Middleton back on track.. Bognor and Pagham claim tight wins

Wins for Middleton, Bognor and Pagham made it a great week for local sides in the Sussex Cricket League.
Gareth Davies bats watchfully for Pagham against Brighton / Picture by Kate ShemiltGareth Davies bats watchfully for Pagham against Brighton / Picture by Kate Shemilt
Gareth Davies bats watchfully for Pagham against Brighton / Picture by Kate Shemilt

Below are the latest Middleton, Bognor and Pagham reports - plus news from Bognor’s second XI.

Bexhill v Middleton

Sussex Premier League

Middleton got their season back on track at Bexhill.

After five successive games in which they have batted first, Sean Heather, the Middleton captain, elected to field first on winning the toss.

Conditions were overcast and looked suited to the bowlers.

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Bexhill made slow progress against some good Middleton bowling and after 33 overs had reached 73-3.

It all started to happen in the 34th over when Russell Talman struck with wickets off both the final two balls of the over to reduce Bexhill to 81-5. Then the first ball of his next over the 36th saw keeper Will Burrows take a good catch to complete Talman’s first hat-trick for the club.

Bexhill never recovered and when Talman claimed the final wicket, the Bexhill score was on 104. Talman ended with figures of seven for 12. It will take some doing for anyone to better those figures this season.

Middleton’s reply got off to a great start with Angus Robson and Will Burrows sharing an opening stand of 73. Robson was stumped for 45 as he looked to hit Nick Peters back over his head to reach his 50.

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There followed a mini collapse as Middleton lost four wickets for just 25 runs.

But Burrows remained firmly in control hitting the winning four in the 22nd over to see his team home. He ended the game 48 not out.

The pick of the Bexhill bowlers was Nick Peters with 4-36.

Middleton sit sixth in the table.

Billingshurst v Bognor

Division two

Bowlers were on top in this game but Bognor edged the win.

Joe Ashmore’s 4-52 and two wickets apiece for Jerome Jones and Josh Sargent restricted the hosts to 178-9.

Bognor found it just as hard to bat but Jones’ 51 not out and 40 by Josh Seward got them over the line to keep them out of the bottom two.

Pagham v Brighton

Division three

These two sides produced a thrilling game on Saturday.

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Brighton batted first and made 189 in 49 overs with Guy Williamson’s 50, including four sixes, and Fergus Guppy’s 34 the stand-out performers with the bat.

For the second week running, Wayne Green ambled in from the start and bowled 19 overs taking two for 61. Nikki Jabberer bowled 16 overs and took 4-72.

On a good wicket it should have been a regulation run chase but Pagham seem to like chasing targets by hitting boundaries and as a result were very quickly 18-4 but a sensible partnership of 68 between Gareth Davies (46) and Staurt Rutter (35) brought Pagham back into the games.

Wickets started to fall regularly and Pagham again face defeat at 147-8. This brought David Leader to the wicket and the choice to bring back spinner Jake Comaschi proved a game-changing one with Leader hitting him for 26 in two overs, and Albert Burgess (17no) taking Pagham to an unlikely victory with a two-wicket win.

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Sam Wray was unlucky to be on the losing side ending with 5-45.

Pagham entertain Haywards Heath this Saturday in a top-of-the-table clash.

Bognor 2nd v Crawley 2nd

Division six west

At the Regis Oval, Bognor’s twos maintained their recent good form against Crawley.

Winning the toss and fielding, Bognor checked Crawley’s progress at regular intervals as Andy McGregor bagged 6-44 to see them all out for 163.

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Bognor’s reply was brisk as the mercurial Babs Ahmed clattered 43 off of 32 balls. He was not alone as the lively Harry Hood made 55 and the well-coiffed Joel Baker rounded off events with a crisp 39 not out that saw Bognor win by seven wickets.

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