Cuckfield aim for third – Worthing so close again – Haywards Heath need last-day victory

Cuckfield CC could still finish third in the Sussex Premier League – with a one-wicket win at relegated Worthing keeping those hopes alive last weekend.

They go into their final game this Saturday – at home to Preston Nomads – knowing a win could see them leapfrog Horsham to clinch a third-place finish.

Wherever they finish it’s been a decent season for the team, even if they have not quite reached the heights of last year, when they won the Sussex Premier.

At Worthing, it was a close call.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat and knocks of 87 from overseas star Campbell Macmillan and 48 from ick Ballamy took them to 232 all out.

William Goss took 3-51, Greg Wisdom 2-39 and four other bowlers each took one wicket.

In reply, Cuckfield lost Joe Cambridge first ball but Wes Marshall (24) and Dom Sear (38) got the scoreboard moving.

Chippingdale are champs – here’s a picture special from clash with Ansty.

There were contributions right through the order with Brad Gayler hitting 25, Will Nolan 24 and Aidan Drew 22 – but when Cuckfield lost their ninth wicket with 36 still needed it looked bleak.

But Worthing could not break the final partnership and Goss (25no) and Sam Candifled (17no) got Cuckfield home with a wicket to spare.

Saturday’s visitors Noamds have it all to play for – they’re level on points at the top with Three Bridges going into the final weekend.

Worthing went close to another win – as they have done many times this season – but ended up losing by one wicket to Cuckfield in the Sussex Premier Division.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat and knocks of 87 from overseas star Campbell Macmillan and 48 from Nick Ballamy took them to 232 all out.

In reply, Cuckfield had contributions right through the order but Giorgio Rigali took 3-47 and George Hannington-Hodge 2-21 to keep it interesting.

Cuckfield lost their ninth wicket with 36 still needed but Worthing could not break the final partnership and Will Goss and Sam Candfield got Cuckfield home.

Worthing skipper Darryl Rebbetts said: “It was a tough one to take – we've shown we're good enough to compete at this level but we've not got over the line enough.

“That’s frustrating and something we need to look at individually and collectively over the winter and before we make our attempt to get back up to the Premier Division.

“I want to congratulate Campbell Macmillan and Nick Ballamy who w e re excellent again. Both contributed 500 each this season, a n outstanding effort.”

Ifield v Haywards Heath

Division 2

Haywards Heath’s promotion hopes come down to their final game this Saturday after they lost to Ifield to hand the Crawley side the title.

Heath were 226 all out before Ifield reached the target with only two wickets down.

It means they go to Burgess Hill on Saturday needing to outscore West Chilts – who are level on points with them and visit Nomads twos – to claim the second promotion spot.

St James could take it if both slip up

Heath skipper Callum Smith said: “Obviously Saturday was disappointing.

"We felt that we were maybe 25 or 30 short in terms of posting a total but credit to Ifield – their slow bowlers did a good job in the middle overs.

"Having 226 on the board, we knew early wickets would be key but we couldn’t get the breakthroughs we needed.

"Ifield’s overseas (Raminda Wijesooriya) hit one of the best 100s any of use had seen in a long time.

"The outcome is still in our hands – a win this week should see us promoted but we would like to have won the league.

"We head to Burgess Hill fully focused on getting the job done.”

Cuckfield 2nd v Seaford

Division 3 East

Cuckfield are seventh in the table after a crucial 31-run win.

Dan Turner’s 35 was the highlight of their total of 194 and Will Broyd and Jason Oates each took three wickets as the visitors were bowled out for 164.

Chippingdale clinched the Sussex Division 4 West title last week through all matches being rained off.

And when they got back on the field on Saturday, they couldn’t quite celebrate with a victory.

Earlier in the season Chippingdale had successfully chased down 235 at the Ansty ground.

On Saturday at the Rotary Ground the boot was on the other foot.

Chipps skipper Josh Bourne won the toss and elected to bat on a wicket which turned out to be a bit of challenge.

Early wickets fell before a nice partnership between Bourne and Cameron Meads of 96 steadied the ship.

After Meads was out it was left to skipper Bourne to take Chipps to a challenging score of 222-8 - scoring a great 106 off 111 balls.

This was his first century of the season and a timely return to form.

Into bat went Ansty and their innings followed a similar pattern to that of Chipps, falling to 15-2 and then 89-3.

Some tight bowling by Daniel Allwright and Lewis Wells tied Ansty down but a partnership of 123 between Tommy Green and Thomas van der Jeugd meant this was going to be a exciting finish.

Two quick wickets fell but an over which saw 19 runs off it by van der Jeugd including three big sixes took him to a great century.

The game was still in the balance with seven needed off the last over.

Ansty sealed the win with one ball to spare, with van der Jeugd finishing unbeaten on 128.

They took home 30 points and firmed up second place in Division 4 West.

It was a great game played in excellent spirit.

It’s the last round of games this weekend with Chippingdale making the trip to West Wittering to try to finish a fantastic season on a high and look forward to being back in Division 3 West.

Southwick & Shoreham v Coleman’s Hatch

Division 8 Central

They say revenge is sweet – and so it proved for a strong Wickers line-up as they exacted vengeance on a side that had played them off the park just a short while ago.

The day began well when skipper Tom Bell won the toss and decided to field, a decision that paid dividends at a cloudy and cold Buckingham Park as opening bowlers Harry Sutton and Gary Mussen restricted the Hatch openers to a meagre diet of hittable balls.

Abishek Chaudhary fell for a duck to the pacy Sutton and at the 10-over mark only 20 runs were in the scorer’s book for the loss of two wickets.

A partnership between Steve Pollard and Bercor saw the Foresters inch toward a score until Isaac Olympios came on and bowled Pollard for 34, which bought dangerman Steve Meredith to the crease.

Olympios was in fiery mood and bowled his man with a beauty.

With that dismissal any hope of a decent score subsided as Bercor was dismissed for his side’s top score of 34 to a quality stumping by Craig Dawson off leggy Harry Dorgan.

Olympios took a further wicket and Harry Cracknell bagged his obligatory run-out as Coleman’s Hatch limped to 110-9.

The bowling figures made magnificent reading as Sutton took 2-26 from nine overs, Olympios 3-16 off six – but special mention should go to Mussen as he bowled five maidens and took two wickets for 11 runs.

Mussen is the leading maiden bowler in the division.

In response S&S were in no mood to dilly-dally in reaching the target with Dean Ghasemi playing some perfectly timed cuts at anything wide and quickly taking the game away from the away XI.

Given support by Paul Hudson (12) and Cracknell (13), Ghasemi looked good to carry his bat until he fell hit wicket on 72. The Wickers cruised to victory in 20 overs only three down.

Bell said: “It was fantastic to end our season at Buckingham Park with an emphatic victory, built upon an exceptional performance in the field.”