The cricketers of Hastings & St Leonards Priory have been on their travels this month, playing three away matches over eight days. Each started in the same way – captain Tom Gillespie winning the toss and opting, like the bazballers of England, to field first. From there on, there were contrasting patterns of play and outcomes: one easy win, one high-margin defeat and, last Saturday, another edgy victory. 

On 1 July their hosts were bottom-of-the-league Brighton & Hove, who have had only one league win all summer.  Priory’s bowling attack was strengthened by the return of Satchi Mahendran after injury, but it was fellow-seamer John Morgan who made regular inroads, bowling 18 overs unchanged and finishing with six wickets for 59, as the home side subsided to 132 all out. In reply, Hastings openers Dylan Woolley (35) and Harry Scowen (78 not out) shared a first wicket stand of 84. After Woolley was caught and bowled, Scowen hit a series of flamboyant boundaries, and the target was reached in less than 27 overs.

The next day, without Mahendran, Priory found Haywards Heath much tougher opposition in a match rescheduled from early May when the hosts’ pitch was unplayable. The match was contested on a limited-over format, and the home batsmen got off to a flying start. Although Morgan, Seaver Cowley and Alex Osborne took two wickets apiece, none could stem the flow of runs. Osborne proved particularly expensive, conceding 75 runs off his nine overs as Haywards Heath reached 260 off 45.

Priory started their response well enough, despite the early dismissal of Scowen, and reached 67 for 1 with Woolley and Cowley seemingly set. But Cowley’s dismissal for 19 sparked a wholesale collapse. Gillespie was lbw for nought, Osborne run out without scoring and Greg Devlin caught likewise – three ducks in a row. Woolley carried his bat through the remainder of the innings to finish with 67 not out, but the rest of the batting order offered little resistance. The final deficit was 118 runs. 

Last Saturday, at St James’s ground at Ditchling, Priory’s bowlers enjoyed early successes. Mahendran took three wickets in his opening spell, then Morgan and Cowley also cashed in on a pitch that helped the seamers as the home side were bowled out for 111 runs.

If that seemed an easy target at the start, Priory’s top order received a rude shock. Woolley, Caleb Laloo, Scowen and Cowley were all back in the pavilion with just 23 runs on the board. Osborne (21 off 70 balls) and Gillespie dropped anchor to steady the ship with a crucial partnership of 41; but when the former’s dismissal was followed almost immediately by that of Iden McCleave, a morale-sapping defeat looked on the cards. Gillespie maintained his captain’s innings, however, to finish with 37 not out. Morgan hit some trademark blows (13 off 13 balls), then Mahendra (15 not out) stayed to the finish – a three wicket win for the Hastings side.

They are now back in third place in the Division 2 league championship behind Worthing, who have won six games and lost none so far, and surprise package West Chiltington & Thakeham. Next up are back-to-back home fixtures against Haywards Heath (tomorrow, Saturday) and Burgess Hill (the following Saturday).

Sussex Cricket League standings – top five 

After a thrilling denouement to the match against Division Two promotion rivals Haywards Heath at Horntye last weekend, Hastings & St Leonards Priory hope to  bus supporters to watch their last two away games – at Burgess Hill tomorrow (Saturday) and at Ifield on 31st August.

Reg’s Magic Bus will pick up from the main car park at Horntye at 9am on those days. To book your (minibus) seat, contact Brian on 07769 851593.

Batting first against Haywards Heath, Priory had limped to 200 for nine in their 53 overs, despite a second wicket partnership of 78 between Joe Billings (47) and captain Tom Gillespie (56), and seemed certain to be overhauled when the visitors reached 197 for 6 with nearly three overs to spare. Then Elliott Hooper clean-bowled

Heath’s top scorer Jonny Phelps, Jed O’Brien bowled the penultimate over without conceding a run, and Hooper took two further wickets (both stumpings by Billings) in the last for only one run. That left Heath on 199 for nine, the match drawn, and Priory still in pole position in the league table with four games to go. 

Some games, even tense ones, end essentially in frustration. In football the side that’s leading (or settling for a draw) takes the ball down to the corner flag and depletes the remaining time in negative semi-obstruction. In rugby it’s similar: the side with the ball can just flop on it, heel it back from the resultant scrum and re-cycle in monotonous repetition till the hooter sounds. It’s called “game management”, and is pretty tedious to behold even if you’re a supporter of the team doing it.

Other games, though, require a positive conclusion. In tennis, no matter how much one player has dominated hitherto, he (or she) has to win the final point. Golf is the same – the final putt has to be holed And cricket? Well, in limited over games or when darkness approaches, one side may win or steal a draw by getting negative. But in the best finishes it’s all or nothing: the winning runs must be scored or the final wickets taken.

Hastings Priory’s most recent home game at Horntye proved as tense as they come, poised for a positive finish either way. Horsham, still challenging for the Premier League title, and easy winners over Priory on their own pitch back in early June, had scored 147. The home team started its reply with an opening partnership of 58 between Josh Hahnei and James Pooley, and despite haemorrhaging middle order wickets, seemed to be cruising to victory at 133 for five. But the dismissal of captain Tom Gillespie gave the visitors new hope and two more wickets fell quickly to leg spinner Mike Munday. Once a regular with the Somerset county team and this season the league’s leading wicket-taker, Munday had taken seven out of eight and looked increasingly unplayable; while from the other end co-spinner Will Beer, who has also been a county player for Sussex this season, was proving even harder to score off. Only six runs to win when Priory’s ninth wicket pair came together – but against this calibre of bowling, where were they going to get them from?

A nick here, then desperate defence: a squirt there and more defence: a leg-bye; survival of vociferous appeals for close catches and leg-before; then a late cut from Harry Scowen to the third man boundary secured the victory. His ten not out will have felt like a century, and his joyous team-mates rushed onto the pitch in congratulation. If you think footballers go over the top in celebration, just listen outside the Priory dressing room after they’ve won.

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.