CRICKET: Priory Fighting Tight Relegation Battle
6 July:
Horsham 85 for 2 v Hastings Priory (match rained off)
13 July:
Roffey 225 for 7; Hastings Priory 216 for 8
20 July:
East Grinstead 151 all out; Hastings Priory 152 for 3
27 July:
Hastings Priory 229 for 9; Cuckfield 233 for 8
HUGH SULLIVAN
July was a month of mixed fortunes for the cricketers of Hastings & St Leonards Priory, with four matches resulting in one victory, one defeat, one draw and one abandonment to rain. It has left them in the Sussex Premier League’s relegation zone, ninth position out of ten, but still in touch with three other sides above them. With six games to go, there’s certainly everything still to play for.
John Morgan: 7 for 49 against East Grinstead
The match at Horsham on 6 July was a wash-out waiting to happen. Hastings skipper Harry Scowen asked the home side to bat first: they started brightly in the hope of making a quick score, Adam Barton took a couple of wickets, then the predicted rain descended – and that was that.
The following week, Horsham neighbours Roffey came to Horntye.
They started with an opening partnership of 115, and reached 175 for one with star batsman Theodore Rivers going on to score a century, but disciplined bowling and fielding on the part of Priory kept the scoring rate in check. Wickets tumbled late on, as Charlie Francis and John Morgan took a brace apiece. The visitors declared at 225 for seven in the middle of the 56th over, perhaps not wishing to allow Priory further bowling points.
That left the Hastings side 54 overs to overhaul them. They lost talisman Scowen immediately for a duck, but Alex Osborne (72 not out) held the innings together whilst successive partners Dylan Woolley (17), Tom Gillespie (25) and Greg Devlin (17) gradually increased the run rate. At 118 for five, when Seaver Cowley was dismissed cheaply, the target looked a long way off, but breezy knocks by Iden McCleave (25) and Morgan (25 off 20 balls) kept the Hastings side in the hunt. Eventually they finished 10 runs short with two wickets outstanding to leave the match drawn, though Roffey took 14 bonus points to Priory’s ten.
VICTORY AT EAST GRINSTEAD
On 20 July the Priory side travelled to East Grinstead, asked the home side to bat first, and enjoyed their best afternoon in the field since early May, dismissing the home side for 151 in less than 33 overs. Their attack was without Barton, Adam Page or Satchi Mahendran, but Morgan, bowling unchanged throughout, returned impressive figures of seven wickets for 49. Supporting bowlers Dan Pascall, Cowley and Osborne took one each.
In reply it was Scowen who held the Priory innings together on this occasion, scoring an unbeaten 78 in partnerships with Caleb Laloo (23), Woolley (20), Osborne (6) and Adam Keane (18 not out). The target was reached in the 37th over for a seven wicket win.
Last Saturday, high-flying Cuckfield – last season’s champions and in the mix to repeat their triumph this season – came to Horntye. Scowen again won the toss, and somewhat surprisingly (in view of previous victories batting second) opted to take the first knock, in the hope that the wicket would deteriorate over the course of the afternoon. He himself made a confident 29, then Laloo (52) and Woolley (25) batted sensibly to push the score along, and there were later useful contributions from Keane (18) and Greg Devlin (21). But the middle order found it hard to move the score along quickly and it was left to Page (22 not out off 14 balls including two sixes) to hoist the score to 229 for nine off the maximum 58 overs.
Cuckfield hit off more than half the deficit with yet another century opening partnership – the fifth scored against Priory in 12 matches this season – but once this was broken, wickets tumbled to a combination of pace from Barton (four for 52) and slow guile from Page (three for 81). When Cowley ran out the ninth batsman Sam Hardwicke in the 46th over, the West Sussex side were still 30 runs short with only two wickets in hand, and Priory seemed on course to chalk up a famous victory. But it was not to be: ninth wicket partners Bradley Gayler and Sam Candfield plundered 23 runs off Page in ten balls to see their side home.
A glance at the league table after this narrow defeat shows that Worthing (played 12, lost 12) are virtually certain to be relegated, even though there are still six matches to play. One of the four sides above them – in ascending order, Priory, East Grinstead, Roffey and Bognor Regis, who have each won four matches so far – is likely to accompany them back down to Division 2. There’s good reason for Priory to feel that, in the shape they’re in, it need not be them.
Tomorrow (Saturday) Hastings & St Leonards Priory travel to Middleton, then on 10 August will entertain Three Bridges at Horntye.
| P | W | D | L | A | Bat | Bowl | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bognor Regis | 12 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 30 | 40 | 200 |
| Roffey | 12 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 38 | 30 | 198 |
| East Grinstead | 12 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 20 | 30 | 190 |
| Hastings & St L Priory | 12 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 42 | 17 | 179 |
| Worthing | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 49 | 23 | 82 |
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