Sidley fall short in run chase

Sidley, who narrowly lost out in another close-fought contest at Bexhill in their opening game the previous week, were just 12 runs short of beating visiting Roffey.

"We were unlucky not to win," said Sidley captain Eddie Daniels, whose brother, Jake, made his 1st XI debut. "We just ran out of overs really, but I was very pleased with the performance to be honest. They probably put on 20 more runs than we should have let them, but we were pleased to have restricted them to less than 200. I thought it was an excellent bowling performance. Peter King (who took 4-38 off 17 overs) bowled very well and the other bowlers supported him really well.

"I thought we were going to chase them down to be honest. I wanted Scott Woodroffe to be the mainstay of the innings and that's exactly what he did (making 66 from 46 overs at the crease). We thought we were in a position to win it then, but they tightened us up and it wasn't to be. It was a little bit disappointing, but we were the only side that was going to win the game so it's encouraging from that perspective."

After the early loss of Pakistani, Rizwan Ahmed (9), Woodroffe and debutant Phil Belfield (24) put Sidley back in the frame for chasing a total of 185-8. Richard Matthews (39) made useful runs in the middle-order, but Sidley, who in keeping with league rules faced six fewer overs than their opponents as a consequence of batting second, couldn't quite keep up with the required rate.

Their bowling performance, broadly speaking, revolved around King and Asghar Ramzan (3-51 off 18 overs). King made the initial breakthrough straight after switching to bowl down the hill, trapping Mike Norris leg before for six.

Josh Fleming (24) and Greg Burgess (88) consolidated for the visitors, but they were made to work hard by the Sidley bowlers with just 49 runs being scored from the first 20 overs. Fleming's departure prompted a mini-collapse to 93-5, a spell during which Simon Shivnarain was brilliantly run-out by Guy Montgomery at square leg.

Asghar, like Mo Butt the previous week, ripped through the middle-order on something of a guest appearance, but the 13 runs scored by number nine George Fleming turned out to be crucial in the final analysis.