Cup setbacks hit Horsham CC and Roffey CC ahead of league starts

Both our top local teams fell at he first hurdle in the league’s T20 Cup competition, Horsham losing to division three side Pagham and Roffey going out at Bognor.

Horsham were all out for 129 chasing 179 to win at Pagham.

They’ll need to sharpen up when they visit Hastings Priory for their premier division opener on Saturday.

Skipper Nick Oxley conceded: “It was a very disappointing result for us – we fell short in every department.

“Unfortunately we struggled to field a strong side. Pagham batted well on a good wicket, and we found it difficult to protect the short boundary, which cost us 50/60 runs.

“Overall it wasn’t a good day for us - we’ve always enjoyed playing in the cup finals at Hove.

“Now we’re looking to re-group and give Hastings a good game when we go there for the start of our Premier League programme on Saturday.”

Roffey were beaten by Bognor, a side they’ll be facing in the league this summer following the Regis Oval outfit’s promotion from division two last year.

Bognor batted first and scored 162-7 before Roffey’s response fell 20 short.

Roffey skipper Matt Davies told the County Times: “It was annoying to go out in the first round again after similar disappointment last year.

“We didn’t bowl well and we dropped four or five catches, and shouldn’t have allowed them get over 160.

“We batted okay, but if we’d had taken our chances and kept them down to 130/140 it would have been a different story.

“Its early season, but we’ve got to do better and will be training hard this week because we need a good start in the league.”

Roffey’s premier opener is at home to Brighton.

Praised by Davies for top-scoring for Roffey in the cup loss, Theo Rivers added: “We got close but they out-fielded us, which left us too much to do. It was frustrating as it was things that we should have controlled that were our undoing.”

Match reports

T20 cricket can be a banana skin for senior clubs, as serial cup winners Horsham discovered when they visited Division 3 West side Pagham at Nyetimber Lane last Saturday. The hosts posted a challenging score after being put in to bat, going on to win by 49 runs..

Pagham began strongly with a 73 run first wicket stand, Jack Stannard’s rapid 39 including 4 sixes, his opening partner, wicketkeeper Stuart Hanks, making a run a ball 49. Nick Smith then followed up with a blistering unbeaten 64 from just 29 balls, and although Paul Williams took two late wickets, the damage had already been done, Pagham finishing on 178-4

In reply, Horsham reached a promising 75-1, but, while new signing Ben Chappels hit a quick-fire 55, Horsham slid to 111-7, from which there could be no recovery. Smith rounded off his excellent game with 3-33, a trio of run outs at the hands of skipper Ryan Barratt sealing Horsham’s fate as they tumbled to 129 all out with 4 balls unused.

* Sussex Premier League newcomers Bognor Regis knocked aspiring Roffey out of the Sussex T20 Cup at the Regis Oval last Saturday after confidently electing to bat after winning the toss

Rohit Jagota took an early wicket for Roffey, but Bognor then batted soundly, with 42 from skipper Ryan Maskell and 50 from Nick Stobart, taking them through to 162-7 from their allocation - boosted by 25 extras - despite George Fleming’s three wickets.

Needing to set a sound platform from which to launch their chase, Roffey stuttered to 23-2, Mike Harris dismissing both openers. Theo Rivers then gave Roffey hope with his 45, backed by twenties from Captain Matt Davies and Jas Bassan. But, from 101-3, pressure to keep up with the required run rate caused wickets to fall all too regularly, Harris finishing with 3-27, Nick Stobart 2-26 and a pair of run outs restricting Roffey, enabling Bognor to win by 20 runs.

Roffey return to their Crawley Road base on Saturday for their first Premier League match of the new season – against old adversaries Brighton & Hove