Worthing well beaten at Goring - success for Southwick and Littlehampton

They soon found themselves struggling on 33-5 as a mixture of poor shot selection and up and down bounce left them teetering on what they said was an under-prepared strip.

Dunn (31*) and Giorgio Rigali (15) led a slight recovery but even they couldn’t stop the barrage of wickets that saw them bowled out for 90.

Aaron Wyatt (4-11), Ross Baumann (2-24) and Ollie Watkins (3-26) were the pick of the Goring bowlers. All three showed that consistent line and length bowling could get rewarded.

In reply, Goring lost three early wickets, but with the game in the balance at 25-3, Alex Maynard hit a match-winning 50 off 42 balls to guide his side home by seven wickets and show the rest of the batters how it’s done.

Worthing will be looking to bounce back at home to Littlehampton on Saturday, while Goring visit Ansty hoping to make it two wins from two.

Worthing skipper Dunn was disappointed with the result.

“It was a disappointing start to the season when our preparations had been so good,” he said. “The toss was a bad one to lose and batting was extremely difficult early on due to the wet weather.

“We didn’t apply ourselves anywhere near well enough however, we just needed a few guys to hang on in there as batting would eventually get easier as the pitch dried out.

“In the field we started brilliantly and another outstanding spell from Giorgio really put us on the front foot, a bit of luck and if we’d taken a couple of hard chances then things could’ve been different.

“It wasn’t to be though but there’s still a good feeling in the squad and I know we’ll bounce back well.”

Goring captain Sam Botham said: “It was great to start our league campaign with a dominant win against Worthing. Having won the toss, our bowlers made the most of favourable conditions and took important early wickets. We kept our discipline and managed to clean up their tail relatively cheaply which gave us a strong opportunity to knock the runs off.

“A brilliant 50* from Alex Maynard and a steely partnership with Stuart Carter took us comfortably over the line in the end. All round it was another very pleasing team performance and one in which we’ll look to build on.”

Goring v Worthing picture special.

Hurstpierpoint v Southwick

The first league game of the season was in doubt over the weather – but the rain held off at Hurstpierpoint.

Southwick won the toss, and with conditions favouring the bowlers, bowled first.

On a blustery day they got off to a great start with Sam Keir and Ben Carpenter taking early wickets, one of which can only be described as an ‘absolute jaffa’. Whether or not he intended to bowl this is still up for debate!

Wickets fell steadily throughout the innings, with Hurstpierpoint’s No5 battling well and getting them to 105 all out.

Tom Corrigan, making his first team debut for Southwick, took two wickets with the others shared around.

In response, Rob Cornell and the veteran Chris Paine opened.

Paine, who hadn’t picked up a bat since last summer, proceeded to smash 71 inside 15 overs and made all question the validity of pre season nets.

They chased 105 in 18 overs for the loss of only two wickets.

Southwick 2nd v Palmers 2nd

Southwick seconds failedd to shine at their first home fixture.

A strong Palmers 2nd XI turned up at Buckingham Park and opted to bowl after winning the toss.

A slow start by Southwick was propped up by a decent partnership from Tom Broadfoot and Farhad Barazaki to get the home team to 127 off 40 overs.

Palmer’s batsmen took advantage of Southwick’s misfielding and knocked off 128 in 30 overs thanks to a wonderful 79 from J Kahn.

n Littlehampton skipper Mike Askew praised his players’ attitude for getting their Sussex League opener with Findon on – and for winning it. More cricket: worthingherald.co.uk

Findon won the toss at a wet Sportsfield and elected to bowl. Tom Lee (21) and Chris Heberlein (2) looked for a steady start but Heberlein was out early.

Lee was next to go and LCC were 41-2. Bradley James (22), Ally James (36), and Louis Paul (17) made good starts but fell looking to up the run rate.

Late order hitting from Mike Askew (35*) saw his side post 179-9 off 40 overs.

In reply, Findon captain Bradley Brisdon mistimed a pull shot off Mac Cox (4-36).

Much like the hosts, Findon’s batsmen got themselves in but were unable to go on.

At 149-5 with eight overs remaining, Findon were heavy favourites. A double bowling change from co-captains Askew and Cox saw the dangerous Felix Jordan (22) dismissed by Cox the hosts fancied victory. Findon collapsed to 157 all out with Cox, Jordan Farrell (2-18), and Heberlein (1-0) taking the last four wickets.

Littlehamapton skipper Mike Askew said: “I’m extremely pleased we won the game but what I’m even more pleased about is the players’ attitude. When we turned up in the morning, the ground was nowhere near playable but the lads were extremely keen to get the game on and their hard work to make it playable was rewarded with 30 points.

“In previous years we’d have rolled over and lost this game by five wickets but the lads never stopped believing and showed great patience. The bowlers were fantastic and they were backed up by some great catches.”

Littlehampton face Worthing on Saturday and Askew said: “We will go there with confidence looking to make it two wins out of two.”

Littlehampton v Findon

Littlehampton skipper Mike Askew praised his players’ attitude for getting their Sussex League opener with Findon on – and for winning it.