Roffey suffer surprise defeat - Horsham win at Cuckfield

Leaders Roffey crashed to their first defeat of the season at Haywards Heath after being bowled out for just 80.

The hosts were soon 19-2 when Freddie Price and Toby Munt – both newly signed by Sussex for their One Day Cup squad – each took a wicket during impressive opening spells.

Umar Amin and Baalaa Khan rebuilt with 38 and 23 respectively before skipper Jonny Phelps, a former Roffey player, made 45 and Jethro Menzies top scored with 56.

From 191-5 with 13 overs remaining a real challenge loomed, but a new signing, 21-year-old Trinidadian slow left armer Andrew Rambaran, took 4-30 on debut, and with Oscar Harman grabbing two scalps, the last five wickets fell for just 23 runs, allowing Roffey 57 overs to get 215.

Roffey’s batting has been consistent, and even without the prolific Lachlan Shaw, back in Australia to play for their A team against New Zealand, the target looked modest.

But things started badly and from 6-2 with only Price, Munt, and Ben Remfry subsequently reaching double figures, Roffey subsided to 80 all out, losing by 134 runs in 29.5 overs to a mixture of a few injudicious shots, competitive bowling and increasingly enthusiastic appealing.

Freddie Wallis took 3-9 and Menzies 3-24 while Amin finished with 2-5 and Ollie Moore 2-26.

Roffey skipper Sam Henderson told the County Times: “We were in a good place until halfway, then unfortunately our innings was one to forget and now we move on and work even harder to make sure we win next week. On a brighter note we were really impressed with Rambo (Rambaran).”

In a busy home weekend, Roffey host closest rivals Middleton on Saturday, and take on Hastings in the Quarter Final of the Sussex T20 Cup on Sunday,

In the previous four weeks Horsham have beaten Bognor and Three Bridges, come within a whisker of a win at Hastings and had a very creditable draw against high scoring Preston Nomads. And their much-improved form continued with an excellent, emphatic victory at Cuckfield.

The hosts chose to bat and at halfway were 89-2. Josh Gander proved adhesive, batting for three hours and a quarter, eventually being run out by Bertie Foreman for 144.

Josh Downey made 43 and Ben Candfield 30, Horsham sticking to their task with three wickets apiece for Oliver Avinou and Foreman, Cuckfield accelerating to 294-8 from 58 overs.

Horsham began with an opening partnership of 134, Max Barson departing for 62. Another wicket fell on 165, but that was it for Cuckfield, skipper Will Beer finishing unbeaten on a run-a-ball 139, accompanied by wicketkeeper Louie Lawrence (67 not out), the pair hitting 21 fours and seven sixes between them, romping home with overs to spare, with Cuckfield bowling just two maidens.

Beer said: “We have a few players back which always helps. Fingers crossed we can carry on the momentum and who knows where we might end up?”

On Saturday West Chiltington visit Horsham.

In the Club Cricket Conference Cup for the Bertie Joel Trophy Roffey had already eliminated Normandy from the Surrey Championship and Blackheath from Kent’s premier league, but in Sunday’s quarter-final they bowed out to visiting East Molesey, who are top of Surrey’s top flight.

Choosing to bat first, Roffey recovered from 27-3 thanks to 34 from Ben Remfry and 30 from Andrew Rambaran, but with tight bowling containing progress, they were also indebted to skipper Sam Henderson top-scoring with 45, supported by 26 from Ben Whelpton as they posted 198-9 from their 45 over ration delivered by seven EM bowlers.

Defending a modest total demanded early inroads but the visitors put on 83 for the first wicket. Whelpton had two further successes to finish with 3-38, but an undefeated 66 from Marcus Campopiano, who plays ODIs for Italy, enabled EM to storm to victory by seven wickets