The cricketers of Hastings & St Leonards Priory were denied any play over the first two Saturdays of the new season. Their opening fixture against St James’s Montefiore on Coronation Day was washed out, and their scheduled trip to Haywards Heath last Saturday was also cancelled, due to drainage problems at their intended hosts’ ground. 

So it was good to get a first competitive game under their belts on Sunday, playing away at local rivals Crowhurst Park in the first round of the county’s T20 competition – and even better to pull off a narrow win, overhauling the home side’s score of 140 with four wickets and just five balls to spare.

There’s not too much to learn, or at least to be sure of, from a T20 bash-and-dash between two under-practised teams. But Priory captain Tom Gillespie can take confidence for the next round of limited-over fixtures that he has a varied bowling attack at his disposal which can be relied upon not to give too many easy runs away. 

Opening bowlers John Morgan and Adam Barton have a wealth of experience at this level; support seamers Seaver Cowley and Iden McCleave supply reliable back-up. Spinners Harvey Faulkner and Alex Osborne – the latter a new recruit from Perth, Australia as Priory’s ‘overseas’ player for the summer – add a more subtle mix. Osborne returned the best figures of the afternoon, three wickets for 29 off his four overs, but all played their part in limiting the Crowhurst total to a reachable 140 for six. Performance in the field – so important in the T20 format – was variable, some smart work in the deep undermined by a few dropped catches, but general energy levels were high and sustained.

Priory’s batting was understandably rusty, but a typically belligerent knock of 30 off 19 balls by Gillespie, and a confident fourth-wicket partnership of 59 between Greg Devlin and Morgan, cashing in on some loose stuff from Crowhurst’s second-string bowlers, kept their side up with the run-rate. After Morgan (63 off 36 balls including five sixes) eventually holed out, Cowley saw Priory home.

Crowhurst may smart briefly at losing to their neighbours, but they enjoyed an excellent first league win the previous day away to St James’s Montefiore at Hassocks. Put into bat, they looked in some trouble at 119 for six, but a seventh wicket partnership of 52 between Matthew Constable (29) and Nick Peters (41) steadied the ship, and their eventual total of 192 proved easily defensible. Jamie Bristow-Diamond dismissed the home side’s first four batsmen, and the tail end crumpled from 110 for five to 120 all out, including two run-outs.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Priory will be away again at Burgess Hill and Crowhurst entertain Haywards Heath in the Sussex League. Then on the following Saturday Priory will at last return to their home ground at Claremont school. Their opponents… Crowhurst. That should be another high-spirited contest.

28 May:
Bognor Regis 130;
Hastings & St Leonards Priory 76

Despite valiant performances by John Morgan with both bat and ball, Hastings & St Leonards Priory were well beaten in their third and fourth matches of the Sussex Cricket League season. The Premier Division, in which Priory did well to cling on last summer, is proving a daunting arena for their young team, with most  batsmen – experienced and raw alike – struggling to make significant scores against quality bowling.

John Morgan – batting and bowling feats
CREDIT: Dave Young

In the home match at Claremont against Middleton, early conditions favoured bowlers after recent rain. Priory, losing the toss and invited to bat first, slumped to 60 for seven. Morgan (77 not out off 94 balls, including eight 4s and five 6s) and Ryan Hoadley (31 off 47) joined in a partnership of 64 runs as the pitch improved, and Morgan farmed the strike over the latter stages to raise the eventual total to 173.

Priory’s bowlers needed to make quick inroads into the visitors’ formidable batting line-up if they were to make a game of it, but although they put in a competent display, catches were dropped, and the result was punishing. Old adversary Sean Heather hit 93 not out as the target was reached with only one wicket down and only half the allotted 50 overs bowled.

Travelling to Bognor Regis last Saturday, Priory’s seam attack was much more successful, dismissing their hosts for 130 in 35 overs. Abhay Negi (five wickets for 37) and Morgan (four for 32) were consistently hostile.

Any thoughts of a morale-boosting win were quickly set in reverse. Within 11 overs Priory’s top five batsmen had been dismissed for just 29 runs, four of them leg before wicket. The late order stuck around – Harvey Faulkner and Seaver Cowley each faced 42 balls – but only Morgan reached double figures (comfortably  outscored by Extras) in a desperately disappointing total of 76. 

• Next up is another away game at Preston Nomads, then Eastbourne come visiting to Claremont on 11 June. 

The Priory cricket club and South Saxons hockey club are two of the town’s leading sports institutions. We each see the projected move from Horntye Park to Claremont School as essential for our respective long term security and indeed survival.

Both clubs have an enviable reputation for engaging with youngsters across the town and developing players with the skills for lifelong enjoyment of sport and its associated benefits. Hastings & St Leonards Priory currently has over 130 junior members and 60 adult members; South Saxons have 80 junior members and 90 adult members. The cricket club over the years has produced a number of professional county cricketers and even an England World Cup winner! But the continued provision of high quality sport for both adults and juniors of the area is dependent on having a future-proof high quality base. 

CREDIT: Reg Wood Events Photography

The Trust that owns Horntye is financially challenged, with large liabilities. This stretched financial position could well lead to the closure of the sports complex. To add to this, there is a necessity to replace the existing 21-year-old Astroturf pitch at an estimated minimum cost of £600,000k, plus a need to improve the cricket wicket square and net facilities, which are also over 20 years old. The funds to undertake these investments are just not available as things stand. Without a move financed by the sale of the ground for housing, both the cricket and hockey clubs will be left in very precarious positions without essential home facilities.

The revenue generated from the sale of Horntye will be reinvested in improved sporting facilities at Claremont. These include a brand new cricket ground, five bay cricket nets, a multi-purpose floodlit artificial pitch, a floodlit multi-use games area, and improvements to two existing cricket grounds and facilities. These are new and much needed improvements to our current sporting facilities – an exciting opportunity.

The application will also retain and secure the future of the Horntye sports hall & complex building which will provide continued sporting opportunities for numerous existing clubs and groups.

Whilst we recognise that the proposed move to Claremont is beyond the Borough boundary, it is as close to many parts of the town as Horntye. Both clubs are looking at how they might address any transport issues for members, new players and spectators, should transport prove a barrier to engagement.

And whilst we are obviously disappointed at the prospect of leaving Horntye, home of the cricket club for the last 27 years, we understand that this is our best and in reality only viable option.

The cricket club has agreed with Claremont School for the use of their existing cricket pitch for the 1st XI & 2nd XI in the Sussex Cricket League for the 2022 season.  We are grateful to Crowhurst Park Cricket Club and its Chair Justin Harley for their support in sharing facilities there.

The Hastings & Rother Sports Trust will meanwhile be looking to create a community fund, with the possibility of helping local sports clubs & organisations. This could be an additional benefit and opportunity for all recreational clubs in the local Hastings area and a real benefit that can result from the proposed plans.

Thrilling Victories Boost Priory League Hopes

21st August:
Won by one wicket:
Brighton & Hove 102;
Hastings & St Leonards Priory 106-9;

28th August:
Won by three wickets:
Cuckfield 239-9;
Hastings & St Leonards Priory 242-7 

On 14th August Hastings Priory won their first Sussex Premier League match since early May. Even then they remained rooted firmly at the bottom of the league table, their chances of avoiding relegation looking slim with only three games left to overhaul Haywards Heath and Cuckfield – the latter in eighth place, 22 points above them. 

Dilshan De Soysa: nine wickets in two matches
CREDIT: Sumeera Dissanayake

But with a tortuous one wicket defeat of Brighton & Hove followed by a remarkable back-from-the-dead victory at Cuckfield last Saturday, they have doomed Haywards Heath to the drop instead and themselves opened up a 16-point lead over Cuckfield with just one match to go.

The game against Brighton & Hove seemed in the bag when the visitors to Horntye, electing to bat first, were skittled out for 102 in 35 overs, spinners Dilshan De Soysa and Adam Page claiming eight wickets between them for just 44 runs. When Priory batted, the young opening pair Harvey Faulkner and Dylan Woolley put on 32; but nine wickets then tumbled for 60 runs, and it was left to the last wicket pair of John Morgan and Adam Page to scrape home.

Against Cuckfield, Priory won the toss and chose to field on a good wicket that offered some help for bowlers.. They were soon rewarded when Adam Barton (2 for 40) struck to remove the dangerous Joe Ludlow. The home side began a recovery led by Joe Cambridge until De Soysa (4 for 48) took three quick wickets to reduce the home side to 105 for five. Priory captain Tom Gillespie continued to rotate his bowlers effectively, well supported by some enthusiastic fielding. Page (1 for 33) and Faulkner (2 for 37) took important wickets, and Morgan and Ryan Hoadley both bowled well without success, but Priory could not prevent their relegation rivals, led by former Sussex star James Anyon (45) and Ollie Graham (41), finishing with a formidable total of 239 for nine in their 50 overs.

In reply, Priory were quickly in trouble as Anyon (3-52) and young pace bowler Will Rogers (3-47) reduced their batting line-up to 44 for 5. Defeat and consequent relegation appeared odds-on.

Tom Gillespie (70) and Will Hutchings, with a Sussex Premier personal best score of 65, had other ideas, sharing a brilliant partnership of 149 runs, based on skilful strike rotation and good defence, punctuated with some explosive hitting. But both fell in the 44th over, leaving 45 still needed off the last 31 balls with just three wickets remaining. Enter the evergreen Morgan who hit a stunning array of boundaries in a score of 37 not out off 20 balls. Ably backed up by Hoadley, he saw Priory home to a priceless win with just five balls to spare.

Tom Gillespie said afterwards: “It was a great all-round effort reflecting our improved confidence and performances. Cuckfield have some top players. We battled all the way in the field and, despite a tough start with the bat, we dug in. Will [Hutchings] and Morgs played fantastic innings to turn it round, and I was so pleased to be part of it.”

John Morgan: two priceless innings for Priory

Coach Ian Gillespie, Tom’s father, said: “The team has had some tough situations to cope with this season, but has shown fantastic spirit and determination over the last few weeks, and from nowhere we have given ourselves a chance. The batting from Tom, Will and Morgs was outstanding under great pressure.”

Priory now face local rivals Eastbourne in their final league game at Horntye tomorrow (Saturday) knowing that a fourth successive victory will secure their future in the Premier League next season. Even if they lose, Cuckfield will have to win away against champions elect Preston Nomads to overhaul them. Anything is possible in this league, as Priory have shown, but the odds this time are firmly in favour of the Hastings side to survive.

Elliot Hooper (front, 2nd from left) in Priory’s winning team

Nevertheless the bare statistics for the season show up Hooper’s all-round contribution as star performer –  third highest run-getter in the league with 592 runs, joint third highest wicket-taker (along with Morgan) with 41 wickets, and among the top fielders too, credited with seven catches and two run-outs. After years of  coaching as a Bedes schoolboy in the Sussex junior academy and appearances over several seasons in the county second eleven he was finally picked for the full county side for a championship match against Middlesex last month – and did not disappoint, picking up the wicket of recent Test batsman Dawid Malan and scoring 20 as a late order batsman. He was retained in the squad for Sussex’s final championship matches this week.

“Elliot has great natural ability”, Gillespie says. “He has excellent timing and a real ability to play creative innings with a great range of shots. As a bowler he has the ability to get good players out and has been a mainstay of our side for the last few seasons. We are delighted to see a talented local player get a chance to step up, especially after coming up through the ranks at Hastings and Sussex.”

Hugh Sullivan talks with Priory chair John Morgan 

It’s a Friday night at the beginning of February, and snowing outside, but John Morgan, chair of Hastings & St Leonards Priory cricket club, is on the upper deck of the Horntye sports hall, supervising juniors’ and ladies’ indoor nets. He and they are making best use of the facility while they still have it: there is a strong possibility, acknowledged on all sides, that 2019 may be the last summer that Priory will have this as their home. 

The trustees of the Horntye Park estate have made it clear that they are hoping to sell both the cricket ground and the artificial hockey pitch alongside for housing development. It seems that the sports hall and pavilion may be retained as a leisure and social facility to serve the incoming local residents.  It was, after all, completed less than 20 years ago as a state-of-the-art building fit to service first-class county cricket in succession to the Central ground that became Priory Meadow shopping centre. But the Sussex County cricket establishment has shunned it, and the Priory club plus Horntye’s other regular sporting tenants, South Saxons hockey club, were never going to make it a sustainable financial base on their own. Weddings and other social functions, quiz nights and bridge afternoons, indoor football and martial arts, have all helped to keep the pavilion ticking over – but not enough for long term solvency.  Those green acres outside, on a prime town site, have been eyed for development for quite some time.

Two years ago the trustees joined with Hastings United football club in an ambitious  project to set up a combined sports complex at Bulverhythe (re-branded as Combe Valley Sports Village), to which both the cricket and hockey clubs would transfer, with funding to be derived from the profits of house-building both on the Horntye estate and at Pilot Field. A development company Keepmoat Homes was engaged; plans were drawn; Hastings Borough Council made encouraging noises, and were prepared to throw in some land of their own. Then, a little over a year ago, Keepmoat withdrew, and after some months the United football club directors announced that they were pursuing a separate move to Tilekiln, leaving Horntye adrift. Now the trustees are engaging in their own sale venture, while assuring their tenants that no eviction will take place unless and until there are definite alternative plans for them.

While we watched enthusiastic 12-year-olds running in to bowl to padded and helmeted batsmen of similar age on a range of four parallel nets on the floor below, I asked John Morgan for the latest news. 

JM: Peter Finch, the chairman of Horntye Park trustees, has told us they’re negotiating; nothing at this point is definite. If they do sell – and I understand they’ve got an offer which is too good to refuse – they will definitely make alternative plans to keep hockey and cricket in a strong position in the town.

HS: Where else could that be? Isn’t it difficult to find an open space in town that’s big enough for cricket?

JM: All options are open, but I suppose that Bulverhythe is still the obvious area. It’s not aesthetically pleasing like here. But if we can find a space where we can have two pitches alongside, so that the third team – which at the moment has to play elsewhere – could play at the same time as the first or second team, then we could make a better club environment, with our own clubhouse.

HS: How optimistic are you?

JM: I trust that Peter and the other trustees will look after the interests of cricket in this town, that’s what they are there for. So will the Sussex Cricket Foundation, the body that is now in charge of all league cricket in Sussex. They are supportive, they want this part of the county to develop cricketers. Sport England, which provided funds for the move in the 1990s, may give some help.

HS: What contingency arrangements could you make if a ground can’t be found and made playable by 2020?

JM: We have to have a home ground of some sort. We couldn’t just play all our games away, because other clubs have second teams as well, that use their home grounds on alternate weeks. We might have to be nomadic, or share a school ground, for instance. But we’ll survive. When we first moved up here in 1995 we lived out of portakabins for five or six years until the pavilion was built, and the atmosphere was really good then – more like a village club.  Don’t get me wrong, this building here [Horntye] is fantastic. But it has felt sometimes like being the resident of a manor house. I think I’d really rather live in a cottage.

HS: How are you approaching the 2019 season?

JM: We’ll be running three senior teams, three sets of juniors – under 16s, under 13s and a soft ball team (under 10s or older beginners) – and an eight-a-side ladies team. Tom Gillespie will captain the first team again, and we are expecting his dad Ian to continue as coach. Kerry Henman will captain the ladies; Jack Stapley and Joe Adams will run the second team, and Toqeer Mohammad the third; Piers Cowley and Adam Page will supervise the juniors. 

HS: Any departures? Anyone snapped up by Sussex Premier clubs, now you’ve been relegated to Division 2?

JM: We hope not. Joe Billings will be at university in Durham and Harry Scowen at Bath, so both will be missing for the first half of the season. But we think we will still have a strong squad. Last season almost everything that could go wrong, in terms of injury and loss of form, went wrong. But it’s basically still the same squad of players that twice finished fifth in the Premier. I’m confident they can get us back up.

HS: New faces?

JM: We are looking at a couple of overseas players recommended to us by previous visitors. But we would never pay the kind of money that some other Sussex clubs offer.

HS: When do you start?

JM: We’ve started already, with nine weeks indoors on Friday evenings until the end of March. We’ll have a couple of friendlies, beginning with Mayfield on 13th April, then a national cup game against Tunbridge Wells side Linden Park, then the league season starts the first Saturday in May.

HS: Best of luck!

If Hastings prides itself on welcoming incomers, that friendly reception does not extend to the cricket pitch at Horntye. Last summer the Priory club won eight out of nine home fixtures there in the second division of the Sussex League to gain promotion. This season, up in the top league, home supremacy has continued unabated: three victories have been achieved by crushing margins with the fourth game well on the way to a similar result when rain caused abandonment. No visiting team has scored more than 131 runs in an innings, no individual batsman more than 38. Latest victims Preston Nomads, riding high in the league before the game, were bowled out for 95 after Priory had reached 183 for 7.

The Hastings team bats deep with players up and down the order capable of contributing significant scores. Captain Tom Gillespie scored a century against Billingshurst, other home 50s have been notched by James Pooley, Joshua Hahnei, Elliott Hooper and Harry Scowen.

But, as highlighted in this column back in May, it is the youthful trio of left-arm bowlers who are proving effective match-winners – Adam Barton, barely 21, and Jed O’Brien and Elliott Hooper, even younger (apologies to Elliott for attributing an age of 23 previously). Adam, tall and fast, sends stumps flying on a regular basis – see accompanying pictures; Elliott, with a tidy bowling action to go with his stylish batting, restricts scoring to the minimum with his accurate spinners on a length; while Jed seems to offer a different mode of delivery for each ball of each over – fast or floated, top-spun or turning either way – bamboozling one batsman after another to misread line, length or bounce and find his afternoon’s batting prematurely ended. It’s a joy to watch from the sidelines at Horntye and, on the basis of the Priory team’s manifest enthusiasm in the field, pretty entertaining out there too.

Away from Hastings it has been a different story. This column is being written before last Saturday’s match at Bexhill, which may change things, but so far four league matches on the road and an ECB National knock-out contest have yet to produce a Priory victory. Only Elliott has scored a 50 in these matches, and the bowlers too have found wickets much harder to come by.

Club chairman and senior all-rounder John Morgan puts the discrepancy down to difficulties with assessment of pitches away from home. “Here we know the pitch and the ground dimensions and how to quickly assess the type of wicket we are playing on. Probably our downfall away is the assessment of wickets that may be slightly foreign to us. That will come with experience of our young side.” But he also relishes the reputation which the Priory bowlers are gaining at Horntye: “it’s a real positive that we are making our home ground a difficult place for opponents to come to”.

Next home game is not until Saturday 16 July when Roffey, another side challenging at the top end of the league, come to call. Priory lost to them unluckily by just one wicket at their Horsham ground in May and will be confident that home advantage will bring about a reversal of fortunes. It should be good to watch.