CRICKET: The Great Escape
Priory win by two runs to retain Premier status
29 August: Hastings & St Leonards Priory; Three Bridges rained off
5 September: Priory 251 for 8; Preston Nomads 249 for 9
HUGH SULLIVAN
In September 2024 the Hastings & St Leonards Priory team were relegated from the Sussex Premier League when, in fading light at Horntye Park, the last Horsham pair hit eight runs off the final over of the final match to defeat them by one wicket.
Joe Billings 102 not out v Preston Nomadsa
Fast forward two years to another season’s finale last Saturday evening at Fulkington on the fringes of Brighton. Home team Preston Nomads, needing 252 to win in their allotted 50 overs, are batting with apparent serenity towards a victory which will doom Priory to a repeat relegation after one topsy-turvy summer back in the Premiership.
At 215 for three in the 42nd over, the Nomads need only another 37 runs off 43 balls with seven wickets in hand. Their fourth wicket partnership has accumulated 128 runs with opener Zan Copleston 104 not out and his partner Rudy Northcott on 56. Priory skipper Harry Scowen has rotated seven bowlers to no avail.
But all season the Sussex Premier League has been a contest of fine margins and surprise turnarounds. Priory spinner Troy Henry, who has been bowling well without good fortune, finally has Copleston caught at the wicket by Joe Billings. Next ball, the start of the 43rd over, Adam Pye dismisses Northcott in the same manner. Unexpectedly the game is on again, with two new batsmen at the crease and bowlers with their tails up.
OVER AND OUT
Pye takes the sixth wicket in the 45th over, caught by Henry. But the seventh wicket pair Harry Eastman and Nav Patel scramble seven runs off the latter’s next over, so only 22 runs are now required off 24 balls. Pye limits them to a single run off his tenth and final over, which leaves 18 balls to be bowled – 12 by Henry, six by the dependable Adam Barton.
It’s actually another bowler who makes the breakthrough: Adam Page runs out Patel as he goes for a second run off Henry. Four balls later Henry clean bowls Eastman. And, with the first ball of the following over, Barton likewise hits the stumps.
Somehow Priory have gained the ascendancy. The batting side is now down to their last pair, needing 17 runs to win, or 16 to tie, off the last 11 balls.
Four runs come off the last five balls of Barton’s over, and just three singles off the first three of Henry’s last. Ten off the last three is surely too much. But the fourth ball is clouted to the boundary, and the next one adjudged a wide by the umpire, so there are still two more to bowl. The batsmen manage a single off each, but that’s not enough: Priory have won by two runs.
The drama of the ending has naturally eclipsed proceedings earlier in the day. Priory’s top order, sent in to bat by their hosts, started nervously, but were hugely indebted to opener Billings who carried his bat through the innings, reaching an unbeaten century (102 not out) in the final over. Scowen (23), Henry (23) and Caleb Laloo (34) all gave him useful support, and the final score of 251 for eight felt, if not a winning total, a competitive one. Just how competitive was soon to be revealed.
The final league table shows Priory ninth out of ten teams, which would have resulted in their relegation in previous seasons. They are beneficiaries of a somewhat dubious decision of the Sussex Cricket League made last autumn to limit promotion and relegation between the Premiership and Division 2 to just a single team. The aim, according to league chair Gary Stanley, was to improve the overall quality of the Premier division. That’s unconvincing, given that the team that came up in second place from Division 2 in 2025, West Chiltington and Thakeham, has just finished third in the Premier this year.
However, nobody at Priory will be arguing against the ruling right now. They have survived against the odds, and are entitled to celebrate their fortune. 2026 will surely be remembered here as the year of the Great Escape.
| P | W | D | L | T | A | Bat | Bowl | Pts | |
| Roffey | 18 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 48 | 26 | 408 |
| Middleton | 18 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 34 | 30 | 398 |
| W Chiltington & Thakeham | 18 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 57 | 43 | 348 |
| Preston Nomads | 18 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 57 | 58 | 329 |
| Three Bridges | 18 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 45 | 23 | 318 |
| Horsham | 18 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 55 | 39 | 288 |
| Bognor Regis | 18 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 64 | 40 | 283 |
| Haywards Heath | 18 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 58 | 46 | 283 |
| Hastings & St Leonards Priory | 18 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 64 | 50 | 278 |
| Cuckfield | 18 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 65 | 57 | 266 |
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