COUNTDOWN 2 DAYS TO GO

MOST CRUCIAL WEEKEND OF THE SEASON SO FAR

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY DIVISION 2

FIXTURES THIS WEEKEND

Though everyone is disappointed by the the surprise loss of the second team last Saturday the club is still in a positive frame of mind and looking ahead to a big month of cricket during August.

With four games left both sides have a chance of promotion and the sprirt in the club from the senior sides down to the Under 11's is as good as it has been for many years.

Skippers in Positive Mood

I asked the First team skipper - Simon Dixon what he thought of our chances. He said

'At the beginning of the season, the prediction was, if we stayed injury
free, promotion was a real possibility this year for the First team.   Even
without Paul Whitlock, who made a brilliant comeback on saturday taking 6
South Wilts wickets for 3 runs, we won every game in which he was absent,
showing the talent, character an team spirit the first team now possess.

Even though we now lie 8th, 5 places below the promotion places, we are
only a couple of points average behind the team that currently holds third,
Alton.  Of our remaining games, we have to play one of the sides above us
in Bedhampton.  We are more than capable of beating anyone in this league.

With all the sides above us having to play against eachother in the
forthcoming weeks, if we win every game, which with the talent we have is a
distinct possiblity, we have a good chance of promotion.'

Whits whose seen it all before has a similar view

Unusually the top half of our league is so closely matched average wise, the top 3 have a bit of a gap but as you say they all play each other, so you never know, I think Compton & Alton seem to be winning easily at the moment, maybe Mudeford may be the one if any of the top 3 were to slip but its very interesting. If we win our last 4 games and that will be tough, esp Bedhampton, and we hate going to Whitchurch then we have an outside chance of 3rd, but the weather is always a factor at start and end of the season, so I'm not holding my breath. If we ended up 4th it would be an excellent season and our highest finish in County 2 and I don't think we have really fired on all cylinders with the bat this year.

Froggie's a bit more pessimistic

Looking at the leagues and fixtures we both sides need results to go our way as the highest averages we can both get ar around 18.53 1st's and 18.78 2nd's based on 22point average/game (geeky me).
They may be enough to gain 3rd place but i cant see where the teams above will drop sufficiently enough ie 2 games to let us in....
If the teams above lose only one game each because they've played more games their average would still be above ours in both leagues.....
The 2nd's need Fawley or Milford on sea to do them a favour and beat Verwwod as Bounemouth's run in is the easier of the 2 teams..
The first teams run in is the easiest of all the teams involved but i again cant see the teams above dropping 2 games.

My prediction would be both teams finish 4th with no promotion party this year but a successful season............

But Bambi's more positive

The firsts, if we get 24 points from every game, we can finish with an average of 19.1 something, which would be enough to go up. Compton have got to play three of the teams above us in Ryde, Langley Manor and Alton.

Anything is possible.

I still think both teams can go up.

If we have anymore predictions please e.mail them to me - chiv.com@virgin.net especially the second team we want to see that same positivity that we are geeting from the Firsts