Chichester Priory Park, West Wittering and Bognor CC enjoy Sussex League wins

West Chiltington v Chichester Priory Park - Sussex League Division 2

Chichester Priory Park upset the league standings to secure an eight-wicket win over early league leaders West Chiltington on Saturday.

Winning the toss in damp conditions, Chichester asked Chilts to bat first and were immediately rewarded after an early mix-up saw last week’s centurion Louis Storey run out.

Opening bowlers Matt Geffen (3-12) and Corey Perrett (1-26) gave nothing away and quickly reduced West Chiltington to 34-5.

They were well supported by Owen Millard (2-42), Tom Drake-Brockman (1-35) and the hostile bowling of Ben Gregory (0-30), who never allowed Chilts to score comfortably.

Mid Sussex cricket sides battle for supremacy.

Despite some promising rebuilding from Chilts, they were always behind the eight-ball, not helped by twoi further run-outs.

Chichester dismissed their opponents for 153 in 43 overs to leave a tricky chase on a pitch that was proving challenging to bat on.

With that in mind, openers Tim Wergen and Mike Smith looked to take advantage of the fielding restrictions early on and bat positively, but were both caught playing aggressively to leave Chichester in a precarious position at 25-2.

With both new batters on nought, this was a crucial moment in the game, but Drake-Brockman and Matt Bennison absorbed the pressure well, accumulating well despite the difficult conditions.

Worthing CC v Pagham CC picture gallery.

As the ball softened, scoring became easier and Drake-Brockman (78*) in particular began to play more aggressively, with Bennison (44*) content to play the supporting role.

They took Chichester to victory with 11 overs to spare, a result they will look to build on when they take on new league leaders Cuckfield this week.

West Wittering v Felbridge and Sunnyside - Division 4 West

On a fairly mixed day of weather with some overcast and sunny conditions, Felbridge won the toss and decided to bat first.

Harry Staight starting proceedings bowling from the pavilion end, while Jordan Dear took the far end.

It didn’t take long for a breakthrough as Staight dismissed Robin James, caught by Ted Bloomfield.

Before long Dear dismissed Felbridge skipper and opening batsman Jack Williams.

Within no time the batting team slumped to 30-6 off the first 12 overs.

Brandon Trimmer took three catches behind the stumps, including a sensational one-handed diving catch to dismiss Gavin Botha

The opening bowling pair continued to cause problems for the travelling team with Staight dismissing Chirag Chauhan. This brought the score to 35-8 off14 overs.

Staight ended his ruthless spell of bowling with 5-18 while Dear finished his spell the other end with 3-25.

Joe Pink came on to dismiss their wicketkeeper, Richard Milligan, with another catch to Bloomfield.

Bloomfield grabbed the final wicket to finish proceedings by dismissing Timothy Heller with a spectacular one-handed catch in the slip cordon by Johnny Miller.

Pink finished with 1-9 and Bloomfield 1-1 as Felbridge were 56 all out off just 21.2 overs.

After tea, Zander Muir top scored with 38 not out along with Sam Caddy seven not out to bring the game to an end with a nine-wicket victory.

West Wittering are 27 points clear at the top.

Crawley 2nds v Aldwick - Division 6 West

Aldwick's fragile batting line-up reared its ugly head again with almost total realiance again on skipper Alex Cooper (55).

After his effort the second best scorer was extras with 25 as the rest of his team only managed a meagre 27 runs between them as Aldwick were shot out for 107 in 27.1overs.

Clearly,cthe Aldwick total was insuffcient as Crawley romped home in just the 28th over, with Maman Vaidya (40) and Christopher Leese (30*) consolidating after Ian Horner (1-25) had removed opener Irfan Khan for a duck.

In the field , Aldwick dropped seven catches but nevertheless did manage to take four wickets (Liam Hicks 2-18) before the inevitable defeat.

Things must get better this weekend when Aldwick take on Clymping.

Sussex Premier League

There were contrasting fortunes for local sides Bognor and Middleton in the latest round of premier division games.

Bognor v Eastbourne

The men from the Regis Oval sit a comfy fifth in the table after a five-wicket success against out-of-form Eastbourne.

Scott Lenham’s 66 saved the team from The Saffrons from an even worse defeat as he carried them to 160 all out. Josh Sargeant and Mike Harris claimed two wickets each and Nick Stobart, Joe Ashmore and Ben Woolnough one apiece.

Bognor slipped to 91-5 it was in the balance, but Ashmore (45no) and Josh Seward (37no) got them home with no further alarms.

East Grinstead v Middleton

A stand of 92 between Harry Hovey (72) and Mahesh Rawat (79) gave Middleton a good platform and their total of 204-6 from 29.5 overs looked competitive.

But EG are not leaders for nothing and Russell Talman’s 3-34 couldn’t stop them getting home by five wickets.