Slinfold skipper says they need to win the majority of their games to beat drop

Worthing bowler Martyn Swift puts down a delivery as Slinfold's Sean Overton watches on. Picture by Stephen Goodger

He saw his side suffer a 174-run defeat away to a Worthing side that started the day level on points with them at the wrong end of the table.

Slinfold remain in the relegation places, second bottom and 26 points ahead of basement boys Three Bridges 2nd. Worthing now have a 23-point advantage in eighth.

Hughes was left frustrated at dropped catches on Saturday especially an early one on Worthing’s Mihir Tandel, who went on to score 125.

Having opened, he helped they amass 219-5 before being caught by Hughes off the bowling off Harrison Webb.

Tandel was assisted by Hamish Llewelyn (27), Nick Ballamy (25), Josh Goldsmith (55) and Giorgio Rigali (34) after they won the toss and posted an impressive 295-7 from 53 overs.

Webb was main wicket-taker for the visitors collecting three scalps although going for 92 runs in 15 overs.

In reply, it was an off day with the bat for Slinfold as they could muster just 121 in reply over 32.5 overs.

They quickly fell to 26-3, before Kemar Small (26) and Mushal Murad (33) added some resistance, but both were out with the score on 90-5.

Imran Shah (13) was the only other batsman to make double figures as Cameron New (4-28) ripped through the tail to inflict Slinfold’s seventh defeat of the season.

Hughes said: “It was obviously not the outcome we wanted in the match against Worthing who were a team on the same points tally as us at the start of the day.

“Credit to them they comprehensively outplayed us with both bat and ball, however, we did not help ourselves by dropping six catches when we were out in the field which enabled their opening bat to score a century.”

Slinfold have won just two of their ten matches this season and Hughes believes they now must record successes in the majority of their remaining fixtures to avoid relegation this season.

That will have to start with a home clash against fourth-placed Roffey 2nd on Saturday.

Hughes said: “Clearly we are now at the wrong end of the table at this point in the season and its going to take a lot of hard work, and some luck, to ensure that we can climb out of the relegation zone so that we remain in this league for next season.

“We believe we will have to win the majority of the remaining games this season to ensure that this is the case and we will be trying everything we can to do that.”