Middleton depose leaders Horsham - Bognor beaten - West Wittering tonk Trinity

Middleton v Horsham - Sussex premier

Middleton enjoyed a fine and comfortable win over Sussex Premier leaders Horsham at Sea Lane.

Having won the toss on a hot summer’s day the visitors chose to have a bat on another welcoming looking wicket for batsmen.

George Briance removed the dangerous Tom Johnson early on, after which Will Beer, who has just left Sussex, put together a nice partnership with Joe Willis.

The pair took the score up to 89 before a flurry of three quick wickets from Sam Green and Ajit Sambhi swung the momentum back in the home side’s favour.

The ball with which Green removed Beer was the pick of the bunch, a beautiful leg spinner that clipped the top of the batter’s off stump.

Oliver Haines batted nicely through the middle overs, holding the innings together for a brilliant 99, but with wickets falling at regular intervals he was forced to play one shot too many and was agonisingly last man out one short of a century.

Chasing 254 to win the home side lost skipper Sean Heather early.

Harry Hovey played in his usual aggressive manor to take the score up to 55 before he was dismissed.

From that point on it was all about a superb partnership between Mason Robinson and Mahesh Rawat, the pair adding 188 for the 3rd wicket.

Robinson fell just short of a maiden league century for a brilliant 91, while Rawat went on to convert yet another marvellous unbeaten century.

The pair batted aggressively and positively which meant the runs were knocked off in the 38th over giving Middleton an excellent seven-wicket victory against a very good Horsham team who were knocked off top spot as a result.

Roffey v Bognor - Sussex Premier

Bognor's undefeated run came to an end against table toppers Roffey.

Batting first on a tough, turning wicket, a collection of Bognor players got starts, but none made the telling contribution necessary to post a large score, as Harnoop Kalsi finished with 5-31.

The innings was stopped briefly by a crippling blow to Ben Woolnough's 'abdomen' as he tried to evade a shot from Nick Stobart. Crucially, no long-term damage appears to have been done – apart from to his protective box.

In reply, Roffey's Mike Norris played the innings which defined the match, surviving two early chances to score 93*, including seventeen fours and one six.

He was ably supported by Matt Davies' 38 not out, with Jamie Woolnough's 2-49 the only bright spot for the away side. Bognor take on Brighton at home on Saturday.

Horsham Trinity v West Wittering - Division 4 West

West Wittering demolished Horsham Tirinty by 263 runs to maintain a good lead at the top of the table.

With the sun blazing down and the toss won by Brandon Trimmer, West Wittering chose to bat first.

They had a rapid start with run-a-ball Ted Bloomfield scoring 45 and the impressive Gareth Lendrum 129 from just 92 balls.

With five towering maximins. Sam Caddy struck a a superb 82 not out – with the skipper Trimmer helping himself to 41 from his 31 balls.

James Munro had a part to play with 12 off seven and every batsman hit sixes and fours - striking 14 maximins in a total of 340-3 off 45 overs

Only Rohan Patel with 2-40 and Leon Donnelly 1-88 came out with anything to show for Trinity’s bowling efforts.

Wickets fell on a regular basis in the reply with Daniel Robinsoin 16, Patel 10, Donnelly 14 the only batsmen to reach double figures.

However extras with the help of wides top scored with a total of 17 as the home team scrabbled to 77 all out from 16 overs.

Pick of the bowling was Joe Pink with 3-3, Jordan Deer 3-29, Munro 3-38 and Alex Salmon 1-7.

West Wittering have a comfortable lead at the top by 51 points but they know they can be caught – especially with Middleton at home to face next week.

Bognor 2nd v Clymping - Division 6 West

Gary Maskell struck an exceptional 133* and Oliver Handson 68 as Bognor posted 294-3.

The home side rattled through the Clymping batting, bowling them out for 147Josh Broad the pick, taking 4-12.

Slinfold 2nd v Aldwick - Division 6 West

Valuable wins for both Aldwick league sides started with Aldwick ones’ defeat of Slinford by five wickets.

It featured a top all-round bowling performance skittling out the home side for just 109 in 29 overs despite opener Roshan Gamage (52) making an half century.

Gamages's opening partner Muhammad Zahoor fell for a duck thanks to Ian Horner’s (2-13) impressive opening spell..

Inconsistent batting meant No10 batsmen Mubbasar Hussain (18*) was the only other one to make double figures.

The Slinfold batsmen had to contend with the consistent bowling attack of Josh Kemp (2-30), Luke Barnes (2-11) , and Ollie Smith (4-27) taking his 700th wicket for his club.

A half century opening partnership from Alex Cooper (35) and Liam Tinson (13) helped Aldwick on their way, and after a few wobbles along the way, Bhumin Upadhyay (26) saw them home crossing the line in the 23rd over finishing on 115-5.

This weekend Aldwick play Pagham.

Aldwick 2nd v Arundel 3rd - Div 12 West South

Aldwick twos were able to set Arunde threes a massive 229 for victory and with an opening partnership of 149 from James Bird (96) and Charlie Foster (44) an unlikely win for the visitors looked on the cards.

But the Aldwick bowlers bounced back taking wickets at regular intervals with Alex Ryder (4-33) top of the pile, followed by contributions from Ian Guppy (1-42) and Frankie Bigwood (1-49) which left Arundel 20 runs short on 207-8 at the end.

Aldwick's runs were provided by top scorer Dion Sampson (63), followed by good knocks from Matthew Tozer (32), Jake Merrett (36) and Frankie Bigwood (33)) and the wickets were taken for Arundel by Toby Pearce (3-28), James Bird (2-26) and Alex Bullen (2-16).

Aldwick travel to Goring this weekend.

West Wittering 2nd v Ifield 3rd - Division 9 West

Witterings captain Marc Slowey won the toss and elected to bat.

Opener Mark Taylor was dismissed by a sharp catch in the gully for 15. Zach Stewart was joined by fellow teenager Will Finch but Finch was run out for 21.

Andrew Priest and Stewart took Wittering past the 200, both scoring 50s – Stewart’’s his first one.

Stewart went on to get his 100, a feat acknowledged by the opposition and on the sidelines by his team-mates.

The icing on the cake was a six of the penultimate ball by Priest to conclude his fine chanceless innings of 87 not out and take West Wittering twos to 249-2.

Wittering opening bowlers Kieran Baker (2-25) and Andrew Priest (3-31) picked up the first five wickets for under 50 with Ifield never looking like getting close, bar an excellent 50 from Hrishikesh Mitra, to the total set.

The remaining wickets taken by veterens Kevin Allsobrook (2-17) and Mark Brien (2-38) including a bizarre run out of the luckless Tamoor Ul Haq.

Wittering won by 112 rums and the 30 points leave them third and pushing for a promotion place.