Johnson furious as derby game with Roffey is rained off

The Premier Division leaders had made a good start to the game on Saturday, restricting the visitors to 146-6 from 50 overs.

Roffey’s opening batsman Liam Gibson scored 54, which included six boundaries and a six, while he and Theo Rivers (19) put on 53 for the first wicket.

Rohit Jagota picked up the pace, scoring 35 in 40 balls and was not out when the game was brought to a premature end.

The game had suffered a few interruptions through rain and a final downpour caused the umpires to abandon the game.

Horsham’s bowlers emerged with much credit, 17-year-old Sussex Academy player Tom Haines took 3-47.

Spinner Will Beer - playing despite playing for Sussex the following day in their NatWest T20 Blast match against Gloucestershire - also put in a fine display, taking 2-37 off 15 economical overs.

But Horsham were left frustrated with the match being rained off prematurely, ruling out their chances of opening up a bigger lead at the top of the table, especially after the sun soon came out over Cricketfield Road.

Johnson said: “We should be playing, it’s as simple as that - black and white. The umpires are just doing their job at the end of the day and safety comes into it.

“Maybe from our point of view they are being a bit overly safe, or maybe they thought it was going to rain again later.

“We offered to put some coconut matting down to the left to cover the whole strip to stop people running on to a greasy pitch, which is what they use in first class cricket to stop people slipping.

“It wouldn’t have been an easy task on the pitch we were playing on. It was tough to bat on and it was bowling-conducive.

“I would have backed us to have hit the target, Roffey would have been given another six overs to bat and had added another 20 runs making a total of 166.

“I thought we bowled really well, really patiently. We will have bowled a lot more dot balls this season compared with the past. We took our chances - all of them collectively well.

“Jonathan Whiting and Sam Cushing bowled very well - they were going at one per over at one point.

“I was impressed with Tom Haines. He bowled tight, with variation and put them under pressure by bowling some dot balls.

“Will Beer is a professional cricketer and you would expect him to bowl well when he plays for Horsham.

“But you can’t take that away from him. When he does turn up for us he is invaluable. He is a massive energy-booster and is a massive help.”

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