CRICKET: Scowen Leads From The Front
11 May:
Hastings Priory 316 for 5; Roffey 306 for 9
18 May:
Hastings Priory 204 for 8; East Grinstead 104 all out
HUGH SULLIVAN
Harry Scowen after century at Horntye
The cricketers of Hastings & St Leonards Priory have won their opening two matches in the Sussex Premier League this season. Both matches were contested on a limited 50-over format, but in contrasting conditions.
On the first day of the campaign, under bright sunshine, they travelled to Horsham side, Roffey, hit their highest league score for several years and squeezed victory by ten runs. Seven days later, on a slow damp pitch at Horntye after early morning rain, they only topped 200 in their fiftieth over, but then skittled visitors East Grinstead to win by a commanding 100 runs.
Central to both performances were centuries by new captain Harry Scowen – a fluent 121 against Roffey off only 112 balls; then a more watchful 106 against East Grinstead – followed in each case by accurate bowling from Priory’s medium pace attack.
At Roffey, the Hastings side were required to bat first after Scowen lost the toss – a contrast from last season when then captain Tom Gillespie almost invariably managed to win it and chose to bat second. Dylan Woolley went cheaply, but Scowen shared a second wicket partnership of 217 with Aussie returnee Alex Osborne, his innings including ten fours and eight sixes while Osborne’s 78 runs were also scored with plenty of confident belligerence. Scowen was eventually run out, and Osborne caught, but a further 88 runs were plundered in the final 11 overs as Seaver Cowley (23), debutant Adam Keane (30) and Greg Devlin (26 not out) all cashed in on tired bowling.
Roffey set off at a gallop in pursuit, with a partnership of 111 for the first wicket in less than 20 overs. When they reached 200 in the 33rd over with only one wicket down – three overs quicker than Priory to the same score – they seemed clear favourites to go on to win. But Cowley had Usman Khan (47), Jon Phelps (0) and Matt Davies (73) all caught at the wicket by Scowen, and Iden McCleave pitched in with a couple of middle order wickets in an economical spell. The home side could not maintain momentum and finished eight runs short with nine wickets down.
BACK AT HORNTYE
Back in Hastings last Saturday, in Priory’s first home league game at Horntye since 2021, Scowen again lost the toss and was again invited to bat first. This time his century was compiled off 149 balls, with just eight fours and two sixes, mostly thwacked to the legside boundary when East Grinstead’s bowlers lost their length. He was usefully partnered by Woolley (13), then by Osborne (17), but when their departures were followed by quick dismissals of Cowley and Keane, Priory had subsided to 104 for four. Former captain Gillespie, batting at six, might have followed them cheaply as well but, reprieved when his top-edged shot to square leg was dropped, he shared in a crucial stand of 78 with the centurion. The visitors fielded keenly in the deep but dropped a number of other catches from which their hosts duly profited.
Priory’s final team score of 204 for eight looked eminently defensible in the conditions, and so it proved. The visitors started brightly enough in the first ten overs bowled by Adam Barton and John Morgan, but the introduction of Adam Page (3 for 23) in the eleventh over and Cowley (2 for 26) in the twelfth started wickets tumbling. McLeave (4 for 7 in four overs) dispatched the tail.
The Hastings side are one of three teams (out of ten) in the league that have won both opening matches – the others are Bognor Regis and Preston Nomads. Tomorrow they play away against 2023 champions Cuckfield; a week later (June 1) they will host Middleton.
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