REMEMBERING A VERY SPECIAL CRICKETER IN THE ISLE OF AXHOLME

Luddington and Garthorpe met to play for the Phil Hanson Memorial Bat on Sunday, September 8th in glorious late summer sunshine watched by Phil's widow Wendy and son Colin with his wife Audrey.  The two captains decided to play a twenty twenty match in which players were to retire at thirty and all twenty overs were to be used in both innings with Luddington batting first.Darren Clark and Jamie Arrowsmith opened and both made solid starts in the face of some steady bowling from Jollands and Wicks. They put together a stand of sixty before Darren had to retire on 31 which brought brother Graham to the crease and he proved to be in just as good form as he helped Arrowsmith take the score past eighty.  The latter retired on 32 and was replaced by Oliver Saxon and the score moved beyond three figures before Saxon became the first wicket to fall , bowled by Martin Fletcher for twenty, then Graham Clark became the third man to retire with 32 leaving Andy Lawson ( eleven not out ) and Arron Curry ( five not out ) to see Ludd through to 139 from their twenty overs.
Garthorpe skipper Matt Woolhouse and Johnny Gee opened , putting on 24 before Gee was caught by Darren Clark off Arron Curry for 15 then Ben Wicks was stumped by Gareth Parkin , again off Curry leaving them on 30 for 2. Martin Fletcher had also made one when he picked out Curry off the bowling of Oliver Saxon then Jamie Arrowsmith bowled Jollands without a run being added. Gary Woolhouse joined son Matt at the crease , taking the score to 57 before old stager Jimmy Roe bowled Gary out for two and with the overs slipping by Matt stayed on the field to take his personal tally to 39 before he was well caught by Darren Clark off his own bowling. Ludd groundsman Dill Pullan , who had played most of his games with Phil Hanson throughtout his career  batted the rest of the overs for twenty not out with opener Gee returning for a further seven before the innings closed on 93 for 7 , some 47 runs shy of the Luddington target.
Glen Sands introduced Phil's family with tales of days gone by when Phil had graced the Luddington team with his own special philosophy on how the game should be enjoyed before the memorial bat was presented to Gareth Parkin and everyone retired to the River Don for a sausage beans and chips lunch and a continued recollection of days spent with gentleman Phil. All in all it was a very satisfying game played in great spirit and for the right reasons which was to remember a very special man.