Hursley Park and Andover are struggling in the NatWest League basement zone at the halfway stage of the season at the Rose Bowl.

They have each won only one match so far, although Hursley Park have played two less games than all their rivals. South Wilts are off the bottom after beating Andover and tieing a 133-run thriller against South-East Hants. They had been rooted to the bottom of the table after suffering four successive early season defeats.

But their batsmen at last found their touch after Nick Ball (32) and Tom Cannell (27), plus a spate of wides bowled by Gareth Street, had taken South-East Hants to 133 for 4. Given a sound start by Tom Pearce (25) and James Bennett (25), their opponents eventually levelled at 133 for 2 off the last ball.

Boosted by their partial success, Bennett (30), Pearce (25) and Richard Pitman (27) took South Wilts to an impressive 158 for 2 against Andover. Only Luke Andrews (47) and Jonty Hadfield (21) put up much of a fight as Andover sank to 111 for 5 - Pitman taking 3 for 14.

It proved a bad day at the office for Andover, who were skittled for 41 (Sam Hillman 2-6) and beaten by 42 runs by South-East Hants, who posted only 83 themselves (Connor Regan 18).

The next Rose Bowl matches are on Sunday January 9th, 2005.