Cricket: Middleton and Pagham staying put, Wittering side promoted again

The cricket season is fast coming to an end and one of our final round-ups includes news of Middleton, Pagham, West Wittering, aldwick, Goodwood and Lavant.
West Wittering seconds - promoted againWest Wittering seconds - promoted again
West Wittering seconds - promoted again

Read all the reports below...

Middleton v Brighton and Hove

Sussex Premier League

Middleton finished their 2017 Sussex Premier League campaign with a home defeat to Brighton.

It was an end-of-season fixture in every sense with both teams’ position in the league already defined.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Brighton won the toss and elected to bat. They recovered from being 100-5 to finish 228 all out in the 49th over.

Tommy Davies took four wickets. He has had many better spells this season but without the wickets he has deserved. Matt Lee, a youngster making his first-team debut, took 2-35.

In reply Middleton reached 182 all out. Skipper Sean Heather opened for only the second time in the league this season, with Will Burrows’ normal opening partner Angus Robson not available. It was not to be Heather’s day and he went for four.

It was left to Nick Smith to score his maiden half-century for the club and Patrick Colvin to supply the hope.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With Colvin out for 41 and Smith 62, youngster Jack Dawling could not find a partner to stay with him. The youngster batted well, ending 19 not out from 54 balls.

Roffey 2nd v Pagham

Sussex League division three

Pagham travelled to Roffey for their last match of the season and were invited to bat. They soon lost Stuart Rutter to a leg injury, quickly followed by skipper Stu Hanks for 13.

Aiden Zammit (60), Dave Leader (48), Ryan Barratt (35) and Joe De La Fuente (32) helped Pagham to 240-9.

Spinner Wayne Green opened the bowling for Pagham and took the first four wickets for 17 runs in his nine overs.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Roffey never recovered from 66-4 and were eventually all out for 175 leaving them 65 short.

Pagham ended the season in fourth place.

West Wittering v Barns Green

Invitation League division two

Without a win in five meetings or anything to play for in terms of league position, Wittering wanted to show their strength against promoted Barns Green.

Captain Carl Tupper won the toss and decided to bat. Mark Taylor and Gareth Lendrum opened up steadily and looked comfortable against the swing of Kiwi overseas Ant Quinn and Stephen Courquin.

A superb piece of fielding and questionable running ended the partnership, Taylor out for 18. Lendrum followed for 22 and Joe Pink barely troubled the scorers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Tupper and Brandon Trimmer put on more than 50. Tupper made a useful 26 before being caught, but Trimmer continued to motor. He finished on 72 not out, Wittering 179-6 off their 40 overs.

An early breakthrough off the swing bowling of Tupper, the chance snaffled in the slips by Steve Feazey, got Wittering fired up. A couple more wickets fell to Andy Priest and Joe Pink and it was anyone’s game at 98-3.

Lendrum took three quick wickets with his left-arm spin, turning the game in Wittering’s favour. He was ably supported by Pink (2-29), Kieran Baker (1-22) and Matt Webb (1-35).

Barns Green required 19 off the last over, Lendrum the bowler. Captain Chris Bailey cleared the fence with the first ball, leaving 13 off five.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Barns Green pair could only scramble a run a ball and finished on 172-9, eight runs short of Wittering total. After a fifth-place finish for Wittering in their first season in division two, they will be searching for promotion next season.

Meanwhile, West Wittering seconds made it five promotions in five seasons and will play in division five in 2018. Despite the loss to Barns Green twos, results went their way on the final day and they had done enough to finish third and climb another division.

Aldwick v Ram 2nds

Invitation division three

After the fallout from the fire that destroyed their pavilion – with players leaving and a lack of facilities ensuing – before the season started, Aldwick did well to survive life in division three. They finished fifth and will look to do battle with more players and a new pavilion in the same division next year.

In this final game, Aldwick’s Ian Horner (2-10) got his team off to a great start by clean bowling Ram opener Tarum Patel for a duck.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rakesh Patel (65), Amish Patel (22), Pinkesh Patel (32) did well for Ram but John Young (4-29 ) and Ian Guppy (2-9) helped reduce Ram to 176 all out.

In reply, Aldwick got off to a bad start losing opener Dean Stokes for a duck thanks to Amish Patel, who proceeded to capture the wickets of Aldwick’s top five batsmen in a spell that conceded only 19.

Aldwick tried to hit themselves out of trouble but only Guppy (27) succeeded and Aldwick were soon all out for 109 and their league season ended in a heavy defeat.

Aldwick individuals finished high in the end-of-season stats. John Young was top bowler for division three and in the top five for league bowlers taking 39 wickets at an average of 11.49. Batsman Ed White was second in the division’s stats with an average of 69.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For the second week running Aldwick twos conceded because of player unavailability and finished rock bottom in division six.

This Sunday Aldwick bring down the curtain on their season with a game at Pagham.

Goodwood v Hambledon

Goodwood hosted Hambledon for the first time in many years. Hambledon won the toss and set off rapidly.

The introduction of Matt Geffen (2-17) saw runs harder to come by and with Hari Elisetti (2-25) finding an excellent length the pressure was on Hambledon.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The slow bowlers were introduced, Steve Dudman (2-41) and Richard Geffen (2-28) picking up wickets. A steady innings from by Spencer le Clerlq (53no) assisted by Khan (22) and Pratt (38) saw Hambledon to 174-9 off 40 overs.

Goodwood started very well with Bennison (47) and Miller (57) putting on 111 for the first wicket. But things changed with the introduction of the left-armer Mark Le Clerlq who took 6-22.

Goodwood were all out for 155 in 37.2 overs, losing by 19 runs – though Goodwood had conceded 22 extras.

The match saw John Clifton score his 10,000 run for Goodwood – that in 448 matches, having made his debut in 1992.

Arundel Grasshoppers v Lavant

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Arundel Castle is the best venue Lavant have played at. Lavant lost the toss and were invited to bat first.

The opening pair of Peter Berkley and Graham Dale added 53 for the first wicket, with Berkley striking the ball all around the ground.

Danny Berkley joined his brother and they went well until both were bowled by Glen Lovegrove.

Lavant stuttered until Sam Roe hit an unbeaten 65 with able support from Dave Banks, Mark Sullivan and Alex Burford. Lavant were all out for 214.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Captain Steve Brooker set an imaginative field as Arundel Grasshoppers started their reply against the bowling of Burford and Ian Rawnsley.

Grasshoppers were behind the rate and wickets fell to the off-spin of Berkley and leg spin of Sullivan and they were soon 99-7.

The batsmen had given up the run chase and were looking to bat out for a draw. Lavant took two more wickets but the final pair of Linton and Stapleton dug in and Arundel closed on 130-9.

Berkley returned 5-32, Sullivan 2-25, Rawnsley 0-20 and Burford 0-21.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking sports news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make this website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page at facebook.com/pages/Sport-Sussex

3 Follow us on Twitter @SportSussex

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

Share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

Related topics: