UNLIKE today’s relegated Premiership duo, it is safe to say Hampshire will not be carrying their Clydesdale Bank 40 hopes into the final round of games.

Benny Howell’s first Hampshire century could not prevent a fifth successive CB40 defeat that effectively ends any realistic hope of semi-final qualification, with seven games still left to play.

The Royals can now at least use the competiton to blood more youngsters, while concentrating on the defence of their Friends Provident t20 title and staying in the LV County Championship’s first division, following yesterday’s 36-run defeat against the Surrey Lions.

But Howell’s performance was a huge fillip in what has been a difficult start to the season for Hampshire.

Playing only his sixth one-day match, the 22-year-old came of age at Whitgift School with 122 runs from 113 balls. It was an innings of maturity and no little skill.

With the weight of scoreboard pressure on his young shoulders after Surrey had posted their highest one-day score at Whitgift, Howell refused to buckle.

He displayed a maturity that has been missing from more senior Hampshire players this season, producing the innings that could have been the rock around which a successful chase was built.

Unfortunately, he did not get the support he required.

It was always going to be difficult for Hampshire after conceding the second highest 40-over total in their history.

Surrey’s 311 for seven was the highest total against Hampshire in this form since the same county amassed 344 for five at Guildford, another of their outgrounds, in 1997.

But Howell refused to be overawed. Pacing his innings intelligently, he hit three of his five sixes in the last ten overs and reached his second fifty from only 35 balls, reaching three figures from just 102 deliveries.

Admittedly, Surrey’s attack was missing Chris Tremlett, Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker - to England, England Lions and injury respectively – and Yasir Arafat too when he pulled a hamstring in his third over.

But that should not detract from Howell’s performance.

He was dropped once, by Jason Roy on 55, but saw several players with more experience come and go.

Johann Myburgh went to a stunning Roy catch in the covers early on and James Vince top edged a sweep after a flurry of boundaries.

Neil McKenzie was laying the foundations for an assault when he cut straight to point and Liam Dawson was stumped attempting a second successive six.

With ten overs to go, the stage looked set for a Dimi Mascarenhas assault. But he struggled for timing before being brilliantly caught by Chris Schofield.

When Dominic Cork was bowled with five overs remaining and 69 still needed, Hampshire’s chances finally evaporated.

Surrey had responded to being asked to bat with their highest core at Whitgift in any form of one-day cricket.

The Royals were back in the game when Rory Hamilton-Brown (56) and Roy (30) were out in quick succession after putting on 62 in eight overs.

But that only welcomed Zander de Bruyn and Tom Maynard to the crease.

Surrey’s fourth-wicket pair wreaked even more carnage, putting on 118 from 94 balls to leave Hampshire up against it.

Maynard hit 79 from just 57 balls, bringing up his fifty with his third and final six in the first over of a Danny Briggs spell.

Chris Wood, only playing because Sean Ervine turned his ankle in the warm up, was the pick of the Hampshire bowlers and ran out De Bruyn with a precision throw from the cover boundary as the former Somerset man returned for a second.

De Bruyn, best known by Hampshire fans as the man who bowled the final over of last year’s epic Friends Provident t20 final, had been on the receiving end of the first of two Simon Jones beamers that forced the Royals’ strike bowler out of the attack.

Old Whitgiftian Spriegel was reminded he was playing with the big boys when he received the second, which he did well to evade.

Perhaps still shaken by the experience, he was bowled by Wood in the following over. Maynard was finally out in the next, lbw to Cork as he tried to paddle away another boundary.

But Schofield (31) and Arafat (30*) added 62 from six overs to ensure that Hampshire would be chasing 300-plus for only the second time in 40-over competition.