CRICKET:Stuttering Priory Seal Division 2 Title
26 August:
Worthing 132 for 9; Hastings Priory 135 for 3
2 September:
Brighton & Hove 98; Hastings Priory 99 for 8
HUGH SULLIVAN
The cricketers of Hastings & St Leonards Priory were celebrating last weekend after winning Division 2 of the Sussex Cricket League by the narrowest of margins. Victories in their last two matches raised their points total for the season to 283, the same number as Worthing. Both teams have been promoted to the Premier Division for next summer – in Priory’s case, after just one season in the lower league, reversing relegation in 2022 – but a better head-to-head tally put the Hastings side in pole position.
Priory champions – from left to right: Harry Scowen, Satchi Mahendran, Dylan Woolley, Adam Page
West Chiltington & Thakeham, who maintained second position behind Worthing for much of the season, also won their last two games, but finished third, nine points behind.
The crucial match was contested at Worthing on 26 August, when visiting Priory captain Tom Gillespie won the toss yet again (see adjacent box), inserted the home team to bat first on a damp pitch and saw his bowlers limit them to a score of 132 for nine off a reduced maximum of 37 overs. Even that score represented a recovery after the first seven wickets had gone down for 69.
As has often been the case throughout the summer, Priory’s bowlers shared wickets between them, Adam Barton, Seaver Cowley and Adam Page taking two apiece, with others falling to John Morgan and Iden McCleave, plus a final run-out.
Priory’s batsmen were able to address their target without any undue run-rate pressure, a situation ideal for opener Dylan Woolley who batted composedly throughout the innings to finish with 44 not out off 84 balls. Harry Scowen was bowled for 15, but Cowley (31) shared a second wicket partnership of 57 and, although McCleave departed quickly, Woolley and Greg Devlin quickly rattled off the remaining runs, Devlin scoring 32 not out off just 24 balls, including two sixes.
That victory took the Hastings side to the top of the Division 2 table, with the knowledge that a win last Saturday at their home ground at Claremont School over visitors Brighton & Hove (bottom of the league and already relegated) would be enough to secure the championship and promotion. They knew too, on the other hand, that defeat would be likely to leave them adrift of both Worthing – playing just up the road at Crowhurst Park – and West Chiltington, also away at Buxted.
Worthing and West Chiltington each won their games with some ease. For most of Priory’s final match, the outcome also seemed in little doubt. The pitch was again damp (“low and slow”, Morgan described it), again Gillespie won the toss, again inserted the visiting batsmen, and rotated his array of bowlers to pick them off. They reached 64 for 2 at a slow rate, but the later order was skittled, McCleave taking four wickets for ten runs, with others shared between Morgan, Satchi Mahendran, Page and Alex Osborne.
The visitors’ total of 98 was hardly daunting, and although Woolley, Cowley and McCleave all went cheaply, Scowen (41) was in commanding form. His fourth wicket partnership with Devlin (21 off 20 balls) left only another 29 runs to get; then he and Gillespie hit off another 19. The win was surely a formality now, even allowing for Priory’s notorious stutters in such situations.
The ending was not for the nervous. Gillespie attempted an injudicious reverse sweep and was adjudged lbw. Scowen was caught superbly at slip; Harvey Faulkner skied a drive to deep mid-on. Morgan, batting at number nine with seven wickets now down, scooped his first ball to leg just over the heads of two fielders to bring the scores level, but was then run out by half the length of the pitch in a mix-up with Osborne, rooted at the striker’s end.
One run was still required with just two wickets left. The surviving Osborne, who has been a mainstay of the team throughout the summer, scored it with a well-placed cover drive. Priory were champions, and the champagne duly flowed.
Sussex Cricket League standings – final table (top three)
| Team | P | W | D | L | T | A/C | Bat | Bowl | Points |
| Hastings Priory | 18 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 33 | 383 |
| Worthing | 18 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 22 | 383 |
| W.Chiltington | 18 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 12 | 374 |
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