1st XI
Hailsham travelled to Buxted Park on a humid, overcast day, looking to pick up some valuable points away from home against the title chasers. Buxted won the toss and elected to bat.
Andrew Anthony (2-48) and Tom McDonald (3-45) opened up for Hailsham and started well, Anthony trapping the Buxted opener lbw with the score only on 4. McDonald took two more in the subsequent overs, both caught by Ollie McDonald, Buxted on 27-3. Matt Anthony (1-60) and Varun Khullar (0-38) replaced the openers and Anthony found a breakthrough, bowling the Buxted number four. After their shaky start Buxted looked to recover their innings. Looking to stem the runs Andrew Anthony returned to the attack, joined by Ciaran Peacock (1-51). Buxted reached 103 before Hailsham found another wicket, Anthony finding some extra bounce to take a catch off his own bowling. James McDonald (0-30) was brought on as a spin option as Hailsham continued their search for wickets. Another 51 runs were scored however before the next wicket fell to Tom McDonald bowled. From this point Hailsham struggled to make anymore headway, with a mixture of some good batting and some ill-disciplined bowling from Hailsham allowed Buxted to capitalise. A variety of Hailsham’s bowling options were used, but no further wickets were found until Buxted had put on a 117-run partnership to bring them up 271 when Ciaran Peacock made the breakthrough, the Buxted batsman caught in the deep by Aaron Norwood. Buxted finished on 288 from their 45 overs leaving Hailsham with an uphill struggle to get something from the game.
Tom Hicks (9) and Scott Pearce (26) opened for Hailsham and started both finding the boundary on multiple occasions. Hicks’ innings was cut short as he edged to slip, bringing Ciaran Peacock in at three. After some more good hitting from Pearce he was caught, shortly followed by Khullar a ball later and Peacock in the next over as Hailsham’s chase faltered as they were left at 43-4. James McDonald (12) and Aaron Norwood (5) looked to rebuild the Hailsham innings. They showed some promise before McDonald fell to a stunning catch at slip, Hailsham on 69-5.
Norwood was caught soon after, another great catch being taken at gully, before Ollie McDonald (6) was caught in the deep. This brought Rob Wilkinson (21) and Andrew Anthony (54) to the crease. The pair showed resolve, running well and finding the boundary as they looked to revive the chase. Anthony got into his stride hitting consecutive sixes over extra cover as he reached his 50. The 76-run partnership came to an end as Anthony was caught behind. Wilkinson was trapped lbw soon after, followed by Matt Anthony as Hailsham were all out for 163 from 24 overs.
The Freedom Leisure Man of the Match goes to Andrew Anthony for his two wickets and explosive 54.
2nd XI
Hailsham 2nd XI hosted Buxted Park 2nd XI in a game where only 15 points separated the two sides at the start of the day. The visitors won the toss and chose to bowl so Hailsham sent out James Bellett (17) and Jon Brettany (13). The openers got hailsham off to a promising start before the partnership was broken and Stewart Kennedy (13) arrived at the crease and continued to tick the score along before being bowled. This brought Paul Mcdonald (14) to the crease who, similarly to the rest of the top 4, made a promising start but couldn’t push on due to good bowling combined with a tough pitch to bat on. Wickets began to fall in quick succession with Brettany, Shankar (7), Stan Garbett (5) and McDonald all falling in quick succession. A cameo from Anil Jose (17) was the only performance of any significance towards the end of the innings with Hailsham all bowled out for 104 which although seemed a low total, the team knew it was very defendable on a pitch near impossible to bat on at times.
The less said about tea the better so Hailsham walked out for the second innings knowing a positive start would offer a great chance to grab 30 points. Opening bowlers Bellett (2-21) and Garbett (4-18) seemed too much for the Buxted Park top order with Garbett taking his 4 wickets early leaving the score at 7-4 after 6 overs. First change saw Alex Renals (0-16) and Shankar Bala (1-14) enter the attack who both continued to build the pressure with Shankar getting a wicket early into his spell which left Hailsham in a commanding position. At this point Buxted began to build a partnership between Steve Harris (32) and Martin Coleman (23) which put the match back into the visitors hands. Tom Mills (1-18) broke this partnership and was well supported by Anil Jose (1-13) who got a wicket and refused to give the new batsmen an opportunity to settle. With Buxted needed 15 runs and Hailsham needing 1 wicket, both opening bowlers were brought back into the attack however a breakthrough could not be found and Buxted’s number 10 and 11 saw them home.
A tough defeat to take after such a battling performance but the 2nd XI still have plenty to ply for this season so can use this to push on. The Daniel Grant Finance Planning Group Man of the Match goes to Ed Garbett for his 4 wickets early on.
3rd XI
The Hailsham 3rd hosted Kerala Strikers on a humid afternoon at Roebuck park looking to move into first place in division 10.
Captain Lewis Williams elected to bat first after winning the toss, putting young Sam Mills in at #1 and himself off strike to open up. Tight lines from Jinson Francis (1-25) and Edwin Jose (0-34) gave Hailsham a slow start, but as a partnership arose, young Mills started to show the strikers just how talented he is with the bat, opening the face and using the pace on the ball to bring himself to a modest 23. Alongside him, captain Lewis Williams showed he too can use the bat, getting himself to 21 runs. In next was Tim Mullins, doing what he does best, adding stability to the innings, while scoring runs. He scored 16 runs before being dismissed for 16 runs by lbw. Andrew Swansbrough was also looking strong, with 8 of his own runs, but was also dismissed quickly by lbw. Next up was Ryan Meechan, known for adding a bit of fire to the batting innings. With some powerful shots and a massive 6 back over the bowler’s head, he unfortunately was bowled for just 10 runs. Father and son duo, Gavin and Jake Muller were in next to see what they could add to the total. Gavin was unfortunately run out for 10 runs but started show that there’s still more runs to be scored this innings. Some impressive strikes from Jake but he also fell for 8 runs. Ed Brooke was in next, but today was not his day with the bat, and couldn’t add to the total. This left just the doctor Omar Pathan and James Renals to add any runs possible. With 120 on the board, Hailsham knew they needed more to secure a win. With cautious shots from both batsmen, runs started to add on. Opening bowlers came back to finish the innings, but the batsmen wouldn’t go down without a fight. Both Pathan and Renals were unfazed and brought the score to 147 all out where Renals was bowled out on 16 leaving Pathan on 9*.
After teas, it was time for Hailsham to show what they could do with the ball. Sam Mills (2-28) and Omar Pathan (1-63) opened up the bowling. Losing the new ball on the first delivery on a wide loosener, showed the openers Sachin Jose and Renju Varghese were not going to go down easily. After a smart bowling change from Mills to Renals after just two of his overs, James wanted to show the Strikers what he can do with the ball. Once a few looseners had been delivered, he was ready to show them what he’s been working on. Using a mixture of short and full deliveries, forcing the batsmen back into his crease, he first took Renju’s (21) wicket in his second over with a diving catch from young Mills, quickly followed by Thomas (0) and Captain Jinson Francis for a duck in the same over. In the following over, Shaji Thomas was also dismissed for just 5 runs with a great catch in the deep by the Hailsham skipper, giving Renals his fourth and final wicket for the game. On the other end, Sam Mills was brought on to keep the run rate as low as possible, which he did, but only after Omar took his own wicket of Manoj Joseph for 9 runs. Ed Brook was up next after Renals, dominating the batsmen from his first ball, bowling Edwin Jose first ball of his spell, quickly followed by Kalesh Nandakumar for a duck. From the other end, Mills took his second wicket to leave just Sachin and Sethu Surendran with 30 runs to win. Hailsham knew they had to bowl the team out with many overs remaining. Ed Brook did that, bowling Sachin to bring the game to a close, with impressive figures of 3-1 off 4 overs. Hailsham win by 30 runs.
The Roots Gardening & Grounds Maintenance Ltd Man of the Match goes to James Renals for his figures of 4-23 off 7.
4th XI
The 4th XI travelled to the remote outback of the Big Bad Wolfe Rec in Crowborough for an important match after last week’s disaster. A win was needed and we knew that better batting was crucial to this. So having not won the toss, we batted first and the tried and tested openers Nigel Anthony (34) and Peter Mills (less than 1) looked to navigate the minefield that was the wicket. Nigel was in good nick as he and Bobby Williams (16) took advantage of wayward home bowling.
After they were out, Warren Downs (45) and Jason RoyWickham (28) continued the positive theme, both batting very sensibly but again taking advantage of any bad balls. Hailsham passed 150 for the first time in a few weeks, and were looking good for reaching 200 with plenty of batting left. Unfortunately after Ethan Deane (7) and Bradley Aldridge (7) were out after initially striking some blows our innings fell away, and we had to satisfied with 184 all out.
We knew Crowborough would have a very large but also experienced batting top order, and getting through the top 4-5 with economy would be fundamental to winning the match. After Alan Lake smashed the ball about off Brad and Bobby we were under no illusions. Credit to both bowlers for their resilience in this period as Lake threatened to run away with it. Brad was rewarded with his wicket. Woollerton and McKenzie continued the size and experience theme, but by now the run rate had slowed and at drinks we were actually still in the game.
The drinks break didn’t do us any good as 4-5 sloppy overs in the field upped the run rate worryingly. Wickets from Kaleigh Pavitt (2 for 42, plus a catch), Warren (3 for 24) and Ethan (2 for 39) brought us right back as wickets really did slow the run rate back down. With 4 overs remaining, we were right into the young tail end with 20+ runs needed and victory was somehow from nowhere looking achievable. This match had swung back and forth over the last 10-15 overs. Into the last over, and Crowborough needed 4 runs for a win, we needed 2 wickets for victory. The tailenders ran a 3 when we didn’t adjust properly to the left hand/right hand partnership, and we were level with 2 balls remaining and 2 wickets still to get. 2 dot balls meant a tie, honours even.
For long periods of the match a win didn’t seem likely and in the end we were disappointed that odd fielding lapses cost us a win. The C Brook Fencing Man of the Match goes to Jason Roy Wickham for a sensible innings with the bat, and a decent catch at last at slip.
