Absentees force Horsham to settle for a draw against title rivals Cuckfield

Cricket Cuckfield (batting) v Horsham. Michael Monday (bowliing) celebrates an lbw. Pic Steve Robards  SR1622402 SUS-160725-140745001Cricket Cuckfield (batting) v Horsham. Michael Monday (bowliing) celebrates an lbw. Pic Steve Robards  SR1622402 SUS-160725-140745001
Cricket Cuckfield (batting) v Horsham. Michael Monday (bowliing) celebrates an lbw. Pic Steve Robards SR1622402 SUS-160725-140745001

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Horsham lost their lead of the Sussex Premier League when they drew with title rivals Cuckfield.

With local rivals Roffey beating derby rivals Billingshurst by six wickets, the reigning champions collected 28 points which was enough for them to leap from third to top, one point ahead of Horsham but with a game in hand.

Home club Cuckfield began the day in second place in the table and after Horsham won the toss, were asked to bat first. They put in a fine batting display thanks to opener Jordan Silk putting them in the driving seat with a fine innings of 126 made off 144 balls, including 13 fours and six boundaries.

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On the way to his century. Silk put on 73 runs for the fourth wicket with Marcus Campopiano (28). Michael Munday took 4-74 and Tom Johnson 3-34 as Horsham made 250-8 declared.

Horsham got off to a good start in their reply as the in-form Joe Ludlow (76) combined with Craig Gallagher (47) for an opening stand of 77.

Tom Johnson (32) added some useful late runs coming in at No.7 as Horsham played out the final overs on a turning wicket for a draw, finishing their innings at 195-8.

Skipper James Johnson explained they were not able to put out their full-strength side. He said: “We had a few availability problems so we had to go there and play a different brand of cricket than we would have wanted to have played according to the pitch they prepared.

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“The pitch got worse and worse and deteriorated throughout the game.

“We had to go there and bowl first and chase as we only really had three bowlers.

“I think we did okay to keep them to 250 with someone like Jordan Silk in their side.

“We batted well to get 195 on a pitch which was spinning - they bowled 44 overs of spin out of 52 overs and they had two very good spinners as well (Josh Hayward who took 4-60 and Ben Candfield 3-70), so all credit to them.

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“Knowing we had to chase and were without a full bowling attack made it a tough game and we ended up pulling up shop at six or seven wickets down because of their position in the table we didn’t want to give Cuckfield any more points.

“Not giving them the win was the crucial thing. It wasn’t the worst result for us, although obviously we would have liked to have won.”

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