Glynde suffer frustrating weekend – Hailsham stay top – Crowhurst Park go long way for nothing

Glynde & Beddingham CC lost a low-scoring game away to Rye last Saturday after being asked to bat on a wicket that had been dampened by a few heavy showers in the morning.

The decision to put them in proved a correct one, as Glynde were bowled out for 110 in the Division 3 East clash.

Opener Matt Blunt carried his bat for 47 not out and Charlie Hobden with 17 were the only ones able to reach double figures as Chanuka Dilshan took 4-9 for Rye.

Rye found batting just as difficult as they stumbled to 53-5 and then 85-6, but were able to get home by four wickets thanks to good contributions from Tobias Farrow (40 not out) and Harry Smead with 37.

Hobden (3-44) and Will Burton Durham (2-42) picked up wickets for Glynde.

Glynde's second string lost an excellent game of cricket to Buxted Park II.

Buxted, batting first, were bowled out for 242, with Harry Buttifant (72), Mark Buttifant (68) and Towifue Ahmed (four), all batting well for the away side.

Darren Howard’s 4-50 was the pick of the Glynde bowling attack.

Glynde struggled to 114-5, before Charlie Silvester batted superbly, He made 98 with 11 fours and seven sixes, while Leigh Reed smashed a quick 43 to give Glynde a chance of victory.

But Buttifant completed a great afternoon’s work as he took 3-20, and Ollie Reed backed him up with 3-40, to help bowl Gynde out for 204.

Glynde III were also beaten, losing to Chiddingly II.

Wyatt Watson struck 71 not out and Clive Brickell 31 as Glynde reached 142-7 but this total was easily passed by Chiddingly II, who reached 143-2.

Alasdair Skan with 76 not out led the run chase with Watson impressing with the ball as well, as he took 2-15.

On Sunday Glynde started their match with Redbourn in the last 32 of the National Village Cup, but the game lasted for just 7.2 overs before weather got in the way.

Redbourn scored 66-1 with William Hales (39) being the only batsmen dismissed as Louis Baron (1-5) took the wicket before rain finished play for the afternoon.

Glynde now have to travel to Redbourn this Sunday for the rearranged game.

In Division 2, Buxted Park enjoyed a fine seven-wicket win at home to Burgess Hill.

There were two wickets apiece for Arslan Khan, Nicholas Cockcroft and Dom Heater as Hill were bowled out for 193. Khan (90no) and Cockroft (46no) saw Park home in less than 33 overs.

Barcombe v Heathfield Park

Div 5 EastBarcombe 300-5 in 40 overs; Harry Stewart 111no Allan Trower 89no Joe Wheatley 68; Heathfield Park 271-8 in 40 overs; Allan Trower 3-28. Barcombe won by 29 runs

Lewes Priory 3rd v Barcombe 2nd

Div 12 East (South)Barcombe 137 all out in 28.2 overs; Ade Broadway 64no; Lewes Priory 139-4 in 35 overs. Lewes won by 6 wkts.

Hailsham v Little Common Ramblers

Division 4 East

Hailsham achieved their goal of maintaining top spot in the league with 30 points at the Recreation Ground. Skipper Andrew Anthony lost the toss, and Hailsham were put into the field on a belter of a batting track.

Usual suspects Anthony and Bellett opened the bowling, but struggled to pin the Little Common openers down, with Crathern and Meredith getting off to a flyer, with the score 99/0 in the first 14 overs. It was the introduction of Ollie McDonald who made the breakthrough, trapping Meredith LBW for a well-made 61.

This triggered a fantastic period of the game for Hailsham, as multiple wickets fell quickly, and Little Common fell to 129-7. A couple of excellent partnerships with some big hitting propelled the away side to 232-9 from their 45 overs, with Hailsham confident that this was under par, despite the excellent finish from the Ramblers.

Debutant Jason Tibble joined Ollie McDonald for a new look opening partnership, though you would never know. McDonald got off to a flyer, and Tibble followed suit shortly after, dispatching the ball to all parts. With the run rate hovering around 10 runs an over, Hailsham looked to assert their dominance, and showed no signs of letting up, with both openers reaching 50 in quick succession.

However, Ollie fell shortly after, and this sparked a mini collapse from Hailsham, who slipped from 120-0, to 200-7. Tibble finished on a magnificent 70 on debut, but eventually holed out to mid-on. Nerves were hovering in the Hailsham camp, but a fantastic innings from Matt Dawber, and ably supported by Bellett, saw Hailsham home to a 3-wicket win, with 10 overs to spare.

The Choice Medics Man of the Match goes to the debutant Jason Tibble, for an excellent 70 that shot Hailsham into a dominant position.

Crowhurst Park (177) v Chichester Priory (276-7)

Sussex League Division 2

In what must be the furthest away fixture in the Sussex League, Crowhurst Park the visitors were un able to repeat their form of the previous weekend.

Batting first, Chichester made a steady start with Tim Wergan (56) skipper George Briance (81*) holding the innings together as Park toiled in the hot and humid conditions.

Once again it was the spin partnership of Nick Peters (3-77) and Ollie Constable (3-60) that showed good form with the ball.

However, Chichester was able to declare on 276-7 after 53 overs.

In reply Crowhurst Park could not muster a serious challenge to the target of 277.

Despite hard work by Jordan Shaw (40) and Tom Powell (42) and added resistance from Matt Constable (32), Crowhurst Park could not keep the home side at bay.

Park’s innings faded away 99 runs short as Chichester bowlers George Briance (4-43) and Elliot Scott (4-39) took the home side to a deserved victory.

Crowhurst Park MoM: Ollie Constable

Crowhurst Park 3rd (158-1) Hastings Priory 3rd (157)

This was a remarkable match. Batting first, Hastings Priory totalled 157 with skipper Sujith Perera scoring an unbeaten 130*.

No other Priory batsmen scored more than seven runs.

For the visitors Sam Byrnes (4-12) and Sachin Gopinath (3.32) did most of the damage.

In reply Park cruised to victory, loosing just one wicket. Rak Patel (72*) and Sachin Gopinath (56*0 led the way.

Crowhurst Park 2nd (223-9) Tunbridge Wells (276-5)

There was a promising start by Park, reducing in-form Tunbridge Wells to 53-4, Vikas Kumar taking all four wickets.

Thereafter a partnership of 213 by Toby Rajh (78) and Russ Collard (116*) secured a Tunbridge total of 276-5.

In reply Crowhurst Park were always behind schedule as the visitors managed some astute field placing.

Park closed their innings 223-9 with James Bunday completing a useful 50 off the last ball of the match.

Crowhurst Park 4th (120) Bexhill Strikers (320-9)

This match did little for the good of cricket, but much for the fortitude of the visitors, in doing enough to take away 10 points

Bexhill 2nd XI: 212-9 Battle 217-8

Division 6 East

Battle’s first string continued their remarkable unbeaten run with a win at the expanses of Bexhill’s Polegrove on Saturday.

Batting first, Bexhill’s Harry Strugnell (30) played his usual anchor role as the visitors made early inroads in the home side’s batting.

A useful partnership between Strugnell and Simon Barden (44) recovered the situation, though, until Jo Carthew (3 for 47) held on to a sharp return catch to dismiss the opener.

For the next ten overs, wickets fell reasonably regularly, with Josh Bourn taking two on his first team debut.

At 119 for 7, Bexhill looked a little in disarray.

However, some judicious hitting and good running from the tail gave them real hope and a closing score of 212 for 9, with the unbeaten 10th wicket partnership between Owen Cullip (30*) and Adam Smith (16*) the most notable feature of this recovery.

Battle started briskly in reply.

Guy Ballard (33) stroked some impressive drives over the top before essaying an unwise cut off middle stump.

This, however, only brought to the crease Ben Newman who was in imperious form after scoring a club record 202 the previous Saturday.

With Battle skipper Carthew content to play a more measured innings at the other end, Newman began to set about the bowling with expansive drives and, at times, a degree of abandon.

To Newman, reaching or clearing the distant boundary ropes at the Polegrove merely seemed to be a challenge of his power and strokeplay but, if Bexhill had held on to any of the three chances he offered off the bowling of the luckless Taylor Wickenden, he would have been trudging back to the pavilion much earlier.

A century stand between he and Carthew ended when the latter was trapped LBW by Dominic Carey who came on late but was looking to be the pick of the Bexhill bowlers.

When the score reached 184 for 2, Newman eventually fell to Carey for a fine 82.

This then triggered one of those slightly panicky cricketing collapses when the last 30 runs required seemed harder to get than the previous 180.

Carey (6 for 34) instigated much of this, but Lawrence Brand and Sanjay Sharma were able to nudge Battle over the line in the end.

Hailsham 2nd XI travelled to Bells Yew Green for week 7 of the SCL season, after winning the toss Lewis decided to bowl and gave the team his instructions before we entered the field of play. Unfortunately, the tone was set with the first ball of the game as it was dispatched for four and this tone continued for the next two and a half hours. Toby Tapp (101) and Tom Membrey (166) tucked in to some loose Hailsham bowling and short boundaries to reach superb yet contrasting 100’s.

Hailsham bowled three or four good balls an over but always gave opportunities for boundaries to be scored each over. The pick of the bowlers was the returning Sam Mills who bowled with control, intelligence, and skill to finish with 1/37 from 7. The other wickets were shared between Tutt 1/59, Abraham 1/63 and Williams 2/73 as BYG finished their innings on a mammoth 392/6.

Hailsham had a clear plan in the chase, be positive, look to score and make sure we get maximum batting points. After 8 overs the chase was on as Hailsham had worked their way to 74/1.

Fingerneissl (10) got a peach to be dismissed before Wilkinson (72) and Kevern (32) created a decent partnership. Shaun was given out LBW which lead to a flurry of middle order wickets as Hallett (4) Hobden (1) came and went quickly. Chatfield (27) and Abraham (38) made sure Hailsham secured maximum batting points with some lusty blows over the trees.

When Wilkinson fell for 72 the final four batters put up little resistance and the game was finished with Hailsham all out for 240.

A disappointing day for the XI who need to have a look at what they are doing and how they are performing on Saturday’s and find ways to turn around a poor patch of form. The EF education man of the match went to Sam Mills for a beautiful spell of bowling on his return from university.

After last weeks nail biter, the Hailsham 3s were looking to continue their winning ways at home to Lewes St. Michaels.

It started on the right wrong foot, with Callum losing the toss (again) and being asked to bat, which he wanted to do anyway.

Hailsham started well after an impeccably observed minutes silence in memory of Harry Gent, with Gareth and Will hitting it to all parts of the ground. G was the main aggressor, comfortably reaching 50 before the first drinks break. Unfortunately drinks brought a wicket, with G looking to dispatch the Lewes captain on a full ball that ended with him being trapped in front of all 3 stumps. G walked off to applause and the highest score of the day, reaching 65 off not many.

Will (57) and Ethan (31) continued to go about their business, looking to put the team in a good position for a final few overs flurry, however when the team were ready to start teeing off, some tight bowling from the Lewes openers restricted them, resulting in 3 wickets for 4 runs in the space of 18 balls.

Dave BT managed to lift the Sham to a respectable 229-4 at the close of play with some intelligent, well struck 4’s, meaning Dave got to 41* off 20 something balls.

At the halfway stage Hailsham felt that they were in a good position and knew Lewes would have to have good intent from the start to keep up with the run rate.

Unfortunately, Lewes did exactly this, some poor fielding, field setting (besides Ethan again, fielding sessions anyone?) and unorthodox hitting meant Hailsham struggled to contain Lewes even though the majority of the team bowled well, with Lewes knocking off the runs 4 down in the 37th over.

Hailsham will look to bounce back next week with more authoritative batting and fielding, when they make the short trip to Alfriston.

The 3’s Sell Your Car Sussex player of the match goes to good bloke Gareth Morgans for his excellent 65 at the top of the order.

Hailsham CC 4th XI vs Linden Park CC

This weekend saw the 4th XI travel to Groombridge to face Linden Park. Captain Kaleigh lost the toss and Hailsham were put into bat.

Opening up for Hailsham were usual suspects, Liam Fenwick (72) and Tim Mullins (38). It was looking to be an easy day as Liam and Tim extended the opening stand by 9 runs an over, every over until both were cut off by the Linden Park attack. In at 3 was Ralph Figgins (51*) and Ethan Hele (87*).

Ralph was very sensible and waiting patiently and picking off the bad ball whilst Ethan was slamming even their good balls to the rope for 4. Bringing home 87 runs was an unbelievable achievement from Ethan and he even threw in a reverse sweep off middle stump for the travelling fans.

After lunch, the 4s were thrown the ball and opening for Hailsham was Vishwas Sarvesha (0/32 off 4) and an outstanding spell from Bobby Williams (0/29 off 6 including 14 WIDES). Safe to say, these 2 did not come back on when taken off. Spells from Sam Andrews (1/31 off 7), Hari Bala (2/46 off 5), Joe Andrews (0/24 off 5) and Kaleigh Pavitt (1/6 off 1.3) were drawing Hailsham closer to the finish but not as fast as Tom Mills (5/36 off 8). Tom bowled superb line and length with some good turn here and there to grab himself 5 for the day.

Hailsham won by 50 runs.

The Leepy player of the match goes to Ethan Hele for a well-made unbeaten 87 and making it so entertaining for everyone along the way.