Sidley suffer opening day shocker

SIDLEY began their centenary cricket season in just about the worst possible fashion last weekend.

The Gullivers side suffered an embarrassing 10-wicket drubbing at the hands of Stirlands after being skittled for just 44 - one of Sussex Division Two's lowest totals in years.

Just four Sidley batsmen got off the mark and the match was all done and dusted in one ball more than 29 overs.

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"It was just a lack of practice really," was the explanation of captain Jonathan Haffenden. "We haven't really had the best of pre-season warm-ups with (the friendly against) Hastings being rained-off.

"Everyone was just so out of practice and it showed. We had a few unlucky wickets and they bowled fairly well so I can't really take it away from them. There's nothing really you can say about it."

Sidley, who staged a relatively low key in-house match among club members the previous week, actually got off to a comparatively reasonable start.

Openers Steve Reeves (17) and Phil Belfield got the scoreboard up and running, but once Belfield was bowled for six, the domino effect began. The next three batsmen all came and went without scoring before Haffenden (6) and Chris Deeprose (12) provided a modicum of support to Reeves.

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None of the final four batsmen troubled the scorers, though, and the innings was wrapped up in a mere 21.4 overs. Danny Cox wrought most of the havoc by taking 7-18 from 11 overs.

Unusually none of the batsmen were out to catches and, worryingly for Sidley, all bar one of the wickets was bowled.

Nick Hunt (28 not out) and Andrew Isaac (12 not out) had little trouble in completing the formalities for the away side, scoring the required 45 runs in seven-and-a-half overs.

Chris Deeprose bowled three overs for just four runs before being taken off with a pulled muscle he had tweaked in the nets two days beforehand.

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