CRICKET: Weekly round-up (June 6)

Smith, who arrived on Monday after a 26-hour flight, said: "It's good to be here at last after the visa procedure back home took eight weeks.

"My target is to just help the team, score a few runs and take a few wickets."

Smith, who is in the initial New Zealand squad of 25 for the Under-19 World Cup in Kenya in February, will strengthen Littlehampton's batting, while his medium pacers and off-breaks give skipper Luke Vinter two options for his bowling.

Smith's arrival is not a moment too soon for Littlehampton, who are still propping up the table after holding fellow strugglers Stirlands to a draw at the Sportsfield on Saturday.

Even though the draw ended Littlehampton's dismal run of five successive defeats, Vinter admitted that it was not a good result. He said: "It has restored some pride but we must start winning soon or we will shoot ourselves in the foot. Again, it was our batting that let us down after we had bowled and fielded well."

Littlehampton's tail got them out of jail and saw them finish 53 runs short of their target of 210. Dan Rive, who had taken the last two Stirlands' wickets in two balls, led Littlehampton's rearguard action with a defiant 40.

He came to the wicket with Littlehampton's innings in tatters at 51-6. Chris Green started the recovery and with Rive added 28 for the next wicket. Rive and Vinter then took Littlehampton to safety with an eighth-wicket stand of 57.

Stirlands' innings had centred on opener Ben Rapson's 78, which contained a six and 15 boundaries and which effectivey put the match out of Littlehampton's reach.

Vinter had a hand in his dismissal by running 30 yards to hold a skier at wide mid-on when Rapson went for a big hit off spinner Amit Midha.

Midha threatened to bowl Littlehampton back in to the game by dismissing Will Gubbin and Ciaran Trealor in three balls to return figures of 3-28 in a tidy nine-over stint. But Ian Gooding held the rest of the innings together until Vinter flattened his leg stump.

Littlehampton openers James Askew and Guy Souch were both back in the pavilion for 24 runs. Both were victims of David Cox, who caused further mayhem by adding Benn and Gareth Challen and Stuart Hanks to his scalps. His five-wicket haul came in an economical 16 overs that conceded only 21 runs.

Green and Rive then dug in to start Littlehampton's recovery which, thanks to a wagging tail, enabled them to pick up an unexpected two bonus points.

Littlehampton, however, are still 34 points behind Stirlands, who have now dropped to second from bottom. The table is still extremely tight, though, and Stirlands are still just 25 points behind second-placed Bexhill.

Chichester lead the way, with five wins from their six games, and are 38 points clear.

East Preston lost a high-scoring game by four wickets with two balls to spare against Crawley Eagles in West Sussex Invitation League Division 1.

EP scored 262-5 from their 49 overs, with Gary Weedon top-scoring with a 105-ball 79, which was his maiden league half-century. He struck 10 fours and one six in his innings, and shared stands worth 59 with fellow opener Jack Sunderland, and 88 for the second wicket with Colin Smith, who scored 40.

Tom Reeves then added a 58-ball 52 with six fours and two sixes, one of which cleared the pavilion, before Eagles recovered from 99-4 in their reply to reach their target.

Amir top-scored with 109 and Ejaz crashed 69 not out as Eagles stayed second in the table. EP moved up a place to fourth with the 13 points they took from the game.

EP captain Andy Reeves said: "At 99-4, we had a chance but we then stopped doing the basics and missed a stumping and dropped a catch to dismiss Amir, who played very well.

"We needed to hold our nerve a bit better but I'm sure we'll learn from it."

Clymping drew their home match against second bottom Felbridge & Sunnyside in the same division.

Clymping batted first and amassed a total of 221-5, thanks to Callum Brittain's 72 and Andrew Dick's 48.

In their reply, Felbridge made 180-7 as Clymping ran out of overs to try to take the remaining wickets.

Clymping now sit sixth but have played a game more than the three teams below them.

Rustington felt that they had a good chance to pick up their first win in Division 3 but eventually slumped to a five-wicket defeat at West Blatchington.

West Blatchington won the toss and stuck Rustington in, and Alex Fitch was soon back in the pavilion for five.

Martyn Payne (13) and Simon Gosden (42) set a foundation, which Alex Hodgson and Grant Melvin added to with 27 and 25 respectively.

Big hitter David Mangold then made a quick 50 not out as Rustington finished on 187-7 after 49 overs.

Blatchington's openers put on 132 after Matt Cousins and Mangold both dropped chances.

Mangold did take two late wickets but Blatchington got home with more than three overs to spare.

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