Hampshire County Division 2

Hythe & Dibden 1st XI vs Ellingham

26th July Played @ Jones Lane

Brilliant James Sets Up Hythe Win  

A superb 98* from Rob James and a fine all round performance from Paul Whitlock enabled Hythe to beat Ellingham by 65 runs on a hot sunny day at Jones Lane.  

Batting first Hythe got off to a comfortable start against some wayward Ellingham bowling but at 29 skipper Simon Dixon fell for 12, and Hythe batting woes started, Matt Howe fell for 0 and Simon Wright following last weeks heroics went for just 5 to the quick but erratic Stevenson, Kev James and Ewan Bell were Stevenson's next victims both falling for 0 as Hythe slipped to 58-5 with only Rob James looking untroubled.

At 73 Ben Kendrick 5 was harshly adjudged lbw to spinner Cakebread and the home side looked in disarray, but fortunately James found an able partner in Paul Whitlock and the pair started to rebuild the innings. The longer the partnership went on the better James was playing and soon passed 50 as Hythe moved to 100-6, Whits giving James support and as much strike as possible looked to continue his form of last week and the two put on a valuable 66 before Whits played on for 15 giving Stevenson his fifth wicket but at 139-7 Hythe were back in the game.  

James kept attacking and although he lost Rich Last for 5, found some useful support from Luke Mills and they added 31 priceless runs, with Robbie pushing hard for his ton, Mills was run out in the penultimate over for 11 and Hythe scrambled up to a competitive 181-9 with James finishing on a wonderful 98 not out.  

Ellingham innings started against the new ball attack of Weall & Whitlock, with Whits giving both opening batsmen plenty of trouble against his short ball at 17 he bounced out Burrett for 7 easily caught by Kev James, and at 29 Whits struck again yorking Barker for 10.

Hythe skipper cleverly changed his bowlers around after short spells in the heat and Kendrick replaced Weallo who had bowled tidily and Wrighty came on for Whits.   At 54 J.Cox who had battled hard for 23 was excellently caught & bowled by Wright and at 65 R.Turner optimistically pushing hard for a two was run out by Whitlock, one run later Kendrick bowled Shutler for 5. Ellingham were now in a similar position to how Hythe were earlier in the day but Hythe were not going to let the visitors off the hook.  

Weall and Whitlock returned to the attack as Stevenson and Kerley were giving Ellingham a bit of resistance at 91 Kerley was bowled by Weallo for 12 and at 109 he bowled J.Summer for 2 and then removed the dangerous Stevenson well caught by Rob James for an aggressive 30. Whits then cleaned up the last two wickets bowling P.Cakebread for 0 and R.Marshall for 0 as the Ellingham were blown away for just 116.

Innings of : HYTHE 181 For 9 (45 Overs)

Innings of : ELLINGHAM 116 All Out (35.2 Overs)

Hythe Bowling.