Whilst not quite up to the standards of the opening salvo of the Ashes between England and Australia, property professionals from across Southampton and Portsmouth got stuck into their own version of the game in parallel.
The annual clash involved Southampton Property Association (SPA) and Portsmouth Property Association (PPA).
Between them, the associations represent hundreds of businessmen and women involved in residential and commercial property across the Solent region.
In a tight finish, SPA wrested the engraved silver trophy back from PPA by just 9 runs in the match at Fareham & Crofton Cricket Club, Fareham.
SPA closed on 153-3 in their allotted 20 overs against PPA’s144-8.
Game organiser Mike Marchant, who captained PPA and works for Clive Emson Auctioneers, said: “As always, there was good-natured rivalry between the two sides. We can console ourselves with the fact that we played with one man short.”
David McGougan, who led SPA and works for JLL in Southampton, said: “To the victor, the spoils. As part of the celebrations, our guys tucked into barbecued burgers afterwards, although we noticed that the PPA team emptied the tomato ketchup before we could get stuck in.”
Companies and organisations represented included Clive Emson Auctioneers, Hughes Ellard, Deep South Media, Gleeds, Air Studios, Independent Financial Solutions, Hants Wight Searches, JLL, Ridge, Realest, Churchill Retirement Homes, Vail Williams, International SOS, Coffin Mew and Moore Blatch.
