Invitation League round up: Harding keeps Southwater’s unbeaten run going and things click for Barns Green

Despite a number of dropped catches in the field Selsey were restricted to 199-7.

In reply opener Harding almost batted right the way through before falling for 93, and knocks from Johann Brouwer (26) and Paul Osbourne (37) provided the support to hand them a four-wicket win. Harding said: “I wasn’t happy at all with around seven dropped catches, five of them were off Danny Humphreys alone and we should have bowled them out for a lot less.

“My aim was to bat all the way through so I was a little disappointed to get out near the end. I’ve made 46, 48 and now 93 so hopefully next week will be my day.”

Southwater are third, with a game in hand on the top-two having been a little unlucky with the weather and Harding added: “At the moment we’re still unbeaten and if we can keep that going we’ll be up there, our ambition is still to win the league definitely.”

Elsewhere in Division 1, Portslade overcame West Chilt & Thakeham at the Portslade Cricket Ground.

Portslade inserted their visitors, who were going along nicely at 96 when the second wicket fell and were promptly skittled for 146.

Paul Glover and Steve Case took nine wickets with Tom Chambers and Iain Haggart both making 40.

In reply, Chilt’s bowlers gave them a chance with James Chaloner bagging yet another five-for, but Portslade scrambled home seven down. Chilt skipper Grant Morrish said: “Not good enough. We started to feel sorry for ourselves midway through our innings and again in theirs.”

In Division Two Broadbridge Heath are the early league leaders after another top class bowling display against Scaynes Hill.

After his eight-wicket haul last week, Fred Bridges claimed 5-31 and Heath’s two other spinners also impressed, Jeff Dawe with 1-24 and Asim Mohammed 3-10.

Chasing 102, openers Jordan Ruff and Matt Tyson (25) made 70 for the first wicket, and though four wickets did fall quickly Ruff carried his bat for an unbeaten 59 and Neil Charman, with 12 not out, helped them over the line.

Heath skipper Craig Skilton said: “It was the first toss I’ve won so it was nice to have the choice to bowl first. Most teams we face say we have the best spin attack in our league this year, they are all exceptional bowlers.”

Storrington 212-7

Crawley Eagles 78 all out

Also in Division Two a comprehensive 134-run success over Crawley Eagles saw Storrington claim their first league win of the season.

Asked to bat first, Matt Cordwell opened with 41, and a top score of 65 from Martin Fisher, along with late knocks from Luke Talbot (30 not out) and Dan Wheatley (17 not out) saw the visitors make 212-7.

In reply Eagles were knocked off for just 73 with three Storrington bowlers taking three wickets. Dan Wright was 3-28, Matt Pickard 3-5 and Lawrence Green 2-3.

Matt Bassett promised to get Barns Green’s batting right and they did just that to beat Worthing by 50 runs in Division Three.

And it was skipper Bassett leading from front as he and fellow opener Adam Rice made a century each to score all of Green’s 247 runs before declaring early.

Bassett was then delighted that his bowlers struck to their task despite Worthing openers Tim Dunn (82) and Tom Chambers (34) making 127 for the first wickets, to bowl the hosts out for 197.

Bassett said: “We had a couple of batsmen and bowlers back this week and myself and Adam (118 off 126 balls) batted well and stuck to our task against some good bowling. I knew we had the players so it was a matter of time before we got it right.

“They then batted really well but Under-16 Ryan Johnson (2-23) came in, took a couple of wickets and that set us up for victory. Stephen Courquin then took five wickets and our other two bowled well too, I was very pleased with how they comeback into it.”

Ant Eely believes his Partridge Green side still have an outside chance of challenging for the Division Four title if they can reproduce this kind of form every week.

Eely and Greg Adlam took four wickets apiece as Littlehampton were bowled out for 132 on their own deck.

In reply Joe Tourle continued his form with 68 as Green got to their target in 25.5 overs.

“It was a fantastic all-round team performance,” Eely beamed. “They won the toss and chose to bat and got off to a flier with around 40 for none from the first six overs. But once we took both openers that was it really, we bowled really well and took a couple of fantastic catches as well.”

In reply Barry Dumbrill also hit 24, but Tourle “not only batted well but quickly” to see them home and Eely added: “We are third from bottom but have already had our week off and if we can carry on playing like this the league is still not out of our reach.”