Cricket: Middleton, Pagham and Stirlands reflect on defeats

Middleton v East Grinstead

Sussex Premier League

MIDDLETON lost their first home game in the Sussex Premier – but took away a number of positives.

The game was preceded by a minute’s silenc in honour of club member Jon Hammond, who died suddenly in April aged 52. Jon was a former Middleton third XI captain.

Sean Heather, the Middleton captain, won the toss and decided to bat first in a fixture that the for book suggested was likely to be one of the toughest Middleton will face this year.

East Grinstead have been in the Premier League for all but one of the past 29 seasons.

Middleton did not get off to the kind of start they were looking for, losing three wickets before reaching 60.

Opener Heather seemed intent on staying in and shared good partnerships first with Jofra Archer (31) then Patrick Colvin (32) before falling for 60 with the score on 168.

All the Middleton batters lost their wickets just as they seemed to be batting comfortably. Middleton finished on an under-par score of 196 all out in the 58th over. The pick of the Grinstead bowlers were Craig Fowle (4-44) and Ian Sturmer (3-40).

East Grinstead got off to just the start they wanted, with Fyn-Hudson Prentice and Olley Graham sharing an opening stand of 91. They lost only a further two wickets in reaching their target in the 43rd over.

For Middleton new boy and left-arm spinner Max Ellis settled into a long spell and took two for 52, one of a number of positives to take from the result.

Pagham v Ifield

Sussex division two

Ifield won the toss and bucked the normal trend by deciding to bat first – and were soon in trouble against the pace bowling of Pete Cotterill (3-26) and accurate bowling by Mike Hales who bowled eight maidens on the trot.

Ifield were struggling at 65 for seven but some sensible batting from Jigar Parekh (30), Daniel Groves (27) and Patrik Patel (15) saw them recover to 143 all out.

Nabib Rehma starred with the ball ending with five for 19.

Although the wicket was not ideal for batting, 143 should not have been a difficult score to chase down – but only Staurt Rutter (22) and Joe Turner (22) could come to terms with the excellent spin bowling of Jigar Parekh (4-39) and Guru Kedamath (3-14).

Pagham were eventually dismissed for 111, recording their first defeat in 11 matches.

Henfield v Stirlands

Sussex League division four

Stirlands slumped to their first league defeat of the season against an obdurate Henfield side.

Having won the toss and elected to bowl, skipper Paul Dorkings sought to take advantage of the potent Stirlands bowling attack that had taken 20 wickets in the first two games.

Dorkings made the breakthrough, removing Fred Stanley after mounting pressure from both ends. After the initial burst, Ajinka Deshpande and Dorkings bowled with pace and discipline but found wickets hard to come by.

The returning Danny Cox found his natural rhythm and troubled the batsmen with pace and length, eventually disposing of Adam Scott after a patient 23.