Last throw of the dice for St Cross Symondians

They travel into the New Forest effectively 28 points adrift of table topping South Wilts and second placed Bashley - a significant deficit to overhaul with only three matches left to play.

"We won't give it up until it's mathematically impossible, but it's a big ask," concedes Ed Ellis, who looks back on the abandoned match at South Wilts on July 20 as a contributory factor towards St Cross not being in a stronger position.

"We got 323 that day and South Wilts 48-5. Another half-hour and we would have won, but it never stopped raining. Just think how the table would look now had we won?"

St Cross, whose final two matches after the Bashley visit are against Bournemouth and Burridge, probably knocked Hampshire Academy out of title contention with a 28-run win at the Green Jackets ground.

They began positively with Gregor McKenzie (41) dominating a 73-run opening stand with Wilf La Fontaine Jackson (63) but a four-pronged spin attack allowed the initiative to slip away.

Zac Basey (4-46)and Finn Gordon (3-11) created inroads leaving Rory Acheson-Gray (39) and Gaz Schreuder (25) to repair the damage.  The former was last man out at 216, the final four wickets falling for 13 runs.

Andover's Sam Ashman (38) and Andrew MacEwen (32) led a positive Academy response, but the county youth team was young, inexperienced and unlikely to offer a serious threat.

McKenzie (4-36) cut through the tail to leave the Academy 188 all out.