CRICKET: Round-up (June 17)

Chasing 188 to win, Littlehampton crashed to 67-6 before they got close to their target through Dan Rive's 64 and his 71-run stand for the seventh wicket with Wes Campbell, who scored 24.

But Challen said: "We need to take this as a lesson to be learned. We're going to have to fight to get back up to the top. We've got to apply ourselves and stop thinking that someone else will do it."

Littlehampton slipped to third from bottom with the defeat and are now winless in four matches, after they won their opening two games of the season.

Henfield had won the toss, elected to bat, and scored 187-9 from their 53 overs.

Opener Brett Moore top-scored with a 109-ball 50, which included seven fours. Luke Vinter again led the Littlehampton attack with 6-37 from 14 overs and he has already taken 31 wickets this season.

Littlehampton then slumped from 63-2 to 67-6 in their reply, before Rive and Campbell got Littlehampton back in contention.

Campbell was seventh man out, with the score on 138, and Luke Vinter then fell with 29 runs needed to win. Rive and Amit Midha both then fell to Rob Slaughter and Littlehampton were all out for 175.

Challen said: "We should have won but, at the end of the day, we didn't play very well. We were happy to keep them to 187 as, if we'd batted first, we'd have wanted to get more than 200 but we just didn't perform with the bat.

"Results went our way, though, with Middleton drawing and Pagham losing, so we haven't lost too much ground."

Littlehampton host Findon in the league on Saturday and then their first and second teams both face Stirlands in the Twenty 20 Cup on Sunday (seconds – midday; firsts – 4pm).

Arundel suffered their second successive heavy defeat in the same division to remain bottom of the table.

After their 233-run defeat at Middleton last week, they crashed to a 106-run loss at home to new leaders Steyning on Saturday.

After being stuck into bat, Steyning scored 208-7 from their 53 overs. Ed Lamb struck 49 not out from 66 balls, with five fours and two sixes, Hywel Jones hit 45 and David Kennett scored a run-a-ball 34.

Ollie Morris and Neil Chitty both picked up two wickets for Arundel, who were all out for 102 in 33 overs.

Geoff Stothert top-scored with 29 but only three other batsmen reached double figures.Tim Humphries led Steyning's atack with 4-24.

East Preston captain Andy Reeves was delighted after his side picked up their first victory of the season in Division 1 of the West Sussex Invitation League, when they beat Crawley Eagles by 13 runs.

A below-par, batting performance after being stuck in, saw EP make just 120 all out after 46.2 overs, mainly thanks to opener Tim Miles' 52, as fellow opener Chris Williams (17) was the only other man to make double figures.

Despite a good start in their response as Fasal (25) and Asif (16) put on 39 for Eagles' first wicket, Mark Coskin produced a fine performance with the ball to seal EP's win.

Coskin recorded 7-34, as Eagles' eighth man in, Atif, was their only other batsmen to get going, but even his 36, could only help them to 107 all out after 37.2 overs.

Reeves said: " It was nice to get our first win and, hopefully, we can push on from here. It was a bit of a shame Portslade below us got a win, but we closed the gap on Clymping and there is a long way to go.

"After our batting, I thought it was a bit of a disaster.

"It was really only thanks to Tim Miles we got anywhere near 100. Everyone was a bit down after our innings but I said to them the pitch wasn't great and we could have a go.

"They went off rapidly as you would expect with 10 wickets in hand, but then crumbled under the pressure. It was consistent bowling from Mark, and Richard Laker held his nerve to get a few wickets, and we were delighted."

In the same division, Chris Green blasted 93 for Clymping but they went down to a three-wicket defeat at Felbridge.

Green's innings came in Clymping's total of 145 from 48.4 overs as Roshan Gamage took 6-46 for the home side.

Felbridge then reached their target with 11 balls to spare.

Rustington fell to a nine-run defeat at home to Felbridge in West Sussex Invitation League Division 4 when chasing 151 to win.

Rustington were without captain Martyn Payne, who suffered a dislocated finger against Aldwick the previous week, so vice-captain Alex Fitch took charge.

He got off to a good start by winning the toss and inserting Felbridge. Rustington's Adam Taylor had both Felbridge openers back in the pavilion without scoring and they were soon 66-8.

But Felbridge's tail wagged and a last-wicket stand of 42 took their total to 150. Taylor finished with 6-55 and David Mangold took 3-40.

Rustington started their reply well and were looking comfortable until Matt Cousins was caught be a stunning legside catch by the Felbridge wicketkeeper.

His opening partner Alex Fitch soon went for 23 and, after No 3 Grant Melvin fell for 22, Rustington lost five wickets for 32 runs.

Matt Clark and Jamie Walker steadied the innings and took Rustington to within 10 runs of victory. But Clark was then out and Walker was caught at point the following over as Felbridge snatched the victory.

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