HAILSHAM visited Lewes Priory looking to bounce back from their narrow defeat to Portslade a week prior.
Stand-in skipper Tom McDonald won the toss and elected to bowl on a blustery day.
James Bellett and Diesel Hallett opened the bowling, and it was the former that got the visitors off to an excellent start, taking two wickets in two balls to get the ball rolling. Hailsham took regular wickets throughout the innings, with Bellett and Ollie McDonald taking three a piece, and Simon Dunning and Michael Tutt taking 1 to restrict the hosts to 64-8. A strong 9 wicket partnership saw Priory boost themselves to a more respectable score, but good work from Harry Chatfield with a run out, and an LBW by Tom McDonald saw Lewes bowled out for 124, with Bellett (3-33) and Ollie McDonald (3-25) the stand out bowlers.
Peacock and Ollie McDonald started the chase positively, with both finding the boundary in the early overs. Both, however, we’re removed in an attempt to score quickly, and was soon followed by Dunning, leaving Hailsham in a precarious position of 51-3. A strong partnership from Wilkinson and Tom McDonald scuppered any hope of a Lewes fight back, as the pair killed any Priory momentum. Wilkinson was removed on the brink of victory, but this didn’t stop McDonald completing his fine 50 in the final exchanges, as Bellett hit the winning runs to secure a 5 wicket victory.
The Choice Medics Man of the Match goes to Tom McDonald, for an excellent 50* from 44 balls that saw Hailsham home.
Hailsham 2nd XI welcomed St Peter’s 2nd XI to the Rec looking to bounce back from a disappointing result the week before. Hailsham won the toss and bowled first, Matt Anthony (0-25) and Ralph Figgins (2-40) opened the bowling, Hailsham got an early breakthrough when Hollie Young took a good catch at short cover off the bowling of Figgins. Figgins took his second soon after, bowling the other St Peter’s opener, with the total at 26-2. Anthony kept it tight at the other end, his opening spell of five overs only going for seven runs. Shibin Abraham (2-27) and Matt Smith (0-21) took over the bowling duties, looking to build on the good early start. The next wicket came when the St Peter’s captain nicked off to Sully Hallett behind the stumps. Young (1-37) took over from Smith from the pavilion end but it was Abraham who also took the next wicket, caught by Young at cover, off a leading edge when the batter attempted to turn a straight ball into the leg side, this left St Peter’s in some trouble at 88-4. Warren Headland (4-44) was next on to bowl, on for Abraham, and soon found a wicket when the St Peter’s batter cut the ball straight to Smith at point. The next wicket fell to Young as Hallett took his second catch of the day. Wickets continued to fall as Headland picked up two more, one lbw and one caught at long-on by skipper Lewis Williams, to leave St Peter’s at 137-8. Headland took his fourth and final wicket not too long after when a shorter ball was turned to Abraham at square leg. This left Hailsham hunting for the final wicket to end the innings, but this evaded them, and an impressive innings from the young St Peter’s number ten grew the score to 200-9 at the end of their 40 overs, reaching his 50 in the last over.
This left Hailsham chasing a larger score than they might have expected or hoped for considering their position at a point in the St Peter’s innings. But one that was still well within their reach on a good home track. The innings was opened by Gareth Morgans (12) and Young (9), the pair got off to a good start with 12 coming from the first over, but the partnership was brought to an end when Morgans turned one straight to square leg with the score on 23. Williams (5) came in at three, but it was Young who fell next, bowled, Hailsham 28-2. In at four was Headland (31) who looked to follow up his four wicket effort with the ball. Williams did fall not too long after however, also bowled. New batsman Figgins (22) and Headland then set about building a platform for the Hailsham chase and did well scoring at a good pace and sending any bad balls to the boundary. The partnership came to an end however when Figgins was caught at cover. This brought Ethan Dawber (7) to the crease and he and Headland continued to build the total, Dawber supporting the more set Headland well. Both fell within four runs soon after Hailsham passed a hundred, the total at 108-6 with 25 overs bowled. These wickets meant it was the turn of Will Knight (36*) and Hallett (54*) they both continued the chase well taking their time to get themselves in, knowing they could accelerate at the end towards the total. Both, and particularly Hallett, pounced on any loose deliveries dispensing them to the fence. Some good bowling from St Peter’s limited these opportunities and the required run rate began to climb, but two big overs of 10 and 16 runs in the 38th and 39th over respectively, meant that only four runs were needed from the last over. After a couple singles from the first two balls, Hallett missed his first opportunity to take Hailsham to victory with a boundary, but made no mistake the second ball, clattering the ball away to bring jubilant scenes from the ‘sham faithful, Hallett capping off a superb innings to ensure 30 points remained with the Hailsham side as he took home the EF Education First player of the match award.
Hailsham 3’s took the trip to Robertsbridge and upon arrival were surprised to find some of the more unusual dimensions to a boundary they’d play on all season, short straight and on one side, then huge on the other. Callum lost the toss (again, that’s 8 tosses lost in 10…) and Hailsham were put into bat.
Hailsham started steadily with Tim (37) and Kenno (29) ticking off the runs from the opening bowling pair. Upon the departure of Kenno, Bobby strolled out and was given caught at slip. The surprising thing is Bobby says he got nowhere near it, but he heard the opposition celebrating and thought the umpire had given it! After this, Hailsham picked up the rate, courtesy of Dave, Jack and Alex, scoring 53, 24 and 30 respectively to close out their innings on 203.
Following some very low high catching practice courtesy of Sarah, the 3’s took to the field, looking to keep the scoring rate low and apply pressure to Robertsbridge. Frustratingly, quite the opposite happened, with Robertsbridge taking the game to Hailsham, with some aggressive stroke play sending the ball back past the bowler, through the covers and over the slips. After 20 overs Robertsbridge were 117-3, meaning they needed to knock off only 83 from the second half of their innings with 7 wickets in hand.
The 3’s chose to become extremely aggressive at this point, deciding that they’d either lose or win quickly. This move worked, with James, Alex and Bobby picking up the next 5 wickets for only 30 runs, leaving Robertsbridge’s number 5 bat to play with the tail and needing another 54 to win in 10 overs.
Sadly for Hailsham, the Robertsbridge 5 batted excellently, reaching 65 not out by batting aggressively and rotating the strike with the number 10 in an excellent manner, finally knocking off the runs in 36 overs.
The sell your car Sussex player of the match goes to Dave BT, for an imposing 53.
Hailsham 4th XI were home to Chiddingly on a dry but windy day. Skipper KP won the toss and elected to field.
Opening the bowling was Sam (2/11) and JST (1/15) who both bowled well and took wickets. Liam was also pleased to get 2 catches in slip against his old club. Joining the attack were Bradderz (0/25) and Charlie (1/25). They too bowled well, keeping the away team to little runs. Sol (2/14) and Shinto (1/11) were next to bowl and once again bowled tight lines resulting in wickets. Last to bowl, was captain KP (3/7) who got herself 3 wickets in only 10 balls to bring Chiddingly to 111 all out.
Liam (18) and Christy (23) opened the batting for Hailsham. They put on 30 runs together, but Liam was bowled and Christy out LBW so in came Paul (24) and Callum (11). They stuck around for a while and brought the score to 73 before Paul was bowled. Hailsham now needed only 39 to win. Callum was dismissed soon after and in came Shinto (14). He hit 3 fours and then a shot over to long on which looked like it was going for 6 but was caught on the boundary. KP (2) and Brad (13) came in next for the home side and saw us home to 30 points.
The Leepy player of the match went to Sol Skinner for a cracking spell of bowling, after hours of practice and commitment through the weeks training.
On a blustery day with a near hurricane due to hit around 5pm, Skipper Haydon seemed determined to turn his team against him and lost the toss meaning that Hailsham were put in to bat and left to face the elements head on in the second innings!
Openers Haydon and Josh started steadily picking off any bad balls that came their way, until Josh misjudged the slow pace of the wicket and chipped to mid off for 8. Connie joined dad Haydon and continued in much the same way, getting a start before also chipping an easy catch to mid on for 7. Deciding to follow their example, Dylan chose to chip his shot straight back to the bowler for 5, leaving a little short before young Fraser Widdop joined Haydon and the pair enjoyed some freedom swinging away any stray balls to the boundary! Fraser’s rapid 19, and Haydon’s steady 42 meant that Hailsham reached a strong 105 at drinks. Following on from Fraser’s run scoring, Gavin came in with a textbook batting display for his 29, ably supported by the youngsters at the bottom of the order (and Lewis..) before Hailsham were bowled out for 166.
Willingdon’s reply started with a dream for Hailsham, with Haydon sticking Josh into Gully against Fraser’s express pace. This move paid off in the very first over with Willingdon’s opener nicking off straight into Josh’s hands as he held onto a sharp low catch!
Willingdon then started to build momentum until Maisie bowled their other opener with an absolute peach! The aforementioned hurricane then arrived in the form of Dinuka Athapaththu and Molly Crosbie. First Dinuka with a superb wicket, bowling the Willingdon number 4 before a brilliant Caught and Bowled both before Molly got in on the action as she had their number 6 caught at long Mid On by Lewis, followed by a chip to Josh at close mid off and an LBW leaving her on the edge of a Hattrick just before the drinks break. It wasn’t to be unfortunately, but she took her 4th wicket with the following delivery. Leaving her with figures of 4-30.
When Dinuka took his 3rd wicket, chipping to Josh for his 3rd catch of the game, Willingdon were 81-9 with the game looking all but done, but some stiff resistance from the last wicket partnership dragged Willingdon to within 32 runs of Hailsham’s total before the skipper took matters into his own hands and had their number 11 caught by Lewis for his 2nd Catch as Hailsham picked up only their 2nd win of the season in quite a convincing fashion!
The GB Willow player of the match this week goes to Dinuka Athapaththu for an incredibly mature bowling spell and fantastic figures of 3-10 off 8 overs!
