STILL NOWHERE FOR FIVE-TITLES FINDON

The best SIL team there has ever been is split inside on the idea of stepping up into county league cricket, the club management would be interested in taking the club there on certain terms, but the Sussex League neither have a vacancy nor the terms of entry to accommodate them.

Findon chairman Iain Swallwell said on Saturday night: "If the Sussex League second division was East and West instead of across the county, Findon would be very interested in moving up. I think the Sussex League know our views and how we feel.

"We want to play at the highest level we can but we don't want to lose the social thing. At the end of the day cricket is a recreation.

"The other thing is we'd want to keep is the links between our first team and our juniors. If we had a team of imported players in order to play Sussex League cricket they wouldn't know who the juniors were.

"We've got first-team players who coach the juniors '” that's important."

Sussex League chairman Terry Burstow explained the Sussex League position: "The Association of Sussex Cricket Clubs proposed an east-west second division but the Sussex League clubs did not want that. Applying that idea even to the 2nd XIs was rejected by the clubs on an 18-2 vote.

"I can see a lot in the idea but the Sussex League clubs are happy as things are.

"Say Littlehampton missed promotion this season. Instead of playing the likes of Hastings and Horsham next season they'd be playing in a division half-full of village clubs, so you can understand why.

"Any club can apply to join but the Sussex League are not going to change their rules to suit other people. If, say, three SL teams disbanded and we couldn't get replacements, then obviously things would have to be looked at but we're some way off from that."

Findon would, of course, sacrifice their place in the npower National Village Cup by quitting the SIL. In the three years since re-entering the competition, they have reached the Sussex Final, then twice running the National semi-final.

Burstow has admired and personally followed Findon on their travels, and commented: "I'm not anti-Findon. They're very nice people and I'd hate to see them lose what they've got on the social side through trying to improve their cricket. They're playing the game the way it should be played and it's got them twice to the brink of playing at Lord's."

So, after Findon wrapped up on Saturday a Sussex Invitation League-record five successive first division titles, and a seventh in the last nine years, it will be as you were next season.

Burgess Hill, the last team other than The Horses to win the SIL, now fighting against relegation, were prodded further into the mire on Saturday when Toby Kingsbury and Graham Waller made a 101 and 102 in an unbroken second wicket partnership of 195.

After Waller's ton Findon declared at 230 for one and dismissed Hillians for 184 with leg-spinner Mark Stewart taking another four wickets.

Yet, for the players who would like to test their talent at a higher level, but not for another club, the frustration will remain.

Kingsbury, 29, said after making his 100 on Saturday: "This thing about Sussex League cricket being untouchable is nonsense. I think we ought to go for it. When I see Cuckfield and Pulborough (SIL clubs who finished behind champions Findon when progressing] there already I feel we ought to be playing the same sort of cricket."

Inside The Herald '” The Lure of Findon: Claire Bradford writes on some of the ingredients of the Long Furlong scene.

Findon are champions: can Chippingdale be too? And can Goring stay in Division 1 after all?