Chichester Priory Park win at St Peter's ... Middleton cross Bridges

St Peters v Chichester PP

Sussex League Division 2

Chichester Priory Park CC 1st XI kicked off their campaign with a win away to newly promoted St Peter’s, Brighton.

Looking to build on their 5th place finish in 2021, skipper Sean Dobbs lost the toss and Chichester were asked to bat first on a grassy pitch in overcast conditions.

The opening pair of Simon Hasted and Mike Smith played positively and capitalised on loose bowling to take the score to 71, when Smith departed lbw for 29.

Atkins is Sussex Foundation champion.

From 102-1, Chichester collapsed to 130-6. Corey Perrett led the recovery as he absorbed pressure and then counter-attacked, launching 4 huge sixes on his way to 69. His hitting and the support of the tail lifted Chi to 228 all out.

Chichester started strongly in the field with Perrett and Ben Gregory bowling with pace and hostility.

Findon v West Chilts in pictures.

Perrett made the breakthrough, taking a smart caught and bowled at the second attempt. St Peter’s rode their luck, and it took a special catch from all-action Perrett, using all his considerable wingspan, off the metronomic bowling of Andrew Crookham to dismiss the opposition captain for 53.

Wickets fell at regular intervals from here on, courtesy of Crookham (3-47), and high-class bowling from Owen Millard (2-33) and overseas Tom Drake-Brockman (3-12), with the crucial wicket of the St Peter’s overseas coming for Millard courtesy of a full-length diving catch from Gregory.

Gregory and Crookham cleaned up the tail to finish the innings off at 181 all out – a 47 run win for Priory Park that saw them take 30 points.

This week Chichester welcome Mayfield to Goodwood.

n Guy Montogomery took astonishing figures of SEVEN wickets for five runs as Chi PP’s third team hammered Roffey thirds. He ran through the Roffey batting as they were bowled out for 68, a total Chi passed for the loss of two wickets.

East Grinstead v Bognor

Sussex premier

Bognor’s campaign got off to an encouraging if unsuccessful start against fancied East Grinstead. Batting first, Bognor lost regular wickets to slip to 68-5, but an 83-run partnership between Nick Stobart (49) and Josh Seward (35) ensured a competitive total of 194-9, Lewis Hatchett the pick with 3-20.

In reply, East Grinstead lost Leo Cammish and Harry Finch to the excellent Josh Sargeant (2-43), but despite having the home side 106-4 at one stage, Tom Hinley’s 74* ensured there was no upset.

Bognor take on Roffey at

the Regis Oval this coming weekend.

Middleton v Three Bridges

Sussex premier

Middleton beat Three Bridges in their first league game of the 2022 season.

They lost the toss and were asked to bat.

Openers Sean Heather (33) and Harry Hovey (34) got the hosts off to a good start scoring 65 in the first 9 overs until Hovey was bowled by Aaron Brown (3-50).

A couple more wickets fell in the next few overs and at 97-3 from just 15 overs Mahesh Rawat and Mason Robinson went about building a good partnership to keep the momentum going.

They took the score to 160 before Robinson was bowed by Jordan Shaw.

Monty Morgan (14), George Briance (19) and Charlie Maginnis (19) all played vital roles in keeping the score ticking along while supporting Rawat as he found his swag after a slow start, but his 102 not out from 98 balls took Middleton to an impressive 279-8 from their 50 overs.

In reply, Middleton started building the pressure on the Bridges batsman from the off, resulting in George Briance taking 2 wickets in his first 5 overs, reducing Bridges to 30-2 from their first 10 overs.

A partnership of 53 between James Russell and Joe Walker (27) kept Bridges in the game, but more tight bowling from Ajit Sambhi and Russel Talman was able to reduce the guests to 78-4.

With the rate climbing, Luke Bellers (24) joined Russell and they put on 72 for the 5th wicket until Bellers was athletically run out by the ageing Sean Heather.

At 150-5 and only Russell really able to stick around, Middleton kept control and although Russell was able to score his maiden Premier Division 100, Three Bridges were always behind the rate and were bowled out for 209 from 43.3 overs.

The wickets were shared around the Middleton bowlers and they will take a lot of confidence into this week’s travels to Horsham.

Littlehampton v Pagham

Division 3 West

Littlehampton won the toss and decided to bat and found life difficult on a wicket with variable bounce.

James Askew 27, Mike Askew 29 and Nathan Perry 29 all made starts but couldn’t make a substantial score.

Littlehampton went from 117 for 3 to 165 all out mainly due to accurate seam bowling from Justin Scott who ended with 5 for 23.

In reply Pagham made a comfortable start thanks to 58 for Theo Benyon-Ayres and 50 from Nick Smith and at 145-3 victory looked assured but a batting collapse saw them reduced to 162-8 but the big shoulders of Justine Scott manged to carry the team over the line and secured 30 points.

Three Bridges 2nd v West Wittering

Division 4 West

Three Bridges won the toss and elected to bat first. West Wittering struck first ball with Harry Staight bamboozing opener Sachit Patel with a sharp catch behind to the witterings skipper Brandon Trimmer.

Life at the cease was not easy with the opening pair hungry for wickets.

Jordon Dear and Staight crashed through the upper order to crumble the Bridges to 33-6 until the resurrection of the innings via Adam Cooper 41no, Alfie Pyle 25, Thomas Floyds 19 and Oliver Brown 14. brought them to a more respectable score of 142 all out.

Joe Pink 3-17 and James Staight 1-23 polished off the tail.

The score would have been much higher without the efforts of Harry Staight 3-15 and Dear 3-21 at the start.

West Wittering owed part of the win to an innings of control with opener Gareth Lendrum who mastered the excellent bowling attack but was out in the end with half the runs scored required for victory on 36.

There was a flurry of excitement from Zander Muir 16 and Tom Gastin 18 along with Harry Staight 10no and the skipper Trimmer 31no plus three excellent catches behind the sticks from before, the game was won with three wickets to spare.

Best of the Bridges bowlers, Pyle 4-29 and Floyds 2-33, to back up their brilliance with the bat earlier in the day

West Wittering took 30 points to back up their 30 from last week.

West Wittering 2nd v Crawley Eagles 5th

Division 9 West

Wittering captain Marc Slowey was asked to bowl on a green wicket.

Kieran Baker soon took the first of his first of five wickets clean bowled.

Eagles never really got going, with clever captaincy and bowling changes not allowing the batsman to settle.

Josh Labuschange (0-16) bowled well on debut

with no reward, as did the

reliable Kevin Allsobrook who finished with 0-16.

The wickets were shared between Carl Tupper (3-20), Richard Hammond (2-19) and Baker (5-19) as Crawley Eagles were all out for 119.

Mark Taylor and Steve Day started the run chase well but Daywas out for five.

Taylor played a cultured innings and Will Finch (15), Peter Taylor (5) and Charlie Caddy (7) came and went.

Taylor (53*) was joined by Tupper and they took Wittering home, Tupper (10*) finishing with a six.

Bognor 2nd v Aldwick

Bognor’s twos comfortably saw off Aldwick at the Regis Oval.

Oli Handson’s 3-10 was the pick as Aldwick were bowled out for 125 before 44 from Gary Maskell anchored the chase, Bognor winning by five wickets in 19 overs.

Aldwick skipper Alex Cooper (14) was outdone by Kutub Uddin (1-23) . Tom Hoare (28) and Aiden Miles (20) got together to build a worthwhile stand.

Bognor wasted no time in chasing and blasted 78 in under 10 overs before opener Charlie Jays (31) was caught by Ollie Smith off the bowling of Tanveer Ahmed.

Tanveer (3-22) added Harry Hood for 3 and Oli Handson for a duck to his tally. Maskell looked like he was going to 50 but Tom Lockwood snatched the ball out of the air off Ollie Smith’s bowling.

Smith (2-32) also had Ben Roberts caught by Alex Cooper but it was too little too late, as the home side won by 5 wickets.

Aldwick face Slinfold this weekend.

Bognor 3rd v Littlehampton 3rd

Bognor chased down Littlehampton’s 134 (Stoneham 63, Ahmed 3-25) to win by four wickets (Rossor 52, Keyte 4-45).

Bognor 4th v Goring 3rd

Joe Charman hit 98 as Goring scored 191, with Bognor finishing 74 runs short on 117-5 (Hooker 41).

Aldwick 2s v Littlehampton 4s

Div 12 West (South)

A great bowling performance from Aldwick twos in rolling over Littlehampton Clapham & Patching 4 for just 77 in 29.1 overs gave them a second victory to continue a great start to the season.

Wickets tumbled to Andrew Massey (3-15), Dion Sampson (3-22), Jordan Evans ( 1-10 ) and 2-0 for Mike Bennett, playing his first game of cricket for 35 years. Only Jack Ashby-Lloyd (1 ) made double figures in the rout.

Chasing just 78 for victory, Ollie Duffin (16 ) carried his bat, and good knocks from Dion Sampson (13), Lara Johnson (20) and Jake Merrett (14*) saw Aldwick home after 23 overs. Freddie Harris (1-18) and Naiduwa Handi Chathura ( 2-21 ) were the only wicket takers.