No favourites in Sussex cricket opener

Bexhill have made some high-profile signings since finishing bottom-of-the-table for the second successive campaign last time around, while Sidley have kept largely the same set of players that finished second-bottom in 2004.

"I wouldn't say we're favourites," said Bexhill skipper Steve Phillimore. "They've still got some good players and they've been better than us the last two years running. Bexhill and Sidley always is a good game."

"I think it will be tight," concurred Sidley captain Eddie Daniels. "It always is a close contest and it's nice to start with a local derby. The first game of the season is always important, but obviously with local rivalry thrown into the mix, it makes it a little bit tastier."

With regard to the season as a whole, both clubs are looking to move out of the bottom two positions they've occupied for the past two seasons.

"We're looking stronger than we have done in the last couple of seasons," Phillimore commented. "There's been a real feel-good factor to the club over the last three or four months, but we've got to show it on the pitch. My initial aim is to avoid struggling at the wrong end of the table. When we've played half a dozen league games, then I think we can assess where we should get to; it may be a promotion challenge, it may be mid-table."

"We're definitely looking to improve on last year's position," Daniels went on. "We want to finish as high up the league as possible and we want to be competitive in every game - that's what I will be asking of my team."

Bexhill are missing new signing Simon Bulteel and Jack Munro, while Sidley, whose Adam Berger has decided to hang up his spikes, are without Chris Hunnisett and Keith Luck.

Play at the Polegrove on Saturday April 30 starts at 1.15pm, as it does in the second team fixture between the two clubs at Gullivers.