TOM Morton hit a century before lunch as triple ECB Southern Electric Premier League champions South Wilts completed a maximum points win over Hampshire Academy at Lower Bemerton.

He scored 122 – surprisingly his first century of a sun-drenched summer – as South Wilts built a towering 288-5 before bowling the Academy scholars out for 217.

Morton’s century, which contained 20 boundaries, provided excellent fayre for the club’s Vice President’s Day diners, who raised their wine glasses in unison to an excellent 100.

“I’ve scored a few runs this year, quite a number of 50s, so it was nice to kick on and get a big one,” he said.

Morton and Jack Mynott (48) powered South Wilts to 176-2 before the VP’s had even tucked into their roast beef salad.

With an hour’s batting still to come after lunch, Morton looked distinctly annoyed with himself when leg spinner Mason Crane – whose figures of 3-99 distorted a decent performance – bowled him round his legs with a huge individual score in his sights.

“I can’t complain too much. One of the benefits of opening the batting is to get yourself into a position where you can make a really big score, but I’ll settle for 122,” he smiled.

The Academy enjoyed a good hour after Morton had departed, but it was the calm before the storm as James Hayward plundered a run-a-ball 37 and then Ryan Duffield smacked two huge sixes and four boundaries in a blistering 41 which put South Wilts out of sight at 288-5.

The Academy needed a significant response from their top three – but it didn’t materialise.

Tom Alsop, Ben Duggan and then Joe Weatherley (24) were all bowled by decent deliveries and, when a double strike from the improving Luke Evans (2-42) plunged the score to 88-5, the game was well and truly up.

To their credit, the Academy didn’t keel over – Brad Taylor (59) was still there at the end and, after Josh McCoy had hit an entertaining 34 (26 in boundaries), Crane clean hit a crisp 47.

“The wickets were flat and the outfield fast, so at some point they would have a decent partnership. But We accepted the game was more or less won and maybe could have been a bit more ruthless,” Morton reflected.

The Academy resistance was eventually broken at 193-8 – James Hibberd (3-15) and Duffield (2-41) coming back to finish off the tail.

South Wilts take a 20-point lead over Havant into Saturday’s visit to Lymington (11.30am).