Dozens of former Lymington cricketers descended on the Sports Ground last Sunday for a very special reunion day as the club continued its Bicentenary celebrations. The centrepiece of the afternoon was a match between the current Lymington side an Ex-Lymington XI which included four stars from the club's 1983 championship winning side: Jon Hardy, Guy Hayward, Clive Plant and Stephen Andrew.

Following a massive mopping-up operation by Robin Goff & Co, the match remarkably started on time and the pitch resembled a road (unfortunately, the road it resembled was in Tewkesbury!). Therefore, until the sun had a chance to dry the wicket, batting was a little precarious early on for the Ex-Lymington openers Glyn Treagus and Tim Smith. These two bravely added 52 before Smith, who had traveled all the way from Australia specially for the fixture, was bowled by Dan Wiggins for 15. Ben Craft followed in similar fashion, but not before twice effortlessly sending the ball to the boundary in his typically elegant style. Stuart Gillett was next to go in somewhat bizarre fashion, his well struck drive ricocheting off bowler Luigi Di Maria to the diving Raphael at cover. Treagus, however, continued his recent fine run of form for both Bashley and Dorset and reached his half century at just over a run a ball before he too was trapped by Di Maria whose frugal nine overs gleaned 2-16. Hardy fell 3 runs later to leave the Ex-Lymington side on 122-5. Guy Hayward (25) and Tony Oxley (10) attempted to up the run rate but perished at the hands of Neil Trestrail (2-13) before Clive Plant (10), Stephen Andrew and Clive Kitcher edged the visitors to 191-8 at tea.

Former Hampshire, Essex and Young England quickie Andrew revived memories of past glories by demolishing Steve Coltman's stumps with just 7 on the board. Grierson, Hunt and Gannaway all struggled as Lymington lurched to 40-4 before Wiggins joined Sam Raphael and relieved the pressure with an attacking partnership of 60 in just 7 overs. Wiggins then became Craft's third victim, and when Mark Newton was caught at slip off Treagus with the score at 119-6, the match was very much in the balance. However, as has so often happened this season, Lymington's Australian batting sensation Raphael was proving immovable. With the clock running down, he and Dave Griffiths launched into spin twins Treagus and Wayne Smith. Griffiths (30no) was particularly ruthless on the unfortunate Smith, smashing two balls clean out of the Sports Ground as Lymington closed in on victory. All that was left was for man-of-the-match Raphael to top edge Andrew for four to wrap up the game and complete a fine century in the process.

Lymington's next Bicentenary escapade will be the 1807-style cricket match on Pennington Common on Sunday, August 19th.