CRICKETA YEAR ago, Ventnor were about to celebrate promotion to Division 1 of the Southern Electric Premier League for the very first time.
Twelve months on, a season which started so promisingly, has ended in relegation and a swift return to Division 2.
In the final round of matches on Saturday, Ventnor produced a desperately disappointing performance to lose by 78 runs to Alton while at Chapel Gate, relegation rivals Lymington triumphed over champions Bournemouth to send the Islanders down.
The hard graft of Newclose groundsman Andy Butler ensured the match went ahead with Charlie Freeston’s side knowing a win would be enough to survive, regardless of Lymington’s efforts against the newly-crowned champions.
After incessant rain leading up to the match, Freeston had little hesitation in asking Alton to bat first on winning the toss and was rewarded when Sean Nowak and Rob Snell struck two early blows to reduce the visitors to 50-2.
From that point, however, Alton took complete charge as Ryan Hale (159) and Scott Myers (100) took full control to leave the home team with a mountain to climb.
A decent start in pursuit of such a daunting total was paramount, but the loss of Matt Compton, Adam Hose and Ian Hilsum inside the first ten overs with just 37 on the board left the middle and lower order with a thankless task.
With the chances of victory remote, it was important to secure enough bonus points to remain ahead of Lymington, a ploy solely dependent on Bournemouth successfully chasing the New Forest side’s total of 228.
Although never able to threaten Alton, Neil Westhorpe (81) and Roger Miller (49) took the score past 175 to bag four potentially decisive bonus points as news filtered through from Chapel Gate that Bournemouth required three runs from the final delivery to beat the bottom placed club and ensure Premier 1 survival for Ventnor.
In an ironic twist, however, Island-based Tommy Barton ran out the Dorset team’s last man to clinch a dramatic one-run win for Lymington and send Ventnor back to Division 2.
With their fate already sealed, Nowak’s rapid fire 55 not out was purely academic as the innings closed on 255-9.