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Easton and Martyr Worthy Cricket Club - Formed 1946
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Easton and Martyr Worthy CC Review 2002
According to retiring captain Steve Green, Easton & Martyr Worthy's main priority in 2002 was to avoid relegation. They achieved that task comfortably enough, to the extent of giving the Hampshire Academy team a real run for its money before finishing a commendable runner-up.An early exit from the National Village Championship, in which EMW had been quarter-finalists the previous year, was to prove a telling factor as the club was able to focus fully on the SPL and make a flying start with four successive wins against Trojans, Hungerford, Old Tauntonians & Romsey and United Services. A 46-run defeat against the Academy brought Easton back to earth, but back-to-back wins over Winchester KS (by a massive 124 runs) and Rowledge put the ship back on course.
Lymington ended the resistance, but, always competitive, EMW wouldn't lie down and went on to complete doubles over Hungerford, OTR and United Services. The Green brothers, Steve and Shaun, were frequently prominent with bat and ball, while Andy and Dave Birch, along with 20-wicket Mark Stone kept the pot boiling. The SPL2 championship was probably at stake the day EMW faced the Academy in the return fixture - a hugely competitive affair in the drizzle, laced with virtually everything, including a pulsating finish, the Young Hawks stealing a one-wicket win off the penultimate ball.
Undeterred, EMW repeated their early season wins over WKS and Rowledge, where Steve Green hit 98*
and Stone returned 4-16. Lymington completed their own double on the final day of the season,
where Andy Birch's 86* wasn't quite enough, but a comfortable second place was appreciably
better than the relegation scrap Green might initially have feared.