CRICKET: Weekly round-up (May 9)

LITTLEHAMPTON crashed to their second successive defeat to start the season on Saturday after they were bowled out for just 93 at St James.

It follows on from their 12-run defeat at home to Glynde the previous week when Littlehampton were dismissed for only 88.

Littlehampton captain Luke Vinter said: "It was a poor batting display again. We didn't play well, although the pitch was dreadful.

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"I know it sounds like sour grapes but if you take out Owain Jones' performance for them, no one got any runs '“ which was a true reflection of what the wicket was like.

"They were the better team, although it was clear to see the pitch had been used. The bounce was uneven and they brought their spinner on after only six overs, and it was turning square then.

"It was a pitch you wanted to bat first and post a score on but I lost the toss again."

Jones crashed 133 not out as he carried the bat through St James' innings to post a total of 230-8, but he was dropped twice in his 30s by Gareth Challen at mid-wicket off Ryan Budd, on his league debut.

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Leg spinner Amit Midha also made his league debut for the club and took impressive figures of three wickets for 39 runs from his 12 overs.

With Dan Rive unavailable, Vinter opened the batting for the first time in a league game, and partnered James Askew.

After a stand worth 30, Littlehampton frequently lost wickets and Guy Souch, Benn Challen and Chris Heberlein fell in quick succession without troubling the scorers.

Askew, Vinter and Stuart Hanks were the only players to reach double figures as St James' spinner James Cameron-Dow snapped up five wickets from his 10 overs for just 32 runs and Littlehampton were bowled out after just 27 overs.

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Littlehampton, who are second bottom after two games, host bottom-of-the-table Middleton on Saturday. Chris Green, Benn Challen, Gareth Challen and Stuart Hanks are all unavailable.

Mark Coskin grabbed six more wickets on Saturday to move on to 13 in just two matches as East Preston defeated local rivals Clymping by 51 runs.

After taking seven wickets aganst Southwater last weekend, 6ft 4in paceman Coskin took six more this weekend at a cost of just 19 runs from 13 overs.

That helped skittle Clymping out for just 75 after EP had managed just 126 in the West Sussex Invitation League Division 1 match.

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Tom Chamberlain top-scored with 31 and Jack Sunderland struck 29 for East Preston, but just three other players reached double figures.

James Salisbury was the pick of Clymping's bowlers with four wickets, while skipper Karl Pierce and spinner Paul Challen both took two each.

Clymping's reply got off to an awful start and Coskin had both openers, Roger Green and Kim Dean, back in the pavilion by the end of the first over.

They were soon 5-3 and never recovered with their highest partnership worth just 19.

Sam Orchard topped their scoring with just 16.

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EP captain Andy Reeves said: "I made the decision to bat first because if we'd stuck them in, we might have got only six or seven wickets and ended up with just 10 points from the game.

"I thought we had an outside chance with our total but we then got early wickets and Mark did really well again.

"He's got 13 wickets in two games now so, hopefully, he'll be able to break my club record of 29 in a season."

Arundel drew their Sussex League Division 3 West match at Findon after an excellent partnership between Rohan Ardley and captain Richard James.

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After Findon had scored 248-7 from 50 overs, Arundel slipped to 4-2 in their reply before Ardley and James put on 124 for the third wicket.

That helped Arundel finish on 205-7 with Ardley unbeaten on 117 at the end. He struck eight fours and five sixes from his 143-ball innings.

James had fallen for 37, with four fours from 107 deliveries.

Left-arm paceman Mickey Demetriou was the pick of Findon's bowling with three wickets from his 12 overs.

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Ryan Chitty had earlier led Arundel's bowling attack with three wickets, and got the wicket of Demetriou, who scored 76, and shared a 117-run third-wicket stand with Andy Boxall, who crashed nine fours and one six in his 90 off 96 balls.

Richard James said: "Harrison Temple bowled well again and deserved more than his one wicket. Ian Dabinett-Jays also bowled a long controlled spell of medium pace and Ryan Chitty chipped in with three wickets with his off-spin as Findon looked for quick runs.

"Overall, our catching and bowling wasn't quite up to standard and nowhere as good as the previous week.

"When we batted, it didn't start well, but Rohan and myself managed to put together a partnership. Rohan batted extremely well and played some excellent shots but we had a mid-order collapse where we lost four wickets for 21 runs and that effectively put paid to our run chase."

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Rustington had a disappointing day at Broadbridge Heath in West Sussex Invitation League Division 3 as they lost by eight wickets.

After they lost the toss and were put into bat, Rustington failed to find any sort of rhythm.

Matt Cousins, with 11, was the only batsmen in the top six who made it into double figures and they slumped to 30-7.

Simon Kimber, who top-scored with 31 put up some resistance with Clive Mann, who struck 15, but neither could take them past the 100 mark, and Rustington were dismissed for 85.

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Heath's Grant Ovington took seven of the wickets and his side then eased home for the loss of just two wickets in 15 overs.

Littlehampton 2nd XI's Geoff Cole struck another hundred to add to his collection in their draw with Lewes.

Cole has already hit more than a hundred centuries but this latest one comes almost a year to the day when he suffered serious injuries after falling two storeys from a ladder.

He finished unbeaten on 103 as Littlehampton scored 214-5 in reply to Lewes' 234-6, in which Darren Bazley took four wickets.

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