CRICKET: Team Priory Triumphant
30 August: Eastbourne 135, Hastings & St Leonards Priory 139 for 6
6 September: Priory 220 for 9, St James’s Montefiore 143
HUGH SULLIVAN
The summer of 2025 should be remembered fondly by the first XI cricketers of Hastings and St Leonards Priory for many years to come. The team won 13 out of 17 completed games in Division 2 of the Sussex Cricket League, including the last seven on the trot. They finished as champions, 52 points ahead of runners-up West Chiltington & Thakeham and 92 ahead of third-placed Brighton & Hove.
Priory’s success has been a true team endeavour. Of their batsmen, only captain Harry Scowen (568 runs overall at an average of 41) figured among the top 15 run-scorers in the division. But crucial innings came from anywhere in the batting order that the occasion demanded, and none of the three defeats suffered during the season came from being bowled out.
If openers Scowen and Caleb Laloo failed, which wasn’t often, the middle order, led by Greg Devlin, Shawn Johnson and Eddy Finch, generally turned things around. Young all-rounders Iden McCleave (a crucial 43 not out in unpromising circumstances to turn the tide in the top-of-the-table clash with West Chiltington on 9 August) and Seaver Cowley contributed valuable runs in many games. And it was a most astonishing tail-end partnership of 63 runs between number 9 Freddie Hulbert and number 10 Adam Page, including 56 plundered off the last 18 balls, that secured victory at Roffey in June with one ball to spare.
In the field, bowling honours were also shared widely. Freddie Hulbert was consistency personified as opening seam bowler, well supported by Cowley. But the side’s main artillery, particularly in home games at Horntye, was a multi-pronged spin attack, where the generally dry and dusty conditions remained favourable throughout the summer. Johnson, Adam Page, Adam Barton and McCleave all enjoyed lethal spells. Eight out of nine home games were won, Eastbourne being the only visitors to escape with a draw (with nine wickets down and 84 runs adrift).
In the field too, honours were spread. Wicket-keeping duties were shared between Scowen and Devlin, but Finch deputised ably when both were injured (the former with a broken thumb, the latter with a damaged finger). Not all catches were held, but the important ones were, and Finch, Johnson and Ryan Hoadley led the way in nimble and tidy ground fielding.
GETTING PROMOTED
Promotion was confirmed with a match to spare when Priory’s contest with Eastbourne at the Saffrons on 30 August was the only fixture to survive the rain sweeping across Sussex. The home side won the toss and elected to bat, but were swiftly in trouble. With neither Barton nor Page available, Priory had called upon veteran Jason Finch as an extra seamer, and he, Hulbert and Cowley reduced them to 35 for four. The middle order grafted painstakingly for a while, and the tail-enders swished, but McCleave took a couple of wickets and Cowley returned to good effect, finishing with four wickets in his seven overs.
Eastbourne’s eventual total of 133 seemed inadequate and, with rain still threatening, Priory made light of it. Laloo was adjudged lbw in the second over, but Scowen (39) and Tom Gillespie, making a rare appearance and hitting six fours in his innings of 46, added 86 for the second wicket. After both were dismissed, three more wickets tumbled quickly before Johnson (34 not out off 27 balls) struck the winning boundary.
BECOMING CHAMPIONS
A week on, Priory required six bonus points from their match against St James’s Montefiore to attain the championship title even if West Chiltington were to win their last game against Preston Nomads (in the event they lost it). Sent into bat by their visitors, Priory had a first target of 160 runs, the score which would guarantee six points.
Laloo (21) and Scowen (35) put 55 on the scoreboard in the first ten overs. There was then a mini-collapse in the middle order, with Johnson, Finch and McCleave all dismissed cheaply, and at 116 for five, a potential shortfall. However, Devlin (55) and Cowley (32) combining careful defence with belligerent blows, passed the target score still together and, after a typically aggressive cameo from Hulbert (18 not out including a six off the last ball), Priory’s total from their 45 overs was 220 for nine.
When St James batted, they lost their first three wickets to Hulbert (three for 18 off his nine overs) and two more when Page was introduced to the attack. From 56 for five, the rest of the innings was damage limitation: Johnson snaffled three wickets and McCleave the final two. The eventual total of 143 was 77 runs short, cuing raucous celebration both on-field and in the home dressing room.
Sussex Cricket League Div 2 Final Table (top three)
| P | W | D | L | Ab | Pts | |
| Hastings & St Leonards Priory | 18 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 446 |
| West Chiltington & Thakeham | 18 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 394 |
| Brighton & Hove | 18 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 354 |
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