WINLESS Trojans are cast adrift at the Division 3 basement after suffering a seventh successive defeat – fellow strugglers Portsmouth & Southsea beating them by four wickets at the St James Park.

Hampshire under-16 seamer Oli Perrin did the damage, taking 5-42, as Trojans were dismissed for 164 – a target in-form P & S chased down after suffering a few toporder mishaps.

Trojans were 44-3 when James Truscott (40) and Dave Babidge (42) added 73 for the fourth wicket. Once the partnership had been broken, Trojans fell away – the last six wickets falling for only 15 runs, Perrin greedily garnering four of them.

P & S, chasing a third successive win, looked comfortable at 50-1, but Jordan Wright (2-34) caused a wobble when three wickets fell for eight runs to leave the hosts 58-4.

Mark Oakden (3-31) caused a few more flutters, but an unbeaten halfcentury from Tom Benfield (57) and Rob Evans’ 19 not out eased P & S past a slightly reduced target of 158 off 48 overs, with a bit of time to spare.

Teenager Alex Bass hit an unbeaten 61 as Fair Oak posted 202-7 before taking two Basingstoke & North Hants wickets in eight deliveries at Lapstone Park.

But Basingstoke, asked to make 167 off 35-overs, had their blushes spared when the rain came. Asad Abbas blasted 32 of Oaks’ first 42 runs before Tom Hockenhull (40) saw his side through an uncertain spell when three wickets fell for five runs, two of them to teenager Dan King (2-20).

But Bass and Greig Stewart (31 not out) pushed on as Fair Oak finished 202-7 (Keith Harris 4-30).

Basingstoke were rocked by the lost of two wickets in just eight deliveries by Andy Mash and James Gradwell, but then the rains came. 

The remainder of the SPL3 programme was washed out, with the matches at South Wilts, St Cross Symondians II and Tichborne Park postponed without a ball being bowled.