With the blameless skies above painting a picture perfect day for cricket, the howling wind and Baltic temperatures meant Alton’s decision to bat first saw Farnham’s fielders don multiple jumpers for their first actions of the year.

The Hampshire Premiership side got off to a flyer as Farnham’s opening pair of Beattie and Hooker struggled for control in the early stages. Berry shuffled his deck and introduced himself and O’Mahoney to try and wrestle back control. The play paid off however and veteran O’Mahoney managed to bounce out Rajnikanth before trapping Wright LBW with his very next ball to leave Alton 79-2.

The hat-trick ball was safely negotiated by ex-FCC youth player Sam Ruffel, Alton’s captain for the day, however it wasn’t long before O’Mahoney was back at it as he cleaned up the returning Ruffel for 4 and then performed the same trick to bowl opener Harris one short of his half century.

Berry then turned to his spin options and Thorpe had an immediate impact as he took a stunning one handed return catch to remove Michael Heffernan for 6. With Alton now significantly pegged back at 106-5 Farnham sensed an opportunity to run through the visitors, however Mark Heffernan and Rolfs thwarted this with a 50 partnership. Thorpe then accounted for the second of the Heffernan brothers as he again took a smart return catch to leave Alton 164-6.

However this was one of the last sparks for Farnham as the long batting line up of Alton came to bear as the remaining batters all came out playing their shots. 16 year old Peter Brown however showed pace and power beyond his years and bowled very well, deserving his wicket of Rolfs for 46. Tom Wheeler extracted Sumner from the other end and O’Mahoney cleaned up the tail to end with 6-60. However the short boundary near the castle meant that Alton were always going at a good rate and ended on 278 all out.

The Farnham batters were looking to spend some time at the crease and test themselves against the away sides strong bowling attack, and look to chip away at the chase. Thorpe and O’Mahoney started well, both finding the boundary before one stuck in the pitch from Gadsby and Thorpe was caught with the score on 21.

Berry joined O’Mahoney and again the pair looked assured, with the elder statesman playing some gorgeous pull shots and classy cuts before Berry was caught well in the gully off Myers to leave Farnham 66-2. From this point Farnham lost wickets regularly, with O’Mahoney following up his 6fer to top score with 44, well assisted by Tom Grimes who swept the Alton spinners with aplomb before he was caught at slip off Tank for 38.

The remaining Farnham wickets fell with little resistance and the home side ended up 148 all out. Lessons learnt on the first outing on grass for many in the team and the side look forward to putting those into practice when they host Cove this weekend in another pre-season friendly.