Bashley (Rydal) sit proudly at the top of the Peter Cooper Volkswagen Southern cricket League for the first time in their history.

Promoted to the top flight of regional club cricket as Hampshire League runners-up five years ago, they moved into pole position with a resounding 67-run win over Waterlooville.

The win brought Bashley a second consecutive maximum-point haul and left the New Forest club boasting one of only four unbeaten records three weeks into the new season.

Winchester KS lie second after a seven-wicket win at Alton), just ahead of South Wilts, who successfully chased a 252-run target to beat Liphook & Ripsley.

Title-holders Hungerford lost five wickets in five balls at the end of their innings and were beaten in a three-wicket thriller by Portsmouth, who have won all three games.

Western Australian teenager Luke Ronchi starred as Bashley (Rydal) climbed to the Southern League summit.

The talented young Perth cricketer profited on the sound start made by Steve Latimore (23) and Andy Sexton (24) to hit a classy 82, including two sixes and nine boundaries.

Selected as Australia Under-17 wicket-keeper last year, Ronchi punished anything lose with some severity.

His fifth-wicket stand with Neil Taylor (48) realised 75 and lifted Bashley from 119-4 to 228-7 - a total always beyond the remit of the Ville.

Steve George (38) and John Harris (39) provided Waterlooville with a steady start but, once both openers fell to the left-arm spin of Ian Hilsum (4-66), they fell apart.

Hilsum and Neil Taylor (4-38) sliced through the batting as Waterlooville tumbled to 161 all out and a 67-run defeat.

Queenslander Chris Torrisi fought a lone battle for Alton, hitting 97 before being run out in his club's seven-wicket defeat by second-placed Winchester KS at the Jubilee ground.

Alton's 176-7 was comfortably overhauled, with Jimmy Taylor (76 not out) and Paul Marks (31) guiding Winchester home with three overs to spare. Dave Parsons hit 31.

A century by Russell Rowe and a blistering 59 off 36 balls by Roger Sillence swept South Wilts to a four-wicket win at Liphook & Ripsley, who struck an imposing 252-6.

Richard Hindley (102) scored his maiden Southern League century for Liphook, whose total was boosted by New Zealander Chris Nevin (57) and Andy Brown (49).

Neil Prigent (4-41) made late inroads for South Wilts, whose victory chase was fired by a ten-boundary strike from Sillence.

Rowe took a similar liking to the Liphook attack, hitting a six and 15 fours in his 106. Tim Lamb (22) played a use-ful support role before Nick Kitson's timely 31 got South Wilts to a triumphant 253-6.

Andover produced a fine all-round performance to beat previously undefeated Havant by 53 runs - their first-ever Southern League victory over the 1997 champions. Andover thrived on consistent top order performances, with Paul Stewart (51), Ian Langdown (31), Jerry Hayward (28) and Tim Keighley (27) helping post 196 all out.

Left-arm spinner Steven Foulger (4-66), Luke Sears (3-31) and Richard Lewis (3-53) shared the wickets for Havant, who lost their way against the artful left-arm spin of Andy Hooper.

Only Hampshire's Jason Laney (54) made a significant impact before Hooper (5-31) took his season's tally to 16 wickets, removing the middle and lower order to reduce Havant to a disappointing 143 all out (Phil Loat 25).

Hungerford bounced back from losing five wickets off the last five deliveries to have Portsmouth on the ropes - only to see their unbeaten Peter Cooper Volkswagen Southern League start ruined in an amazing match at Drayton Park.

Hungerford coasted comfortably to 82-0 through Jim Ettridge (50) and Toby Radford (28) and to 180-5 off 49 overs with Steve Wyatt (41) and Julian Wood (26) at the helm.

But the innings ended in bizarre fashion, with two batsmen run out and three other wickets falling in Raj Maru's final over to leave Hungerford 181 all out and the ex-Hampshire spinner with figures of 6-41.

Portsmouth appeared to be cruising to victory on the strength of a 115-run start by South African Paul Dew (59) and Geoff Pike (40). Three-wicket spells by David Pryke (3-34) and Kelvan Finch (3-42) created a dressing room panic - Portsmouth losing seven wickets for 21 runs and nose-diving to 136-7.

Despite needing to score at ten runs an over at the finish, Portsmouth wrestled back the initiative, James Moon (29) clouting seven runs off the last over to seal Hungerford's fate. Chris and John Powell were the batting stars for Wellow & Plaitford, who raised eyebrows with a five-wicket win at Old Tauntonians & Romsey. Terry Azor (3-47), in particular, shone as Wellow bowled a fine containing line, only Shane Freemantle (47 not out), Peter Rodriguez (35) and Charlie Forward (30) able to penetrate.

OTs reached 195-6 but their prospects ebbed as Chris Powell (75) and brother John (52) secured a notable five-wicket scalp for last year's Hampshire League champions.

Calmore Sports, last year's runners-up, lie bottom after a second consecutive defeat - near neighbours BAT Sports celebrating a 51-run win at Loperwood Park. BAT appeared in some difficulty at 138-8 (Colin Pay 42) after a tidy left-arm spell by Mark Boston (4-36). But Nigel Hill, playing against his former Calmore team-mates, launched a quick-fire 39 to lift BAT's total to 187-9.

Calmore sank to 32-4 against Mark Turner (2-25) and Chris Thomason (2-27), rallied through fifth-wicket pair Martin Kellaway (53) and Tom Peglar (41) but finished 136 all out Richard Dibden collecting 4-40.

Bournemouth twice pulled themselves out of the mire to emerge six-run winners at Burridge. Mike Stonier (47) scored the bulk of Bournemouth's early runs, only to depart with the visitors resting uneasily at 63-4.

Fit-again Chris Elward (43) and Martin Miller (30) rebuilt the innings, but the promise of 161-5 receded as Paul Jenkins (5-42) almost wrecked the lower order. Jenkins, who clean-bowled all five victims, was unable to remove Cornishman James Hands, whose unbeaten 20 proved crucial as Bournemouth tottered to 187 all out.

Burridge appeared to be cruising through left-hand pair John Francis (58) and Ben Lillis (49) - only to be thrown off course by Wilson's timely nap hand as Burridge plunged from 124-2 to 164-7, eventually finishing six runs adrift at 181-8. Once they had Hambledon rocking at 19-5, Lymington's eventual six-wicket victory was never really in much doubt. Southampton University paceman Will Follett (3-22) and left-armer Dan Goldstraw extracted lift and movement from a shorn surface, making life extremely uncomfortable for the Hambledon batsmen.

John Burdekin (31) and Reg Norris (22) redressed the balance and, with the aid of 39 extras, saw Hambledon to a respectably 137 all out.

Hampshire's Zac Morris (29) hammered 18 runs off Gary Shotton's opening over and taking Lymington's reply to 33 off the first three overs. Damian Shirazi (35), David England (29) and Ben Craft (21 not out) took Lymington towards a maximum-point win.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.