Cuckfield edge home against local rivals Haywards Heath

After heavy rainfall the night before, Haywards Heath won the toss and decided to bat first on a track that seemed to have a bit in it for the bowlers.
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Reports contributed by Cuckfield Cricket Club

Abi Sakande and Will Rogers opened with the ball in tricky conditions with a strong wind but instantly stamped their authority on the first 12 overs of the game, Sakande getting Ben Matthew caught in the slips.

Just as Jonny Phelps looked as though he was finding his touch with a well-made 35, Josh Hayward made the breakthrough and took another one with him in the form of Ben Chappels. Cuckfield continued to squeeze Haywards Heath until Henry Sims and Max Barson made an important 29* and 23* respectively at the end of the innings to take Haywards Heath to a respectable but slightly light 177-6.

Cuckfield 2nd XICuckfield 2nd XI
Cuckfield 2nd XI
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In reply, Cuckfield made a strong start with Joe Cambridge and Chris Mole making 77 for the first wicket. Mole fell for 23, bowled by Charlie Dowdall and George Galbraith-Gibbons fell LBW to Smith without scoring. Ben Caidan came in to look to try and give some support to Cambridge, who passed 50 and was looking in great touch, but could only add 14 to the score. Oates made a good-looking 12 but was adjudged run out with a good piece of fielding by Amila Thilakarathna on the boundary. Cambridge fell for 56 to Ollie Bailey and Cuckfield looked as though they were on course to throw it away after some poor batting choices.

Greg Wisdom glued the innings together and re-established some form of control after making very important 18 not out with wickets falling around him, to get Cuckfield across the line with two wickets to spare.

2nd XI

Cuckfield 2nd XI travelled to Fletching on a blustery day looking to keep their winning streak going. Captain Chris Taylor once again lost the toss and having seen the stodgy green track the openers were expecting to be putting pads on. Fletching surprisingly fancied having a bat.

Joe Cambridge crashes one through the covers on his way to 56Joe Cambridge crashes one through the covers on his way to 56
Joe Cambridge crashes one through the covers on his way to 56

Taylor handed the new ball to Will Galbraith-Gibbons and Chris Osborne. This pair continued their miserly partnership from the week before and the pressure began to tell with Osborne ending with impressive figures of 3-15 off his 8 overs.

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However, Fletching’s skipper Ben Chapman stood firm leaving the innings finely balanced and a competitive total on the cards. This changed when spinner Greg Seed eventually proved his undoing for a well-constructed 51. After this the wickets started steadily falling to Theo Barker and Greg Seed, however there was some lacklustre fielding helping to keep the scoreboard ticking along probably adding 20 or so runs. Finally, Sam Candfield came on and completed his janitorial duties, mopping up the final 2 wickets leaving Fletching all out for 158.

At tea, Cuckfield felt confident they could reach the Fletching total and went with Will Rossiter and Henry Rogers to open up. The pitch still had some demons in it and proved difficult to get set, with multiple batsmen falling before reaching 20. However, the starts they were getting and the sparkling play of 14-year-old Henry Rogers (66) meant Cuckfield remained favourites to win. This proved to be the case, as with time and wickets in hand the level-headed Sam Candfield (19*) and Will Galbraith-Gibbons (12*) guided them to a 4 wicket win and the possibility of progressing as group winners in the August Cup.

3rd XI

Cuckfield 4th XICuckfield 4th XI
Cuckfield 4th XI

From an unpromising start this game developed into a classic. Difficult pitches are sometimes the making of a game and this was no exception. Lindfield put Cuckfield in after significant morning rain and the second ball screamed past Alex Hardwicke’s nose off a length.

A couple of good seamers on this pitch could have caused havoc but Lindfield had completely different tactics in mind. They took all pace off the ball, set the field in a ring and waited. Alex Hardwicke and Tom Hay weathered the early difficulties, but Hardwicke’s run out (16) took the momentum out of Cuckfield’s innings. Hay and Josh Downey reached 60-1 off 20 but didn’t push on. At 90-1 off 30 the Lindfield captain’s decision to Mankad Hay (46) who had wandered down the track looked like a bad error of judgement.

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The Cuckfield middle order threw the bat at everything. Piers Harrison (18) scored quickly and Tommy Watson (26) swatted three sixes with a languid swing of the bat. But the unpredictable bounce off the back of a length meant no batsman ever felt in. With the lower order scrambling for each run, Cuckfield staggered to 170 which felt 20 runs too short especially as the pitch was drying quickly.

Lindfield got out the starting blocks quickly with boundaries flowing. The decision to put pace on the ball gave the batsmen the chance to free their arms but one swing too many from Rob Minter (28) at Rodney Candfield opened the gates. Goff Baker then slowed the pace and cleaned up James Colvin (22) and the game was on at 60-2. Candfield kept it tight and picked up another wicket off a lifter to the keeper.

Then Slinger took over from Candfield (2-16) and in tandem with Baker tied the batsmen down. A full ball got Alex Owen who had looked organised and composed. Baker picked up the dangerous Adam Wright (28) off the last ball of his spell (2-27) leaving Lindfield 140-6 with 12 overs left.

Cuckfield’s problem however was they had no more spin options and seam on a now dry pitch posed few issues. Sam Shepherd stepped forward (2-38) and Slinger got Lindfield’s captain from the last ball of his spell to finish with 3-34. That left Lindfield needing 25 off 8 overs with one wicket left. Luke Sowton batted sensibly and Asha Hinley put in a gutsy performance, keeping out Downey who charged in down the hill. 6 were needed off the final over and Shepherd ran in. A single and a wide left 2 to win with three balls left. Hinley stepped down the wicket to unfurl a dazzling strike over mid-wicket to win the game for Lindfield by 1 wicket with 2 balls to spare.

4th XI

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Cuckfield 4th XI took to the field and started well with early wickets for George Ponsford (2-32) and Tim Mole (2-27), at one point reducing Burgess Hill 3rd XI to 14 for 3. However, a partnership built between Dan Austin (108*) and Tom Penfold (62). Despite tidy spells from Harriett Loveridge, Tim Power and Louis Waller, Burgess Hill accumulated runs at a steady rate. Even the bowling of Adam Hatt was unable to break the 4th wicket stand, which eventually ended when Penfold was caught by Richard Loveridge in the deep off Tim Mole’s bowling. Adam Bennett kept well in the windy conditions and Cuckfield fielded well but were unable to restrict the opposition total below 200 with Burgess Hill finishing their innings 201 for 4.

James (33) and Ellis Buckeridge (20) opened the batting for Cuckfield facing some good bowling in difficult conditions. Buckeridge senior stumped, dancing down the wicket to Alan MacLeod and Bertie Sheldon was unfortunately run out. The middle order were unable to build on the solid start with lots of batsmen making good starts but unable to push on to make a decent score, with Pramendra Shekhawat ending with 4-25. Tim Mole (34) completed the innings with some decent hitting, but Cuckfield eventually fell short of the target, posting a respectable 155 for 9.

5th XI – A Cuckfield first…

After a week of player shuffling and a last-minute opposition swap out, Cuckfield managed to put out 5 teams for the first time ever. With a strong side, we travelled to the quaint ground of Freshfields ready for action.

After a fine coin toss, we were off to a winning start and put the opposition in to bat. Given the showers overnight and that morning we were sure to get some swing and hopefully bat on a dryer wicket later in the day. We were off to a flying start with Jamie Tuddenham getting a wicket in the first over and soon had them reeling at 28/4 with Tuddenham (1-8), Bryce Van Straaten (1-11),

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Adhi Jawahar (1-12) taking wickets and a fine run out from Tom Black. In the interest of social cricket, Cuckfield started to rotate the bowlers (10 active bowlers in the team) to give everyone a few overs and save the newly imported big guns from the over 40s side till the end. Buck Rogers (2-6), Tom Black (1-16) and Adam Jull (2-0) all taking wickets and another great run out by Jull saw Seaford 4th XI all out for 102 on a challenging wicket. I felt confident we had that in our kit bag.

Captain, Glenn Smith, opened the batting with Charlie Dawson to try and make up for his short wicketless 2 over bowling spell.

Disaster struck 2 balls in and Smith chipped an easy catch to cover and was back in the hutch. Dawson joined shortly after, making just 7. Things were not going as planned. Adam Jull and Adhi Jawahar managed to calm things down a bit with Jull top scoring with 29 and Jawahar, a good 8.

A gutsy innings by Tom Black (25) put Cuckfield well within reach at 70/4. Then it collapsed. Cuckfield lost a succession of wickets with only Bryce Van Straaten making a valiant effort with a few big shots before getting bowled on 11. With Chris Bunning and Will Ward holding the game poised needing just 5 to win, Ward pushed one over mid-on (or so we all thought) but after an amazing catch one handed over the back of his head we were done for. A great game, with a super close finish and everyone participating.