Picture special: Horsham beat Roffey to march on at top of Sussex Premier

Roffey won the toss, and, seeking points, elected to bat, but Horsham bowled very tightly, restricting Roffey to 94-1 at the half way stage of their innings.

Again, Matt Davies was the main contributor, finishing with an unusually patient 87 after last week’s collapse.

There were 20s from Theo Rivers, Aaron Joby, Toby Munt and Frankie Cripps, but a rapid 47 was needed from wicketkeeper Sajeer Nizam to enable Roffey to post a 269 target, after Bertie Foreman had dismissed the first three batsmen.

See Jenny Willis’ pictures from Roffey-Horsham on this page and those linked.

Joe Willis and Will Beer put on 90 for Horsham’s first wicket, and after Willis departed for 43, Roffey were jubilant when Horsham’s prolific overseas star Matt de Villiers, castled by Will Fenwick, only lasted two balls, after clubbing a four off the first.

Beer, though, kept going, accompanied by Nick Oxley (32). Riding his luck, Beer was dropped four times, firstly on 44 (and Oxley once), but his 108 included 11 elegant fours and 3 sixes, keeping Horsham in tune with the run chase.

At 211-4, with 58 still needed – Fenwick having taken all the wickets – there was a slight wobble, but, any encouraging thoughts that Roffey might have had were soon quashed by Foreman’s unbeaten 61 from 35 balls, featuring 5 fours and 4 maximums, Horsham winning by six wickets with two overs and strong batting to spare.

Roffey were hampered by Munt’s injury preventing him from bowling, but Horsham were without both Sam Martin-Jenkins and Charlie Tear, who recently scored a triple century for Sussex.

Horsham remain top, 18 points above Preston Nomads (who walloped East Grinstead), with Three Bridges now third – after seeing off Middleton - and Roffey slipping to fourth. After losing again, both Ifield and Bognor stay in the relegation zone.

Approaching the halfway point of the season, Horsham skipper Beer told the County Times: “That was a great win, we’re playing really nicely with lots of contributions from different players.

"It was as good a bowling performance from our seamers for a long time, and, chasing the score down there were good partnerships all the way, with Bertie finishing the game off in great style.

"We’re not getting ahead of ourselves – its game by game, but the results have been positive and we want to keep playing well and developing our younger players while helping the more senior players to put in match winning performances.”

Roffey skipper Sam Henderson said: "For the majority of the game we gave Horsham a real run for their money, but it was a disappointing result for us. However, there were a lot of good areas that we can take confidence in going forward."

On Saturday (July 5), Horsham host Haywards Heath, while Roffey travel to Three Bridges. Other fixtures: Bognor v East Grinstead, Ifield v Middleton and Preston Nomads v Cuckfield.