CRICKET
Priory repeat pattern of loss
30 July:
Lost by eight wickets
Hastings & St Leonards Priory 182
Bognor Regis 184 for 2
6 August:
Lost by five wickets
Hastings & St Leonards Priory 232
Preston Nomads 238 for 5
The cricketers of Hastings & St Leonards Priory suffered two more comprehensive defeats in Sussex Premier League matches over the past fortnight. In each match, playing on their home pitch at Claremont, the batsmen made reasonable starts but succumbed to mid-order collapses, giving the bowlers insufficient totals to protect.
Abhay Negi – back from injury
Against Bognor Regis, brothers Dylan and Jake Woolley shared a promising second wicket partnership after the early dismissal of Seaver Cowley, but once, they were parted the wickets fell steadily and only prolonged resistance from the tail raised the innings score to 182. The home side overhauled it comfortably in just 33 overs.
Back at Claremont the following Saturday against Preston Nomads, Harry Scowen opened with a bright half-century and, with the Woolley brothers once more providing good support, Priory reached 111 for the loss of just one wicket. Then the wickets tumbled again, and despite a typically belligerent innings from John Morgan (65 off just 46 balls), the total of 232 was some way below what should have been achievable.
An opening spell from Priory’s Indian recruit Abhay Negi, returning after more than two months on the sidelines with a broken arm to take three early wickets, gave the Hastings side hope. But the game turned when young leg-spinner Harvey Faulkner was brought into the attack. In the reverse encounter at Preston back in June, Faulkner had tied the home batsmen in knots to claim five wickets for 18 in his ten overs. This time, in more benign batting conditions, incoming Preston batsman Dan Phillips decided to target him Bairstow-style. Two overs went for an aggregate of 38 runs, Phillips hitting four sixes and three fours out of nine balls received. With Faulkner removed to save further punishment, Negi spent and Morgan curiously under-bowled, Preston cantered on to a five-wicket victory helped, it must be said, by some dropped catches and a general lack of intensity in the field.
Lack of consistency
Surveying the season so far as a whole, it is clear that Priory have simply not had the consistency with either bat or ball to match more experienced Premier League outfits. Individually they’ve missed the star batsmen of recent seasons – Harry Finch, Joe Billings, Elliott Hooper – around whom lesser talents could flourish. Of the top 37 run-scorers in the league this summer, only Morgan, who is in 23rd position with an aggregate of 339 runs at an average of 26, makes the list. No other Priory batsman has an average above 22. In an equivalent list of wicket-taking bowlers, Morgan again qualifies in eighth position, having taken 26 wickets at just under 22, and Faulkner in 20th with 17 wickets (but they’ve cost nearly 28 runs each). No doubt Negi, if he had not missed most of the season through injury, would have figured among the bowlers – and maybe among the batsmen too, if he had lived up to the reputation he brought with him. That’s been a crucial loss.
Collectively, too, the team has seemed to lack self-belief. Perhaps they are as puzzled as some neutrals by captain Tom Gillespie’s clear preference for batting first when winning the toss. Since opposing captains by contrast tend to prefer to bat second, at least under the traditional format that allows a team to claim a draw if it is not bowled out, that has led to Priory batting first in all nine games under this format. Of these they’ve drawn two and lost the other seven. It’s probably true that there are more opportunities for a team to gain bonus points by batting first. But victories – a minimum of four or five over the season – are what’s needed to stave off relegation. That looks a forlorn hope now.
The final four fixtures of the league now revert to a limited overs format. Priory will play at the Saffrons in Eastbourne tomorrow (Saturday), then entertain East Grinstead on 20 August.
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