AFTER a month of poor weather, new skipper Callum Lainchbury got his first chance to captain the 3’s in a meaningful game of cricket at Roebuck Park, where they hosted newly promoted Robertsbridge 2’s.
The game got off to a terrible start for Hailsham, with the captain losing the toss and being put into bat. 7 balls in, they had lost 2 wickets and both openers were out.
Although not ideal, this brought debutant Will Bolton and keeper Christy Walder in to bat, who steadied the ship and then looked to build an innings. They did exactly this, both batting intelligently and playing nice shots, sadly falling short of a 100 run partnership as Christy was out for 45 runs. Andrew Swansborough played a part, hitting some nice shots for his 22 runs, but besides him no one else stuck around for long. While Will had to shoulder more responsibility, he did it with ease, resulting in Hailsham Cricket Club’s first 100 of the season, an excellent knock that deserved the applause of both teams and spectators. Hailsham ended their innings on 195, a respectable score considering the short list of contributors.
James Renals and Jack shared the new ball and knew they would have to bowl well to get Hailsham into an advantageous position. After a couple of balls were dispatched to the boundary off both bowlers, they quickly found their rhythm and showed their excellent abilities, bowling fast and accurate. They were supported well in the field by the rest of the team, which resulted in an eye-catching scoreboard of 5 wickets inside the first 10 overs – 2 bowled wickets for James, 1 bowled for Jack and 2 catches, courtesy of the captain and the pick of the fielders Ethan. While Hailsham took their foot off the gas after this in the field, they still had too many runs on the board and too many capable bowlers for Robertsbridge to get back into the game. Tom came on to get 2 wickets from smart catches courtesy of wicket keeper Christy, Callum took one on an LBW and Alex And Jack came back on for a bowled wicket each, resulting in Hailsham winning by 71 runs.
The Sell Your Car Sussex Player of the Match could only be Will Bolton, for his excellent and technical 104 runs.
