PORTWOOD HELPS POMPEY HIT THE SAINTS FOR SIX

Recently the Pompey History Society came into the ownership of a cricket scorecard dating from 4 August 1968.

No interest, most would say but the match was between a Pompey XI and a Saints XI and played at the County Ground, Northlands Road, Southampton, the game being in aid of the Mike Barnard Testimonial Fund.

None of the committee could remember the game and our archive certainly had no record of the match so our Website Editor was tasked with uncovering the facts and was off to the Central Library to view the Evening News archive.  And with many thanks to the helpful staff in the Library we now know the full story.

PORTWOOD HELPS POMPEY HIT THE SAINTS FOR SIX

Was the headline in the Sports Section of the News on August 5, 1968 and rightly so as the all rounder top scored and took four wickets when Saints replied.

The Pompey side that day was; Ray Pointer, Nicky Jennings, Harry Harris, Cliff Portwood, Jimmy Dickinson, Ron Tindall, Tommy Youlden, Ray Hiron, Roy Pack, John Milkins and George Smith (presumably the player)

Pompey batted first in the 40 over match and despite losing Pointer in the first over, Jennings, Harris, Portwood and Dickinson took the score to 114 before the third wicket fell and sadly with a late order collapse they reached just 142 all out; Portwood being top scorer with 44.

In reply, Saints got off to a good start with neither Harris or former County Cricket star Ron Tindall able to gain any life from the pitch as the home side reached 47 without loss.  Then skipper Harry Harris pulled the master stroke by tossing the ball to the left arm seam of Portwood.  It paid immediate dividends with Cliff’s third ball bowling Roger Fry and three balls later Ken Jones was trapped leg before! Three runs later Dave Thompson became Portwood’s third victim and then Ray Hiron joined in the fun bowling Bobby McCarthy before Judd was bowled by Portwood leaving Saints 53 for 5.  The rest was almost a formality except for an excellent 49 from Assistant Manager John Mortimore and with Terry Paine put up some resistance.  Tommy Youlden finishing the innings with three quick wickets.  Portwood’s final figures were 9 overs 4 for just eleven with Youlden taking 3 for 9 as Pompey won by fourteen runs.

The game attracted a crowd of over 1.,000.