Wergen wows 'em at Chichester Priory Park – Maskell can’t stop scoring for Bognor

Chichester Priory Park v Haywards Heath

Division 2

It was a record-breaking day for Chichester Priory Park CC’s first XI as they chased down 250 to beat Haywards Heath by nine wickets at Goodwood.

Haywards Heath won the toss on a glorious day and unsurprisingly elected to bat. The pitch was true and the Heath openers capitalised, racing past 50 inside the first 10 overs, with Jonny Phelps dominating the scoring.

He fell to Mike Smith (1-57) for 46 shortly after, and then Ben Gregory (1-31) took the edge of the Heath No3 to get Chichester right back in the game.Opener Jethro Menzies and skipper Callum Smith rebuilt added 81 for the third wicket before Elliot Scott (1-26) made the breakthrough, trapping Smith lbw.

The bowlers kept the scoring rate down, knowing their best opportunity of taking wickets on this pitch would be when the batters tried to accelerate towards the end of the innings.And so it proved, Tom Drake-Brockman ran out Menzies for a fine 93, and Matt Geffen (1-36) and Andrew Crookham (1-51) made late breakthroughs. Despite a late flurry of runs, the final total of 250-6 from 45 overs appeared very chaseable on this ground.

Tim Wergen and Mike Smith set the tone for the chase as they took 18 off the first two1 overs.

Both looked to attack anything slightly off-length and the scoreboard raced along. They ran well between the wickets, putting constant pressure on the bowlers and fielders.The hundred came up in just the 14th over, but Smith (34) fell shortly after, to Callum Smith, mistiming a pull shot that looped to mid-wicket and was caught.

Heath would have hoped the fall of a wicket would see a change of approach from Chichester, with new batter Bennison usually a more cautious batsman than Smith.

However Wergen continued his brutal assault all the way to his second hundred of the season, this one taking just 74 balls - a new league record for Priory Park’s 1st XI.

Bennison supported ably at the other end, combining sweeps and cuts with some aggressive running to bring up his 50 from just 42 deliveries.There was no let-up and despite Heath trying everything, Chichester completed the chase in just 29.4 overs to secure a memorable win.

Wergen finished 142 not out - his 2nd 140-plus not out score of the season, with Bennison playing the supporting role for his 54 not out.After securing back-to-back victories against two of the top three, Chichester take on St James’s Montefiore at Goodwood this week as they look to continue this form into the final stages of the season.

Horsham v Bognor

Sussex premier

Horsham’s chance of winning the league on their comeback from relegation was severely dented by Bognor at Cricketfield Road last Saturday.

Only previously beaten once at home this season, Horsham have bowled out the opposition five times to win in style.

But this time they came up against Bognor skipper Ryan Maskell, the crucial difference between the two sides.

Maskell’s unbeaten 125 saw Bognor to victory with 13.3 overs to spare.

Batting first, although eight batsmen reached double figures, Horsham, held back in the powerplay, never really got into top gear.

Captain Nick Oxley top scored with 47 while Nicholas Ballamy took 4-29 from his 10-over allowance.

Thinking that their 214-run target was short of what they had hoped for, Horsham had found the dry end of season wicket was not entirely straightforward, but Maskell was in a class of his own.

Having notched up the Premier League’s highest individual score of the season – 178 v Three Bridges in a 50-over game the week before – as a former Horsham player, joining the club to gain Premier experience, perhaps he had a point to prove.

He was certainly in prime form again, bringing up his century with a six, and hitting 12 fours and 7 life-endangering maximums, the next highest teammate’s score being 25. Horsham slip to third on 344 points, ahead of Bognor in fourth.

Aldwick v Steyning 2nd

Division 6 West

Aldwick were bowled out for just 112 but at 79-5 Steyning were struggling and an unlikely victory was on the cards.

That was until Tom Span (34 *) and Sam Hunt (7*) came together and prevented an upset and saw their team home by five wickets

Only Joel Lodge (30) and Bhumin Upadhyay (20) proffered any resistance to the Steyning bowling attack with Tim Humprey (4-30) leading the way for the visitors.

The Aldwick bowlers who caused Steyning to wobble a little were Luke Barker (2-24), Ian Horner (1-28) and Frankie Bigwood (1-34). This weekend Aldwick are away at Arundel.

Bognor 4th v Aldwick 2nd

Division 12 West (South)

Bognor batted first and piled on the runs, finishing at 224- 8 with Rich Hay top scoring with 67.

Aldwick's Dion Sampson's solid seven overs were rewarded with 3-55.

In rely, Aldwick opener Liam Tinson made 63 but after that it was the Christian Dew show.

Dew decimated the Aldwick batting line-up with an incredible 8-16 in 8.2 overs and gave his team an easy win by 90 runs.

This weekend Aldwick twos face Pagham.