CRICKET: Local round-up (August 19)

LITTLEHAMPTON Cricket Club have given themselves an outside chance of promotion back up into Sussex League Division 2 after their win at home to Henfield on Saturday.

In a rain-affected day in the division, the match between the top two, Middleton and Goring, was abandoned and Littlehampton took full advantage to move to within 29 points of leaders Middleton, with a game in hand.

Littlehampton still trail second-placed Goring by 23 points, with both teams having three games left, and Littlehampton captain Benn Challen said: "Looking at the table, we'd have liked to have a couple more wins on the board than we have but three high-scoring points wins in our last three games will put us right up there, although we're still

relying on other teams' results."

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Littlehampton are at Findon on Saturday, then finish the season at home to Pagham and then away to Bognor.

Challen won the toss and inserted Henfield into bat on Saturday and then watched on as his seam bowlers skittled them out for 93.

Dan Rive took 4-28, Chris Heberlein grabbed 3-18, Luke Vinter picked up 2-23 and Amjad Mohsin also got a wicket.

Graham Fuller top-scored with 31 for Henfield but only two other batsmen reached double figures.

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Littlehampton slipped to 8-3 in their innings but an unbroken 89-run stand between Challen and Heberlein took them to a comfortable victory.

Heberlein blasted 44 from just 31 balls with four fours and four sixes and Challen hit 40 off 47 deliveries, with four fours and one six.

Challen said: "It was a good toss to win, but I still think we'd have given them a good game if we'd lost the toss and they'd stuck us in.

"We bowled well and then knocked off the runs pretty comfortably, so were finished by 4.30pm."

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Arundel moved five points closer to second-from-bottom Henfield in Division 3 West after their draw at Steyning, and the two sides meet at Arundel on Saturday.

David Curtis-Botting hit 13 fours as he top-scored with 70, from 96 balls, for Steyning, who struck 216-6. He put on 65 for the first wicket with Ben Buckley, who smashed nine fours in his 25-ball 43, and Curtis-Botting then added 75 for the second wicket with Ed Lamb, who struck 55 from 91 deliveries, with five fours and one six.

Left-arm spinner Neil Chitty took 4-67 for Arundel and was then the man who saw out nine deliveries at No 11 to deny Steyning the win as Arundel finished on 197-9.

Rohan Ardley top-scored with 67, off 111 balls, and hit six fours and two sixes.

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Steyning's own left-arm spinner Andy Isaacs grabbed 5-87 from 15 overs and Ed Lamb picked up 4-41 off eight overs.

Clymping recorded an excellent three-wicket win over title-chasing Felbridge to end their two-game run without picking up a point.

Clymping skipper Paul Challen won the toss and stuck in Felbridge, who scored 179-9 from their 49 overs, which was twice halted by rain delays.

Jack Williams top-scored with 55 for Felbridge before he was one of Karl Pierce's four wickets.

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Challen also picked up two wickets in his 14-over spell, which cost just 31 runs.

Andy Hancock top-scored with 44 for Clymping, while Craig Johnson hit 33, Sean Maskell 31 and Neil Pierce an unbeaten 23. as they reached their target with 17 balls to spare.

Clymping travel to bottom-of-the-table Portslade on Saturday. If Clymping pick up 11 points or stop Portslade from winning, Portslade will finish bottom.

East Preston picked up eight points in their five-wicket defeat to West Sussex Invitation League leaders Crawley Eagles.

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Eagles stuck in EP, who made 171-6 after their overs were cut to 45.

Eagles then made it over the line with 172-6 after just 28.2 overs.

EP captain Andy Reeves believes his side could have earned a few more vital points had the weather gone their way, although he never really thought they had a chance of victory.

He said: "The weather went against us, really, we had four overs to go with four wickets in hand.

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"The rain fell quite suddenly and we were four runs short of two batting points. We probably would have gone on to get 200, so that is four points."

Openers Tim Miles (66) and Chris Williams (26) started well, before Dan Williams made 21 and Gary Weedon 20 not out.

Despite Tom Chamberlain (2-21) taking a couple of early wickets, Waqas, with a 42-ball 71, led the Crawley response, while Usman hit 44 not out.

Reeves, who has been ruled out for the season with injury, said: "They really went for it with the bat and we were never really in a position to win it, which is a shame as we did quite well.

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"It was a shame Clymping won although we have Felbridge this week so there is no reason we can't do the same. It is still in our hands and we won't worry about anyone else, we'll go into this weekend trying to get a win, if not as many points as possible, and ditto the week after."

Rustington crashed to a nine-wicket defeat at Felbridge 2nd in Division 4 after they were all out for just 120.

Rustington remain second from bottom but are now 27 points behind third-from-bottom Lancing Manor.

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