“The Cradle of Cricket”

With their comprehensive win over Hartley Wintney on Saturday, with George Marshall recording an unbeaten 112 (his second century against them this season!), the 1st XI secured promotion for the second year in a row with two games in hand - and require only 3 points from their final 2 fixtures to claim the SPL Div 2 title. Well done to all!

Meanwhile, the 2nd XI failed to beat Compton and Chandlers Ford, slipping to 3rd in the league. However, it does not change what they need to do in their final match on Saturday: a win over promotion rivals Petersfield was going to be required anyway. The 2nds need to win on Saturday, and notch up 19 points (more or less a given for a win) to ensure promotion, and to finish above currently-4th-placed RAM.

Go Dons!

Hambledon’s South African overseas star Matt de Villiers yesterday cemented his place in the Southern Premier League record books by passing the season record of 1076 runs, which has stood for 17 years.

Last week’s century (Matt’s 5th of the season) took him past the 1,000 run mark, but left him 31 runs short of the record.

He passed the record in style yesterday with an unbeaten 84 against Andover, and now has 1,130 league runs at an average of 113. And with three matches still remaining, he will be hoping to extend this still further, leaving behind a record which may stand for a great many years to come...

Congratulations to Matt from all your fellow Dons!

Although it's Hambledon's overseas signing Matt De Villiers who is making the headlines (571 runs in 7 matches, averaging 114.2, with two centuries and a top score of 168), it's shaping up to be a great batting year across the board, both individually (four other players have already exceeded 300 runs) and as teams. Last week's 398 at Hartley Wintney was a massive total, whatever the size of the ground; but the 1st XI have yet to post under 250 when batting first, and the 2nd XI are also regularly posting extremely competitive scores. All of which has helped both teams maintain an unbeaten record and sit at the top of their respective leagues.

Before we even reach the mid-point of the season, seven Hambledon players have notched up 8 league centuries between them. Going back through the website records (which go back as far as 2009), the previous record was 2011, when 8 centuries were scored in the entire season...

Let's hope the Dons batters can continue the run of form and add many more centuries to the 2022 total!

Broadhalfpenny Down, the home of the Hambledon Club, was the location of the inaugural First-Class match in June 1772 between Hampshire and an All-England team and the famed ground will be hosting two celebratory matches this June to mark the 250th anniversary of that first ever match.

Senior and Under 17 Training sessions start this Wednesday 6 April at the Ridge, and will begin at 5:30pm (since it still starts to get dark relatively early...).

Let's see a good turn-out – please try to be there on time, or as soon after 5:30 as possible!