Eastbourne Men's 1st X1 finish in style and 2nd X1 are crowned champions

Eastbourne Senior Mens Cricket teams ended their 2026 campaign with a hugely successful season with the 1st X1 ending up joint runners up in The Sussex League Div 2 League, and the 2nd X1 being crowned champions of Div 5 East and securing their promotion to Div 4 East next season.

The 1st X1 came within just 32 points behind winners Ifield in the end, and will take huge gratification from coming so close to promotion to the Premier division with such a young side, and should take pride in their performances throughout the season, although if just one or two results had gone differently they could have easily ended up being crowned champions, and this will be a huge learning curve for the young players.

Saturday saw a dominant performance in the their last game against Pagham at the Saffrons, with the the home side scoring an impressive 307-8 in their 40 overs, with overseas star Jack Shelley top scoring again with 95, which included 5 sixes, and Jack Meacher hitting 47 off 30 balls and Jacob Smith rounding off a great season with 39.

Pagham never really got going in reply, and found themselves 2-4 in just the second over, and although the away team rallied briefly with a stand of 65 before the next wicket fell, they were dismissed for just 140 with young rising talent Rupert Anderson enjoying his call back up to the 1st team being the pick of the bowlers ending up with impressive figures of 5-24 off just 5.5 overs.

It was a different story for the 2nd X1 as they beat Ringmer, and could only wait to see if league leaders Ditchling slipped up against Hailsham 2nd X1, and it was an agonising wait unitl they news came that Ditchling had lost and Eastbourne were crowned champions. It has been an extrmely successful season for the 2nds who have been led by young captain Jamie Hamilton who has been a product of the colts system since the age of 8, as they have not only been gained champions of Div 5 East, they now look forward to the T20 finals at Hove on 20th September to achieve an impressive double.

The 3rd X1 ended up coming 7th in Div 7 East and the 4th X1 also doing well in Div 11 South East coming 4th.

Eastbourne will now look forward to next season with plenty of confidence and no doubt will aim to continue to push for promotion in all leagues.