CRICKET
Priory challenges fall away
13 August:
Won by one wicket
Eastbourne 257
Priory 258 for 9
20 August:
Lost by 69 runs
East Grinstead 194
Priory 125
27 August:
Lost by five wickets
Priory 221
Three Bridges 224 for 8
3 September:
Lost by 67 runs
Roffey 256 for 5
Priory 189
Hastings & St Leonards Priory gained only their second victory of the season in a cliff-hanger at Eastbourne on 13 August, overhauling the home side’s score in the final over with their last pair together. But normal service was unfortunately resumed in their last three matches – in each case getting themselves into a potentially winning position only to fall away under pressure.
The Eastbourne game was the first for ten matches in which Priory batted second, having won the toss and invited the home team to pad up. Abhay Negi and Iden McCleave shared seven wickets between them, but the eventual target of 258 looked a stiff one. However, Harry Scowen (36) and Dylan Woolley (31) shared a solid opening stand of 65, then captain Tom Gillespie (72 in 77 balls) and Mitch English (62 in 48) put on 117 for the fifth wicket. Gillespie’s departure in the 45th over left only 20 runs to get with five wickets intact. Four were lost in a scrambled finish before Adam Page and Adam Barton got over the line with just one ball to spare.
At home to East Grinstead the following Saturday, Hastings had reduced their high-flying visitors to 109 for 6 after 27 overs with the help of two run-outs, and the final score of 194 seemed not beyond their reach. The batsmen failed, however, against a penetrating bowling attack and, despite a defiant 43 from McCleave, could muster only 125 runs in reply.
On 27 August away at Three Bridges, Scowen (27) and Woolley (23) again gave Priory a solid start and Gillespie again top-scored with 51, but despite a cameo 26 from Negi and a gutsy unbeaten 24 from Harvey Faulkner, the team’s total of 221 proved inadequate. Negi and Barton made early inroads into the hosts’ batting line-up, but a fluent fourth wicket partnership put Three Bridges in control, and three late wickets for McCleave were not enough to stem defeat.
League leaders
Last Saturday’s game, the final one of the season, pitted Priory against Sussex Premier League leaders Roffey, who needed a win if they were to stay ahead of East Grinstead in the final standings. Although the visitors started with an opening stand of 94, the Priory bowlers stuck to their task, McCleave again achieving best figures with 2 for 37 off his ten overs, and the eventual total of 256 for 5 seemed just about attainable. Very much so, in fact, when Gillespie rapidly reached his third half-century in four innings (51 in 42 balls) in the 24th over. At that point Priory’s score was 136 for 3, more than halfway to the target, and ahead of the required run rate. Next ball Gillespie succumbed (“I gave my wicket away”, he admitted afterwards), and the remaining batsmen collapsed, as the team in the field sensed that the league title was coming their way.
Priory have thus finished bottom of the league, only three points below Brighton & Hove, who will be relegated along with them, but a whopping 89 below eighth-placed Eastbourne. Although this outcome is obviously a disappointment, the fact is that in several games the performance of the Hastings side was only just short of what was required to turn defeat or a draw into a victory. They were particularly unfortunate to lose their Indian recruit Abhay Negi to serious injury – his broken arm didn’t just keep him out of the bowling attack for half the season but clearly also inhibited his batting form when he returned.
The season has on the other hand offered a steep learning curve to the several teenagers in the side. McCleave, Woolley, Faulkner and Seaver Cowley have all enjoyed innings and/or bowling spells that showed their future promise. How many will stay with the side when they play in Division 2 next year remains to be seen, but the experience of playing frontline Premier League cricket in 2022 is surely a positive to take away.
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