CRICKET: The Royals’ First Season
HUGH SULLIVAN
The Sussex Cricket League, whose 2024 season ended earlier this month, spreads over 39 Divisions, accommodating over 370 teams between Bosham in the west and Rye in the east. There are just four teams based in Hastings: Hastings & St Leonards Priory first, second and third elevens – and Royal Hastings.
The Priory first team played this year at Horntye Park in the Premier League, which may or may not be available to them again when they return to Division 2 in 2025. It is currently the subject of a planning application to be turned into housing. The second team played at Claremont School (which is outside the borough), gaining promotion from Division 5 East to Division 4. The third team played at Sandhurst Recreation Ground on the Ridge in Division 11 South-East alternating use of the pitch there with Royal Hastings, a quite distinct team of newcomers.
The Royals were formed less than a year ago from a nucleus of friends and work colleagues of South Asian origin employed as doctors and nurses at the Conquest Hospital and other local medical practices. Recruited into the NHS from Kerala, Sri Lanka and other parts of the Indian sub-continent, they found they shared a cricket education in common. They started playing casually at the Oval park on Bohemia Road with a tennis ball, which was in most cases the only kind of cricket they’d previously experienced as kids in school. Some of them then joined the Crowhurst Park club to experience proper hard-ball cricket in the Sussex League.
By last autumn, they realised they had enough players – most, though not all, with medical backgrounds – to form a separate league team in their own right, and they found that the Sandhurst pitch was available to be shared on alternate Saturdays with Priory thirds. They applied to join the league on this basis. In January the original chairman Sanju Sukamaran, who had laid the foundations of the club, suffered a fatal cardiac arrest – ironically surrounded by other medics – while playing indoor cricket for Crowhurst. But his former colleagues went ahead nonetheless, entering the league in the same Division 11 as Priory and finishing three places above them in third place, narrowly missing out on a promotion play-off place.
Club secretary Dr Chris Mathew says that the Royals actually have 35 players signed up to participate. But most are medical employees on changing shifts that may include nights or weekends, who cannot make themselves regularly free to play Saturday afternoon games. Availability for the next fixture has to be signalled on the Monday or Tuesday of the week in question, then the team is selected accordingly.
Although the summer league ended on 7 September, the club will enter the local indoor league this winter, playing at Horntye along with teams from Priory, Crowhurst and Bexhill. In the meantime, the summer season’s awards for outstanding contributions to the club’s victories have just been voted on by popular ballot – to Sachin Gopinath as Best Batsman, Nikhil Jose as Best Bowler and Dr Mathew as Best All-Rounder, reflecting highest runs scored and most wickets taken.
The Royal Hastings name might suggest some patronage in high places, but Dr Mathew says that, on the contrary, they have no sponsorship nor other financial support from anywhere, and are entirely self-financing. Why Royals? “Hastings is linked, of course, to the famous battle, and the name reflects the regal heritage which the town holds dear”.
Once upon a time, a leading local hospital might have provided facilities or equipment to a team in their name, as teaching hospitals in London and elsewhere still do. No such privilege is on offer from the Conquest or any other local institution – to be fair, none has been sought. Ground fees, bats, balls, protective equipment and travel costs all have to be funded by the members themselves. But they clearly enjoy their status as an independent cricketing stronghold. Dr Mathew wonders whether they might soon need to form a fifth team in Hastings: the Royals 2nd XI.
New players from all backgrounds – they needn’t be either medics or of South Asian origin – are welcome to join the Royal Hastings club: see their website royalhastingscc.co.uk
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