
Having said all of that I was particularly pleased to see people promoted to the First team as a direct result of their performances in the seconds.
Also to finish sixth in the table with the number of absentees that we had to cope with throughout the season was no mean achievement in itself.
I would like to thank those people who stuck with it all summer through thick and thin.
There were a number of memorable performances from both individuals and the team collectively. Paul Goodman and his 130 against Rowner was by far the largest innings, there were a few innings of 50 plus, most notably from Andy Oliphant, Jerry Weeks, James Ingram, James Davies and myself. There were only two instances of 5 wickets, by Dominic Ducellier and myself.
On the team front the most pleasing result was against Hamble. With us only managing to score in the region of 125, they expected to win easily and batted in that fashion. Through some excellent bowling, catching and fielding they failed!
There were, however, at least three games that we should have won. These were against Bitterne, Liphook and Hartley Wintney. If we had we would have been promoted!
Now to next year! Throughout the club we need to concentrate on developing the young players whilst creating a solid nucleus of players who are almost always available. If we can create this promotion is a foregone conclusion.
