Video: Hastings keen to push on after big win

Priory crushed Sussex Premier League basement dwellers Billingshurst by 169 runs at Horntye Park for their second league win of the season.

“All-round it was a really good performance,” said Priory coach Ian Gillespie, whose son Tom compiled his maiden Premier League century. “We played real top quality cricket and ticked all the boxes with everything we’ve been asked to do.

“We desperately needed the victory and it was good to get that, but the manner of the victory was really pleasing for us. The things that we’ve been working on that we haven’t quite done in the last two or three weeks came together nicely.”

The result moved Priory up to seventh and they are now 15 points above the two relegation places having played a game fewer than second-bottom Worthing.

“We started with a great win and all but a victory at Roffey, and thought we were going great guns,” continued Gillespie. “Then two reversals at Cuckfield and Horsham suddenly put us into the bottom two so we’re very aware that we’ve got to keep taking points from every game, and we’ve got to keep trying to win every game in the hope that we can win the games we need to, to stay up.

“Certainly if we play like we did on Saturday, I think that should be a very much achievable option. But if we lapse into the form we showed at Cuckfield with the bat and arguably the second half of the innings at Horsham with the ball, we’re going to suffer some more reversals.

“What we’ve shown is that we can play good quality cricket. If we play in that manner in all our games, we will be difficult to beat, we will have opportunities to win games and we will probably win some games.”

Priory will target their first away league victory of the campaign when they travel to fifth-placed East Grinstead tomorrow (Saturday).

“It will be a tough game, but if we take forward what we did on Saturday, we will be competitive and that’s what we want,” added Gillespie, who expects to field a similar side to last weekend against last year’s runners-up.

Priory have been drawn away to reigning league champions Roffey in the Gray-Nicolls Sussex T20 Cup quarter-finals. The match is due to be played on Sunday July 3.

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