Sarisbury go into this weekend’s final match of the season knowing a win could seal promotion to the Southern Electric Premier Cricket League Two.
Three teams are vying for the two promotion slots so while Sarisbury play at Totton and Eling thoughts will no doubt be drifting to what is happening for promotion rivals Tichborne Park as well as Old Tauntonians and Romsey.
After two recent defeats that could have made Sarisbury a safe bet for promotion if they had won, they got back on track last weekend by defeating Trojans.
Sarisbury skipper, Pete Hammond opted to bat first to give his side a better chance of making maximum points, but made a bad start with both in-form batsmen, Hammond and Norris, out with the total on just 27.
But this was the day for for Banks and Journeaux who had both been short of runs, to come to the party and they both batted superbly, putting on 136 together.
After Matt Journeaux was out for 53, he was replaced by Mark Miller who knocked a fine 35 in a 66 run partnership.
All the while, Dave Banks sailed on serenely scoring a magnificent 128 not out from a total of 261 for 6.
This already looked a winning score and after 14 overs Trojans had scored just 23 runs for the loss of three wickets.
There was a brief flurry of runs as Jack Lovett attacked spinner Paul Friedrich only to attack once too often and get caught in the deep.
Early on wicketkeeper Simon Orr suffered a dislocated finger and had to pass the gloves to batting hero Banks. But he was also needed as a bowler at the end of the innings so passed on the gloves to Archie Norris.
Banks then made himself a certain man of the match by knocking over the last four Trojans wickets for just eight runs.
Trojans were bowled out for just 107 and Sarisbury had taken the maximum 22 points.
But with both Tichborne Park and OTs and Romsey also scoring 22 points Sarisbury find themselves in third place in the league as the final match approaches.
