Fareham & Crofton II. (198 all out) beat Ampfield (152 all out) by 38 runs - rain-reduced target FAREHAM & Crofton caused a major upset last Saturday by overturning high-riding Ampfield on a blustery day at Bath Lane.

Richard Light, standing in for Ampfield skipper Frank Dixie at the toss, managed to keep up the latter's losing record and Fareham decided to bat first.

Good, tight bowling was the order of the day as the pitch looked low and slow. Opening bowlers Sahib and Light produced the goods, with just 17 runs from the first ten overs - and two wickets into the bargain.

A mini-revival followed, but Light struck again to leave Fareham 50 for 3 with 18 overs gone.

Again Fareham tried to fight back, but Barnes removed the steady Atkinson and St John dismissed the hard-hitting Daly for 41 with the total on 88 for 5.

That brought together Fudge and Emery, who slowly but surely worked out the Ampfield bowling, and added 48 before Emery fell to St John for 35.

Ampfield could not quite get it together, and allowed Fareham to score 41 from the last six overs - but did manage to bowl Fareham out to secure maximum bowling points with 2 balls of their 42 overs remaining.

Ampfield had a steady start, but a rain interruption seemed to put a dampener on their progress.

Ampfield lost their first wicket in the next over when John Course was adjudged lbw to Emery for 13.

Bollard was bowled by a 'shooter' for 14 and was quickly followed by Sahib, who had a delivery 'pop' on him; all he could do was lob a catch back to bowler Emery for 47.

When Bayles went in the very next over Ampfield were in trouble, having declined from 72 for 1 to 97 for 6.

Winter and Langridge tried to up the scoring rate, but Winter was bowled by Pennicott for 19. He was soon followed by St John and a sick Cotton.

A final wicket partnership between Langridge and Barnes brought up the 150 for the extra batting point, but Langridge was bowled soon after for 30 and Ampfield were all out for 152, 38 runs short of their revised target.