Middleton hassle Hastings... Pagham in a hurry for home

Here are some of the latest Sussex Cricket League reports...

Hastings v Middleton

Sussex Premier League

Middleton travelled to the other side of the county to take on Hastings – and returned home with a thumping win under their belts.

The sun was out and on winning the toss skipper Sean Heather decided to bat first, knowing that Hastings have good spin bowling options.

As early as the tenth over of the innings, Hastings turned to spin options and in only his second over, the 12th of the innings, Elliott Hooper claimed his first wicket, Will Burrows given out lbw for 14, leaving Middleton 57 for two.

Middleton continued to lose regular wickets with all the batsmen struggling to cope with the spin of Hooper and Jed O’Brien, who joined the attack in the 13th over.

At 143 for eight Middleton looked as though they were going to struggle to get anything from the game. At this point South African Gerhardt Abrahams, with his score on 82, was joined at the wicket by Tommy Davies. The pair proceeded to put together a partnership of 67.

They batted intelligently with Abrahams looking to protect Davies where he could while scoring the majority of the runs. Abrahams was eventually the last man out with his score on 144, an innings which including 14 fours and 5 sixes.

The Middleton innings closed on 213, Hooper finishing with figures of 4-74 and O’Brien 3-39.

In the field Middleton got off to the perfect start with Matt Cooke taking a wicket in the first over of the Hastings reply.

Things got even better as Cooke and fellow opening bowler Davies continued to take regular wickets. By the 11th over the pair had reduced Hastings to 32 for five.

Craig Fowle took the sixth wicket in just his his second over.

Partnerships of 38 for the seventh wicket and 28th for the ninth delayed Middleton’s inevitable march towards victory. This came when Fowle claimed his second wicket in the 38th over to see Hastings all out for 127.

Cooke ended with figures of 4-32.

Middleton, in fifth spot, host sixth-placed Preston Nomads this weekend.

Bognor v Ifield

Division two

Ifield won the toss and elected to bowl on a good-looking deck at Bognor and in the early overs, this decision appeared to have been an excellent one, as first Charlie La Forêt, and then Max Ashmore fell to probing bowling.

Mike Harris rebuilt alongside Elliot Clarke and Joe Ashmore, but the latter’s demise instigated a major collapse, and despite Harris’ battling 49, Bognor were dismissed for a woeful 133.

In reply, an early wicket for Sam Adams sparked hope, but in reality, as a poor pitch improved, Bognor were never in the game, Mike Norris (79*), guiding Ifield to victory by seven wickets. Bognor are away to St James this Saturday.

Pagham v Eastbourne

Division three

Eastbourne’s journey to Pagham took substantially longer than their innings.

Having been asked to bat first they could only muster 48 runs against some accurate but by no means hostile bowling.

Ollie Pearce finished with five for 32 and Pete Cotterill four for 14 with only Chris James 23 managing to get into double figures.

Pagham, in reply, knocked off the required runs in only 4.1 overs with Aiden Zammitt getting 46 from 20 balls including nine fours and one six.

The game was all over at 2.30pm which must be one of the earliest finishes in Pagham’s history.

Ifield 2nd v Bognor 2nd

Division six west

Bognor’s twos made the trek to the bottom of Gatwick Airport to see if their season could lift off.

With the home side batting first, a 60-run opening partnership was ended by a brisk double-strike from old Aussie warhorse Andy McGregor (2-21) but 53 from Ifield’s Rahul Patel kept the home side in the hunt, a fine run-out from Jamie Woolnough ending his innings. Nimble youngster Harry Hood took a steepling catch to dismiss Greg Barton and Ifield soon declared on 238-6.

In reply Bognor began a little shakily but at 76 for three, there was no need for alarm. But after losing skipper Josh Broad for 35, the score went to 83 for nine as Patel bagged 6-39.

A couple of lusty strikes from Callum Teasdale saw Bognor past 100 but the visitors were all out for 101, Ifield winning by 137 runs.

Bognor 3rd v Littlehampton 4th

Division ten west

Bognor’s third XI finally made their long-awaited debut at their new home of West Meads Park in Bognor.

With Littlehampton electing to bat, Bognor’s new-ball pair young Harry Lindsey and Ben Taylor took up the challenge. Lindsey bagged 3-19 and Taylor a maiden senior five-wicket haul taking 5-20 as Littlehampton found themselves at 34 for nine. Tail-end resistance from Kevin Foot with 35 not out saw Littlehampton finish on 87-9.

Bognor’s reply was clinical as Babs Ahmed and old campaigner Glenn West set about the target with zeal, Ahmed in his usual death-or-glory role making 66 not out and West 24 not out as Bognor sealed a ten-wicket win inside nine overs.

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