Cuckfield Cricket Club: News: Match Reports 23/06/07

Toss: Hastings & St Leonards Priory CC - 1st XI won the toss and decided to bowl

Only 9 points separated Cuckfield & Hastings leading into the match, with positioned one place higher on the league table there was much to play for in this encounter. Rain played a part in the 2 corresponding fixtures last year, with neither game not being completed.

A clear morning turned cloudy for the start of the match and were keen to take advantage of the seamer friendly conditions by inserting Cuckfield. were rewarded in the first over, with Stef 'The Pom' Piolet out in the first over, bowled by an unplayable swinging delivery from Keegan Africa (1/59). Cuckfield found themselves in further trouble when tried to hit out against John Morgan (1/48) only managing to miss-cue a pull shot for Morgan to claim the catch off his own bowling. With the delay of Chris Mole due to work commitments all was not lost, but it was Widdup with a promotion up the order to 4 which accelerated the Cuckfield run rate. Widdup hooked Morgan for 6 from his third ball signaling his intentions early. Harris, promoted to opener, also began to punish the opening bowlers, continually hitting boundaries down the ground. Harris received a life and set about making pay, moving quickly to 55 when the rain hit heavily. Glazier's spinners were introduced into the attack and slowed the scoring from his end, however Harris & Widdup kept hitting runs from the other end. The rain halted proceedings for over an hour with the pair moving Cuckfield to a strong position of 110/2 off 20 overs, Harris & Widdup looked to up the rate after the interval due to reduced overs. Widdup got things under way with 10 runs off the first two balls after the break, but one quick single too many accounted for the run out of Harris for a sublime 60. Widdup, unlucky not to get a half century, moved to 46 not out and Mole 11 not out, when the rain finally called a halt to proceedings with Cuckfield reaching 139/3 from 27 overs. For , Michael Glazier was the pick of the bowlers delivering 9 overs for 28 runs and was unlucky not to have Mole caught at point with a relatively easy chance being spilled.

Cuckfield Captain Nick Pattison said “It was a great partnership between Harris and Widdup which was building a great platform for a big score…it was just a shame the rain ruined any chance of a result.”

1st XI v Sussex Development XI

Result: Abandoned

Date: Sun 24th Jun 2007 @ 12:30

Ground: Cuckfield Cricket Club

Type: League : Sussex Cricket League - 1st XI Premier League

2nd XI v Littlehampton, Clapham & Patching 2nd XI - Two's have better of draw with Littlehampton

Cuckfield 2nd XI were on the winning side of a draw against Littlehampton on Saturday. Cuckfield won the toss and elected to bat. After some rain delays and the loss of 3 overs per side Cuckfield reached 189-8 with Mirza and Watson starring with 69 and 43 respectively. It was a good score on that wicket and with a good start Cuckfield felt confident that they could defend it.

They received the perfect start as Flower bowled the Littlehampton opener first ball and proceeded to bowl with great accuracy and shape. At the other end the bowlers were rotated until Denyer (3-28) and Flower (3-44) struck up a potent partnership as Littlehampton lost regular wickets in their chase. Piolet (2-25) also bowled with great effect on a wicket taking turn. In the end Littlehampton were 140-8 off their 45 overs, with Cuckfield not quite able to secure the last two wickets.

This was a much better performance and although Cuckfield did not win, they played all the cricket, were positive in their play and were in truth unlucky not to force the win. Encouraging.

Women's

Cuckfield Women's 1st XI v Horsham Ladies 1st XI - And then came Horsham!

On a sunny summer solstice evening at the Cricketfield in Horsham Cuckfield skipper Elaine Hardy won the toss and asked Horsham to take first strike.

The home side were soon in trouble losing skipper Humphries in the third over for 7 bowled by Henne, who followed this up with the scalp of Mistry at the end of that over.

Tash Sole then weighed in with the wicket of Adams in the next over, and Henne stuck again leaving Horsham reeling on 25 for 4 in the seventh over.

Izzy Noakes (24) combined with Melissa and Venessa to move the score onto 87 before she fell second victim to the ever improving Tash Jackson. Vanessa went on to score 23 no as the last wicket pair took the score onto past the ton but in the 19 over Ella Kenny struck with an athletic caught and bowled to leave Horsham 108 all out.

The run getting strike team of Elaine Hardy and Tash Sole for once did not fire with Hardy going for 5 in the 2nd over - but that was the last success for Horsham as Sole and Henne forged a partnership of 103 in the next 10 overs as Cuckfield comfortably reached their target.

Cuckfield continue their impressive undefeated run in their quest to retain the 20/20 title, however must look to reduce their bowling extras.

Colts

Under 15’s and 16’s -The Season So Far

We haven’t published a report yet on the older Academy teams, partly because there hasn’t been much cricket! The first league game against Burgess Hill was rained off in May, and since then there have been two out of two comfortable victories in the North & Mid Sussex league.

At Newick on 5^th June, Jack Denyer and Chris Taylor laid the foundations with a century opening stand in 12 overs, leaving time for Matt Wynn and Jonty Revell to hit a couple of fours and for young Harry Clark to show his batting credentials as we closed at 141-4. In reply everyone tried out their bowling, with Jonny Pickering and Harry Clark taking the two wickets to fall, and aspiring leg spinners Rob Prevett and Steve Meadows showing how much their bowling has improved. Newick finished on 83-3.

A fortnight later, the U15’s played Haywards Heath at home and again Taylor and Denyer got the innings off to a good start before Taylor was LBW for 11. Matt Wynn (28) then played a powerful knock putting on 80 with Denyer before he was bowled and Jack retired for his second successive 50. Joe Morrison hit some lusty blows as Cuckfield finished on 125 for3. Heath’s innings saw two firsts as Prevett held a good catch off Sam Page’s bowling, and Greg Wisdom then bowled with pace and accuracy to take a wicket. Cuckfield used 8 bowlers with shorter and shorter run-ups as thunder clouds gathered and visibility declined and Heath applied themselves well with Smith, Harris and Hannah Phelps all showing technique and application. They needed 36 off the last 6 overs before Chris Taylor bowled tightly at the end, and just missed out on a hat-trick in the 19^th over as Heath finished on 96-6.

In between these matches the U16’s had a friendly game against Lindfield in what might be their only match before the Festival. It might have been the GCSE’s but some of the older boys looked a bit rusty! Luke Sherborne made his debut and scored 9 good runs, as Denyer, Taylor and Wynn scored most of the runs to take Cuckfield up to 110-7. Lindfield batted well and consistently with their first three batters Newcombe, O’Brien and Wright all scoring in the 20’s. It was good to see Matt Godley and Alex Dickie bowling again but we were well beaten even before Ashley Hart bowled an extremely varied last over as Lindfield won in the 16^th over by 8 wickets.

Two more league wins for Cuckfield should see them through to the League Finals on 24^th July – can they go one better than two years ago?

Match Reports - 23rd June

Men's

1st XI v Hastings 1st XI - Rain puts an end to exciting start

1st XI v Sussex Development XI

2nd XI v Littlehampton, Clapham & Patching 2nd XI - Two's have better of draw with Littlehampton

Women's

Cuckfield Women's 1st XI v Horsham Ladies 1st XI - And then came Horsham!

Colts

Under 15’s and 16’s -The Season So Far