Cricket around Sussex: Horsham, Cuckfield and Buxted Park celebrate cup wins

Bromley Common 198 All Out (40 overs)

Horsham 199-5 (39.1 overs)

Horsham won by 5 wickets

by Martin Read

In a sign of the growing confidence at the club, Horsham re-entered the National Cup – the competition they won at Lord’s in 2005 - and were delighted to complete a home win against Kent Cricket League Division 1’s Bromley Common, earning a next round visit to East Kent’s Sandwich. Horsham’s spinners restricted the visitors, and with 10 overs remaining, Horsham were cruising to victory only to wobble before getting over the line with 5 balls to spare.

Put in, Brom Com created a useful platform at 112-2 at the 20 over half way stage, but, needing to accelerate, they could only manage 31-3 off the next 10 overs. The first 4 batsmen made 135 between them, boosted by 28 extras, but Horsham kept whittling away, new signing England U19 Bertie Foreman taking 4-34 and pulling off 2 run outs.

Replying, Horsham put on 90 for the first wicket, thanks to 50 from Joe Willis, with another new recruit, Charlie Tear, carrying on to make 63. Then Lee Hall stepped in with 4 quick wickets, and at 174-5 the visitors had clawed themselves back into the game. Faced with tight bowling, 12 were required off as many balls, but fortune smiled on Horsham, easing the pressure with 4 byes and a nick through the slips to the boundary, victory promptly following.

Somewhat relieved, Horsham skipper Nick Oxley told the County Times: “That should have been easier, but our 2 new boys, Bertie Foreman and Charlie Tear, had great debuts, and they’re really keen to play for us. We’ve been training hard and have a well balanced side and we’re all really looking forward to the season!”

Horsham’s Sussex Cup tie at Pagham has been rearranged for Sunday May 14th, meanwhile, Horsham’s Sussex Premiership campaign begins on Saturday, with a 50 overs a side win/lose match against league newcomers from East Sussex, Mayfield.

Brighton and Hove 1st XI 1st XI vs Cuckfield 1st XI

T20 Cup

After some of the worst weather the county has seen leading up to the cricket season, there was a mix of excitement and relief felt by both sides as Cuckfield arrived at Brighton on Saturday.

Cuckfield skipper Josh Hayward won the toss and elected to bat. Fresh off the plane from South Africa that morning, it was new overseas, Wesley Marshall (10) and Joe Cambridge (10) who took the crease for the away side. Some lose bowling allowed Cambridge to get off to a flying start hitting two full tosses for 4 through the covers in the first over.

Scoring looked to be tough when the pitch was used, but someone forgot to tell Marshall that as he deposited his 4th ball for 6 over cover at the start of the second over. Cuckfield’s flying start was halted as Cambridge chipped to Vigneshwaran Ramamoorthy off Jack Chopping (4-16). Debutant Alex Thornhill (0) then received what can only be described as a “jaffa” and had his off stump removed from the ground three balls later.

Marshall then succumbed to the same fate, whilst trying to deposit the ball back to his home country. Ollie Graham (9) and Oscar Jago-Lewis (34) then looked to rebuild the innings. After a brief respite from the tumbling wickets Ollie Graham fell in a manner that mirrored that of Cambridge before him. Wickets continued to fall around Jago-Lewis, but this didn’t faze him as he provided the backbone of Cuckfield’s innings.

Two more quick wickets fell leaving the Cuckfield tail to push the side towards a respectable total. This in the end was achieved with useful innings’ played by Aiden Drew (13) and Joe White (17) meaning Cuckfield posted 121 from their 20 overs.

Drew and White then combined again this time with the new ball. The pair bowled tightly but the Brighton openers, Bryce Hounsome (21) and Matthew Whippy (6), were up to the task and kept their wickets in hand. Scoreboard pressure began to mount as Wesley Marshall (2-15) replaced White and got into his work quickly with a maiden over.

Hounsome looked to take the attack to Nick Patterson (1-14) striking some clean boundaries, but it was Patterson who ultimately had the last laugh removing the opener for 21. Marshall then got in on the act having Vigneshwaran Ramamoorthy (0) caught by White.

Whippy was next to fall again from the bowling of Marshall. Josh Hayward (3-19) then brought himself into the attack. Starting how he undoubtably means to go on, he trapped Jack Chopping LBW with the first ball of his season. Wickets then fell at regular intervals stifling the Brighton run chase. Despite Adam Mates’ (49 not out). Ollie Graham (2-19) picked up where the previous 2 spinners left off to get Cuckfield over the line by a 14-run margin.

Newhaven 2nd XI vs Cuckfield 4th XI

Sussex League

Cuckfield 4th XI made the long trip down to Newhaven on a long-awaited sunny day by the seaside, it was a blessing the game could go ahead after so much rain. The wicket was wet but playable and everyone was happy to be able to don their whites again. Cuckfield won the toss and chose to field and after the first 10 overs Newhaven had only got to 35 mainly with some solid defence from opening pair Ashley Robins (6) and Danny Pollard (16).

Then the wickets started to fall with Adam Jull (2-18), Bryce Van Straaten (2-29) and Will Ward (2-48) making use of the bowling friendly conditions. However, with wickets in hand, Newhaven accelerated towards the back end of their innings with Marcus Richmond (65) and Ryan Dinnage (37) helping post 198.

Cuckfield start slowly and with some really accurate bowling from Daniel Norwood (4-20) and Oliver Wells (2-8) including a hatrick delivery at one point, Cuckfield limped to 25 for 4 after 10 overs.

The pressure continued with Ben Dinnage (2-42) and Gary Easton (2-48) with Cuckfield reliant on Richard Loveridge (63) and Barry South (30) as the only two batters to reach double figures. Eventually, Cuckfield were bowled out for 121. Newhaven deserved the victory on a wicket that was tough to bat on.

BUXTED PARK CC

Buxted Park welcomed in the 2023 competitive season by hosting a T20 double header on Saturday, with the 2nd XI hosting Willingdon and the 1st XI hosting Little Common Ramblers.The 2nd XI were first on the park, after winning the toss and electing to bowl in Game One. Martyn Collins (2/9) got the side off to a great start removing Lindop and skipper Packham for 4 apiece early on.

Josh Coleman (0/10 off 4 overs) held up his end economically well and facilitated the regular falling of wickets from the other end, with Cyster (2/15) and Chakravartty (3/10) working their way through the Willingdon middle order, meaning the visitors couldn't really get going especially with the slow outfield, owing to the wettest spring in living memory!

Pickard (14*) and Davies (10*) added some late runs for the batting side, getting their side up to a total of 66-7 from their 20 overs.Willingdon responded well, taking early weeks and leaving Buxted at a precarious 31-5 in their chase, thanks mostly to a fruitful spell from Eldridge (3/23). Ollie Read (17*) and Collins (13) came together at this point, adding a crucial 27 before the 6th wicket fell, leaving the batting side on the verge of victory.

When Read struck the ball through midwicket to the fence, Buxted were victorious by 4 wickets, a nervy chase, and certainly not a match for the batters! They will face either Crowhurst Park 2nd XI or Eastbourne 2nd XI in the next round of the T20 Trophy.Next up were the 1st XI in the T20 Cup against Division 4 side Little Common Ramblers. Losing the toss, Buxted Park were asked to bat first, probably a sensible decision by the visitors after watching Game One! Redding Barnes (33) and George Read (71) set about attempting to get off to a good start in what had been proven to be testing conditions in Game One.

Things started very positively with both finding the boundary (and beyond) regularly in the early stages of the innings. When Barnes fell, Buxted had a nice foundation of 54-1. Rist (4) came and went, making way for Iain Allan, who (very much in character) whacked the bowling attack to all parts of the ground, with each six travelling further than the last.

He eventually fell for 64 off of just 33 balls having hit 7 maximums, with the total at 173-3. Little Common ended well, with Khullar (2/44), Meadows (1/20) and Meredith (0/18) keeping Buxted at bay in the final exchanges of the innings, with the home side ending on 190-5. A strong score, but with the outfield speeding up and short boundaries to one side, it was certainly not out of reach at half time.However, any doubts were put to bed early on when openers bowlers Isaac Heater (2/24) and Craig Olive (1/14) removed the openers and the Little Common overseas in their first spells, leaving the visitors reeling at 16-3.

This brought Khullar (44) to the crease, who put up some good resistance, finding the boundary at regular intervals and keeping the Little Common score on the up. The steady flow of wickets also continued though, thanks to a wonderful quick bowling performance from Iain Allan (4-13) well and truly backing up his power hitting in the first innings.

The visitors eventually closed out their innings on 115-8, 75 runs short of Buxted’s total, who move in to the next round against neighbours Mayfield.

GLYNDE CC

Glynde's friendly fixture on Saturday was once again cancelled due to an unfit ground at Haywards Heath and the 1st xl will start their League Division 3 East campaign at home to Preston Nomads II this Saturday with a 12.30 start and will follow that up on the Sunday with a home 3rd round match against Findon in the National Village Cup with a 1.00pm start.

Please do come along and support the lads, as they do appreciate your support in these matches.

Meanwhile the 2nd XI became the first team to complete a match this season, when they played a re-arranged League game against Newhaven in Division 7 east.

Newhaven won the toss and elected to field first and James Peck with 25 and Fred Withers 17 got Glynde off to a steady start, with a partnership of 42. Charlie Silvester then gave the innings some impetuous, scoring 59 as he struck 7 6's and was well supported by Elliott Churton 17 and Dominic Harris 15.

Mile Brooks then added a quickfire 21, before Glynde were bowled out for 182. Heshan Thamoda 3-12, Ian Robinson 2-35 and Daryl Tullett 2-47 were the most sucessful bowlers for Newhaven.

Newhaven's reply got off to a poor start, as they lost 4 wickets for 33, due in the main to some fine bowling from Mike Brooks 4-11. Billy Khan got a very impressive 89 and looked like getting Newhaven close, however only Orren Wileman 13 was able to reach double figures and the rest of the batting collapsed to Gavin Sutherland 3-28 and David Clarks late 2-25, which was supported by some very fine catching by Glynde's 2nd team, who play the return fixture at Newhaven this Saturday.