Big weekend for in-form Bexhill

Bexhill Cricket Club is on a real high going into a big weekend on two fronts.
Bexhill Cricket Club's second team celebrates a wicket during its victory at home to East Grinstead last weekend. Picture by Simon Newstead (SUS-150627-211536002)Bexhill Cricket Club's second team celebrates a wicket during its victory at home to East Grinstead last weekend. Picture by Simon Newstead (SUS-150627-211536002)
Bexhill Cricket Club's second team celebrates a wicket during its victory at home to East Grinstead last weekend. Picture by Simon Newstead (SUS-150627-211536002)

Johnathan Haffenden’s side will host Eastbourne in a Sussex Premier League local derby tomorrow (Saturday) before travelling to Preston Nomads for a Gray-Nicolls Sussex 2nd XI T20 Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

Bexhill will go into the games buoyed by successive league wins over Cuckfield and East Grinstead, the latter of which was described by Ian Cox as the best result in his three years as first team coach.

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Those results have moved Bexhill up to fifth in the league and Cox believes Bexhill are well capable of maintaining their top half status.

He said: “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t maintain our position. We’ve got a great team spirit and we traditionally get stronger at the back end of the season.

“The dry wickets certainly suit our batters and our bowlers have performed all the way through the last three years.

“A lot of teams will be getting their uni boys back, but that’s been the same forever and our team is knitting together really well.”

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Bexhill will be aiming to make it five league wins out of nine in the first half of the season against an Eastbourne side which has fallen into the bottom two. Play is due to start at 12.30pm.

“We’ve got a massive game coming up this week,” continued Cox, whose team will be without last weekend’s six-wicket hero Callum Guest. “They’re a good side, but they’re on a bit of a struggle at the moment and we’re full of confidence.

“We’ve had some success against them in the last couple of seasons and you look at that and think that’s a game where we’ve got a real opportunity.”

Bexhill won away to Eastbourne in the Sussex T20 Cup last month to set up Sunday’s last eight clash against league leaders Nomads. Bexhill were soundly beaten by Nomads in the league, but they invariably perform well in the T20 format.

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“We don’t fear anyone in T20,” added Cox. “We’re not heavily reliant on one or two people and we’ll play it as positively as we can.

“I would suspect they would be more worried about us than we are of them. The league is the key and the cup’s an added bonus, but obviously we want to win.”

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