Littlehampton crash by 178 runs in opening game at Bognor

LITTLEHAMPTON Cricket Club made the worst possible start to their Sussex League Division 3 West campaign on Saturday when they lost by 178 runs at Bognor Regis.

It seemed like nothing went right for Littlehampton skipper Dan Rive from the moment he won the toss and stuck Bognor into bat.

Max Ashmore, who went on to score 109 not out, was dropped three times before he had even reached double figures.

He was dropped twice on nought, by Dan Rive diving forward at mid-off, and by Ryan Budd, with a hard chest-height chance at mid-on.

Wicketkeeper Darren Bazley also put Ashmore down when he had scored one, before he was also dropped again late in his innings.

Ashmore and Luke Seward, who was out for 37, put on 60 for the opening wicket, before Rob Willway joined Ashmore at the crease.

Willway fell three runs short of his century after putting on 206 for the second wicket with Ashmore as Bognor set Littlehampton a formidable target.

Rive felt the total was too many to chase, so Littlehampton set about trying to get 200 for as many points as possible but things went horribly wrong between the seventh and 27th overs when Littlehampton lost eight wickets.

The last pair of Ryan Budd and Tim Nicholson managed to bat out the best part of 10 overs before Nicholson was out and Littlehampton were all out for 104 in 37.3 overs.

New overseas player Sajid Khan top-scored with 28, while Nicholson added 18.

Rive said: “We couldn’t have got off to a much worse start.

“We had chances to get Ashmore out but, bowling wise, we bowled too full and too straight.

“On the whole, the bowling was all right but we just bowled a four ball every over.

“Had we taken our chances, we could have had them 20-2. Instead, their hard-hitting Australian, Michael Spaseki, came in at about 220-2 and had no pressure on him. It might have been a different story if we’d got early wickets.

“We wanted to bat sensibly in our innings and try to get 200 but they bowled well.

“It wasn’t like we threw our wickets away.”

Littlehampton host Slinfold on Saturday and are hopeful that Chris Heberlein, who scored 79 for the 2nd team on Saturday, will be back available.