Southwater’s Danny enjoys day to remember

To make the day all the sweeter, his heroics with both bat and ball saw him almost single-handedly earn a victory over Southwick which lifted Southwater to the top of Division One of the Invitation League.

“It was a good day, I was really chuffed,” said Humphreys, who was club captain for five seasons and has been at Southwater for 20 years. “We’re a bit light at the moment, missing maybe five or six players, and we found ourselves in a bit of trouble at 17-4.

“I came in thinking I just have to be stubborn and bat the overs, and once I got in scoring runs became easier and I was over the moon to get to 100.”

Humphreys’ heroics saw him hit 106 of his side’s 196 runs and he wasn’t finished there, taking outstanding figures of 8-34 as the hosts were bowled out for 164.

“I’ve not really had the best luck with the ball so far this season, last week I had five catches put down but thankfully everything I tried came off this week,” he said.

“I did take an eight-for last season but I’ve never had a day quite like that where I also scored a hundred runs, it’s probably something you only do once or twice in your playing days.

“It feels like a great personal achievement but it would have been worthless if we hadn’t won the match, that made it all the sweeter.”

The victory maintained Southwater’s unbeaten start to the season and saw them leapfrog Felbridge & Sunnyside, who lost and who they play this Saturday in a crucial encounter.

“The last couple of years we’ve only narrowly missed out on promotion to Crawley Eagles last year and Wisborough Green the year before, both of whom deserved it, but I really feel this could be our year,” he added.