CRICKET: Vinter quits as Littlehampton captain

GARETH CHALLEN is Littlehampton Cricket Club's new captain after Luke Vinter stepped down on Saturday following their eighth league defeat of the season.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Jul 2009, 17:59 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:06 BST

Littlehampton are bottom of Sussex League Division 2 and 52 points behind second-from-bottom Middleton, whom they face this Saturday.

At home to St James on Saturday, in drizzle throughout, Littlehampton lost the must-win game by 66 runs after being dismissed for 147.

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Vinter said: "It was a disappointing result and, while it's still mathematically possible, we are pretty much down.

"After the game, I decided to resign as captain, so now we can look to re-build and move forward as a team toward next season."

On taking over as captain, Challen, whose brother Benn was Littlehampton skipper before Vinter, said: "We've just got to look to pick up a few wins and get our confidence back up.

"We're not mathemetically down so, if we beat Middleton on Saturday and then pick up another couple of wins, we could be back in with a chance of staying up."

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Challen was skipper at West Sussex Invitation League side Clymping last season.

After they won the toss, Littlehampton chose to bowl first, but were punished by St James opening batsman Raza Ali, who smashed 97.

A late rain delay in the first innings prolonged Littlehampton's gloom as St James batted solidly and posted a challenging total of 213-8. Chris Hanks was the pick of Littlehampton's bowlers and finished with 4-30.

The rain worsened the conditions again before Littlehampton came out to bat, with just 40 overs to reach their target. An already unlikely feat proved too much and Littlehampton were all out for 147 in the 29th over, with Adam Tester top-scoring with 25.

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Vinter said: "I thought it was a tough game, conditions weren't great, and the rain obviously didn't help our chances.

"I told the lads to go for it when we were chasing 214 to win, as we were in a win-or-bust situation. We did bat aggressively and did well under the circumstances, but it was always going to be hard."

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