Saturday 13 July
On another beautiful Saturday, Grinstead played host to a strong Middleton side who were looking to impose another victory against Grinstead.
Grinstead won the toss and boldly put Middleton into bat on what looked an excellent batting track once more in what has been a fine July for weather. Lewis Hatchett once again started excellently taking three early wickets in an accurate spell. Firstly trapping the dangerous Hovey on the crease for just 2 runs, before having Dawling caught first ball excellently by Graham in the slips, and finally catching Heather on the crease for 16; a huge wicket for Grinstead, leaving Middleton 39-3. Meanwhile Robinson had been battling through a tough spell from Hatchett and Will Taylor who bowled with real venom and accuracy up the hill, but he gave his wicket away cheaply by chipping Taylor to Adkin at mid-wicket for 25. This meant Rawat came to the crease with averaging over 150 in the league currently. On a flat wicket, Grinstead struggled to dismiss him, but did well to contain and restrict the boundaries. Hatchett for once didn’t manage to find much turn, but still troubled Colvin’s outside edge without any luck. Thankfully Covin gave away his wicket chipping Hatchett to deep mid wicket; Haynes taking a good low catch.
At 216-6, Middleton looked set for 250 with just 5 overs left, and with Mahesh on 99 not out, Grinstead needed wickets to ensure bonus points and a chasable total were possible. Enter Will Adkin; Mahesh drives down the ground and takes off for a single, Adkln runs round from mid wicket and dives, pickes up in his left hand. turns and throws back at the keeper’s end from a seated position…. Run out for 99. An unbelievable piece of fielding gives Grinstead the prize wicket and a chase to take down the tail cheaply. Will Taylor had been brought back on after an excellent first spell and was finding a touch of inswing late in the day. Firstly, bowls Talman with a brilliant inswinger…. before having Davies caught behind leaving him with 4 wickets and on a hat-tric to get his first 5 wicket haul. It was meant to be! Straigfht yorker beat Lee for pace and gave Taylor 5-30 off 11 excellent overs.
Grinstead Started their pursuit of 225 well as Haynes and Adkin found the boundary with any stray bowling reaching 78 before the loss of Adkin with a good nip-backer from Heather for another well made 45. Cammish came and went after a decent off spinner found a rare gap between bat and pad for just 8. The in-form Ollie Graham found it difficult to score at first but soon found his rhythm hitting some lovely shots over mid wicket (a trademark of his). Haynes was looking good at scoring quickly keeping Middleton on the back foot as Grinstead getting nearer the target. However it wasn’t unfortunately a double Gold cap day as Haynes knicked off to Talman for an excellent 91. A wonderful innings of timing, patience and deserved runs. Graham followed in the next over chipping one back to Reynolds for a well made 38 leaving Grinstead 30 short with 6 wickets in hand. Thankfully, Rebbetts and Sturmer made light work of the 30 required, both striking the ball nicely to end on 18 and 22 not out respectively.
An excellent all round display from Grinstead saw lots of valuable contributions throughout the side and plenty of momentum to take to Cuckfield next weekend!
Saturday 6 July
Preston Nomads won the toss on a beautiful day and chose to bat on what looked like a flat but used wicket at Nomads. Grinstead started excellently though, with Hatchett trapping the dangerous Khan bang in front for just 3, while Sturmer got the ball to nip sharply to take the prize wicket of captain Dan Phillips. Two more early wickets, one from Hatchett accounted for Jake Hutson and Ben Davies had Ward caught for cover after a huge six the previous ball. This left Nomads reeling at 52-4 just before the drinks break.
Poole, who was lucky to still be at the crease after 20+ misses from Hatchett remained defiant though and Ibrahim on his Premier League debut started brightly all be it, slowly. Nomads crawled along at under 3 an over for the next 20 overs reaching their 137 before they began their last 12 overs looking for quicxk runs after a slow period. Credit goes to Brad Hatchett and Tom Haynes who looked promising after a finger injury has ruled out bowling in the first half of the year. A few lusty blows from Shepard down the order got Nomads up to the 200 mark before Rebbetts finished off the tail with 2 quick wickets saw Nomads bowled out for 203 in 55 overs. Two extra overs for Grinstead proving vital in their run chase on a wearing wicket. Brad Hatchett was once again the pick of the bowlers, ending with figures of 3-49 off 16 overs.
Grinstead started slowly, but securely reaching 39 before haynes was caught at mid on looking to go over the top. Going for 21. Maybe times has Haynes looked promising without pushing on, hoipefully we see this in the latter half of the season from Haynes. Adkin followed LBW for 28 as Grinstead looked to up the run rate against the accurate spin combination of Collard and O’Brien.
However, Graham looked in the mood to score today; as he always does against the likes of Nomads. Taking the attack to Collard, whipping him over mid-wicket at every opportunity. Cammish ran well between the wickets and swept regularly to take himself to a well-made 50. however, run rate was always a challenge as Nomads could set defensive fields against good bowling and Grinstead still needed a run a ball 30 when Graham (53) picked out deep square leg to give Ibrahim his debut wicket. Sturmer went out there looking to finish it quickly, but couldn’t find the middle of the bat, falling for 9. But Cammish had made sure of the win with some excellent sweeps and pull shots off the seamers. Grinstead needed just 3 to win off 7 balls when ben Davies strode to the crease with just one ball remaining in the penultimate over. A brilliant slog sweep first ball saw the ball fly over the rope to give a 6 wicket win for Grinstead! Davies is the second man in two weeks to hit a 6 from his first ball. Cammish got man of the match with an excellent 84 unbeaten. A truely wonderful innings, with class, timing and a sense of calmness Grinstead needed to turn the screw in this second half of the season.
We are at home to Middleton on Saturday and looking for another victory to push ourselves back into the title hunt.
Saturday 29 June
East Grinstead won the toss and elected to bat on a scorching day at The Saffrons on what looked to be an excellent batting wicket.
Adkin and Haynes started brightly once more getting to 50 before Haynes was adjudged LBW for 17. Cammish and Adkin rebuilt and were going strong before Adkin chopped on for a well-made 61. Adkin leads the run scoring charts for the first team with 308 league runs at an average of 51. Unfortunately the fall of Adkin lead to 4 quick wickets falling as Grinstead toppled from 109-1 to 130-5. Thankfully Rebbetts and Margetts were on hand to rebuild. Both rotated the strike against the spin of Smith well and Margetts looked to get on top of the seamers by going over the top. Rebbetts and Margetts put on 112 before Rebbetts fell in the penultimate over for a well made 41. Margetts batted excellently for a run a ball 76 not out. Really good to see Toby back playing well and hopefully his availability shores up the middle order of Grinstead in the back half of the season. Brad Hatchett finished off the innings well with a couple of boundaries to help Grinstead to 263-6 off their 58 overs.
Lewis Hatchett once again started brightly for Grinstead finding the edge of Hockley’s bat but unfortunately it was put down in the slips. Ian Sturmer was back from injury and picked up an early wicket as Johnson dragged onto his own stumps leaving Eastbourne 18-1. grinstead bowled without much luck as Hatchett and the new bowling of Taylor went past the edge of the bat numerous times. Hatchett made the breakthrough, nipping one through the gate of Lenham’s bat and pad for 21. Orr went early after an leg stump yorker bowled him round his legs leaving Eastbourne 66-3. With the target looking further and further out of sight, Eastbourne began to put up their defences, leaving Grinstead frustrated; especially on such a good batting surface. Hockey was getting frustratd with lack of strike and the defensive nature at the other end and this cost him his wicket as he went for an expansive drive and missed as Lewis Hatchett found his off stump. Brad Hatchett (leading wicket taker in the Sussex premier League currently was introduced at the right time and started off where he left off picking up the wicket of captain Jacob Smith for 21. Grinstead continued to ick up regular wickets despite the defensive mind set of Eastbourne and were rewarded when Eastbourne were 175-9 with 7 overs to spare. Unfortuately, Grinstead missed a number of chances to dismiss the final pairing of Twine and Qazi who frustrated Grinstead and finished on 215 (only down to some decent late striking with the field up from twine) who finished on 65 not out.
A frustrating end to the day where Grinstead dominated for large majority of the day and unfortunately weren’t able to prize out the last wicket. We move onto a big game away at Preston Nomads on Saturday.
Saturday 22 June
East Grinstead 1st XI bounced back after their loss to Brighton last week with a truley brilliant performance against Horsham.
After winning the toss and batting, Grinstead had to rebuild after a rare failure from Adkin who was LBW for 0. Haynes and Cammish put on 49 before Haynes was out for 24; battling for most of his innings with a pulled hamstring. Cammish followed for 28 before the in-form Sturmer came to the wicket and took the attack to Horsham. He made a rapid 54 off just 38 balls which really put Horsham on the back foot. This took Grinstead to 142-3 before the loss of Sturmer and Graham (22) in quick succession. Captain Darryl Rebbetts and Ben Davies took on the task of rebuilding for Grinstead and put on 47 before Davies fell for 38 well made runs. Great intent shown by Davies and has shown why he is set for a bright second half of the season in Grinstead first XI after a long awaited return from a broken patella which kept him out of the 2018 season. Wickets fell regularly before the end of the Grinstead innings with Rebbetts falling on 25 to complete the Grinstead innings on 223 all out. Oxley was the pick of the Horsham bowlers, finishing with excellent figures of 6-75 from 14 overs.
Grinstead started brightly with an important wicket of Gallagher (12) when Lewis broke through the defences. Ben Davies took the other end in the absence of Sturmer due to a hip flexor injury and took an early wicket too, pinning Wilis LBW for just 1. This brought Thornley to the wicket. Grinstead knew that this was the important partnership to break, with Sussex opening batsmen Haines at the other end. Brad Hatchett once again was the star man, picking up Haines, caught at backward point by his brother Lewis. Thornley was resisting well and brought up his 50 in quick fashion. After a couple of overs of seam bowling George Cave was asked to turn out his left arm off spin on a generous wicket which offered turn and inconsistent bounce. First ball after much confusion on Thornley’s part, Cave pinned him LBW! A unbelievable moment and meant the tide turned back into Grinstead’s favour. But with overs drifting away as Horsham put out the road blocks to deny Grinstead the victory, Cave and Hatchett bowled in quite brilliant tandem to continue taking regular wickets leaving Grinstead needing 2 wickets with 5 overs to go. Lewis Hatchett used his experience to outwit Brehaut by bowling bouncers, slower balls and yorkers. Leaving 1 wicket needed with 2 overs to go. Whiting defended Hatchett out for his over leaving Brad Hatchett 6 balls to bowl at the defiant Sam Bell for victory. 5 dot balls left Grinstead frustrated and mulling over more bad luck before Hatchett bowled a beautiful off-spinning delivery to spin through bat and pad to take top of leg stump! This sparked absolute scenes of jubilation as a victory off the last ball was much deserved after being on top for the entire day. Roll on Eastbourne away next Saturday to continue the ball rolling of Grinstead victories.
Saturday 15 June
East Grinstead won the toss playing against Brighton & Hove and elected to field on a wicket that despite being soft due to the persistent rain throughout the week looked in decent nick.
Brighton started slowly but securely against the opening duo of Sturmer and Lewis Hatchett forcing Grinstead to once again turn to the spin option of Brad Hatchett. Once again he was the one to make the brake through, catching Hounsome on the crease to have him LBW for 45. This began the collapse from 73-0 to 140 all out. The damage was done by Brad’s 4-33 from 15 overs including the key wickets of Delray Rawlins and Matt Machan – both going cheaply. While Lewis Hatchett bowled unchanged for 25 overs taking 6-69. A brilliant return for Lewis who showed a pronominal engine (bowling faster by the end of his spell than the beginning). A brilliant fielding display backed up the bowlers nicely,
Grinstead lost an early wicket to a nip-backer by Mates to bowl Haynes for 6, but once again Cammish and Adkin rebuilt nicely to take Grinstead to 70-1 before Adkin got a leading edge and was caught at cover for a well made 40 in spinning conditions. Sturmer announced himself with a big six down the ground off Rawlins and quickly caught up with Cammish, before Cammish hit a full toss and was caught on the boundary for 27.
Unfortunately that led to a horrible collapse of 7 wickets for 7 runs. with only 21 runs needed and 7 wickets in hand, a loss from here hurt Grinstead hugely and will bounce back strong against Horsham next week. This will be a big weekend with the 2020 cup scheduled for Sunday where attendance for a charity day is looking excellent. Hopefully it will be 3 wins out of 3 for Grinstead 1st XI over the weekend.
Saturday 1 June
On Saturday East Grinstead 1st XI hosted newly promoted Mayfield who were high on confidence after claiming their first Premier League victory the week before.
Mayfield won the toss and elected to bat in the glorious sun on what looked like a fantastic wicket to bat on. However, it was East Grinstead who made the better start to the day as Lewis Hatchett (1-22) had opener Cooke (0) caught behind by Cammish in the 3rd over. East Grinstead went for a change of tactic this week with opening with a spin bowler and that paid dividends when Brad Hatchett (2-31) removed the other opener Raymond (19) LBW leaving Mayfield 35-2. Overseas player Silva (24) and Sharma (45) started to build a partnership and took the score to 65 before Grinstead got the prize wicket of Silva as he was caught at Mid-off from the bowling of Hatchett.
Sharma was then joined at the crease by Finch (19) and the two rebuilt the innings nicely to 115 before Sharma was run out superbly by Glaysher from the boundary whilst coming back for the second run. This spelled a small collapse from Mayfield as Granger (3-36) came into the attack bowling a very tight line, removing Finch and Allen (0) both caught behind by Cammish, as well as having Sheffield (21) caught in the covers. Graham (1-31) also had Harman (1) LBW and Mayfield had slumped from 123-5 to 152-8. Wood (30*) batted nicely at the end hitting some lusty blows but the innings was wrapped up by 15 year old Ryan Trotter picking up (2-11) with his ever improving leg spin.
Grinstead were set 183 to win and got off to the worse possible start finding themselves 14-2 after 4 overs. Haynes (2) LBW to opening bowler Sarro (2-37) whilst in form batsman Cammish (6) was caught fantastically behind off the bowling of Wood (2-44). A partnership was needed and thankfully for East Grinstead that is what they got. Adkin (79*) and Graham (31) put on a 68 run partnership before Graham was again caught excellently on the boundary by Sheffield off the bowling of Sharma (1-37). Glaysher (21) then joined his captain at the crease and the two again set about rebuilding the innings. The two rotated the strike confidently and added another 45 before Glaysher was LBW to Wood.
Heppell (7) and B.Hatchett (6) came and went quickly but in nervous times Cave (9*) showed his maturity and saw the game home with Adkin giving East Grinstead a well earned 30 Points.
East Grinstead move on to Three Bridges away next Saturday.
Saturday 18 May – Cuckfield
Cuckfield won the toss and chose to bat first on what looked like an excellent batting wicket at East Grinstead. Lewis Hatchett got an early break through with a well thought out plan to get the dangerous Ludlow caught at short mid-wicket. Grinstead remained on top for the first session up to the drinks break where they only reached 50-1 off 15 overs. But as Weston and Nielson (Australian overseas) played themselves in and found themselves in a good position at the second drinks break at 165-1 with 14 overs to go. Brad Hatchett continued his excellent start to the season with another 3fer, keeping the run rate down in the process. But some excellent death bowling and strong fielding saw Grinstead take regular wickets in the final 10 overs as Ollie Graham and Lewis Hatchett helped mop up the tail cheaply. Ending with figures of 3-39 (Lewis) and 2-47 (Ollie). Cuckfield ended with 250-9 off their 50 overs.
Grinstead started brightly with the new opening partnership of Adkin and Haynes reaching 108 before Tom Haynes fell for a brilliant 52. An excellent effort despite being stuck with flu, Cammish and Adkin kept the runs flowing though through the tricky middle period of two left arm off spin bowlers bowling reaching 187 before the second wicket fell. Adkin being bowled, despite not being ready for the delivery. He made a brilliant 80 off 116 balls. Graham and Rebbetts fell cheaply before a Sturmer first ball 6 calmed the Grinstead nerves. Cammish found the boundary to seal the first Grinstead win of the season chasing the 250 down in 48.4 overs. Cammish ended with a wonderful 71* off only 91 balls.
Strong contributions from all in today’s victory gives Grinstead momentum going into the always tight affair against Roffey next week.
Saturday 4 May – Preston Nomads
Preston Nomads won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like a brilliant wicket. Bowling with the new pink balls in coloured kit, the Nomads openers started well against the normally destructive L Hatchett and I Sturmer. They reached 57-0 off 9 overs before Sturmer grabbed the deserved break when Khan’s luck ran out; caught at mid wicket by Adkin. B Hatchett bowled excellently unchanged for 10 overs getting two deserved wickets of Poole (38) and Ward (10). It could have been more.
Although East Grinstead got regular wickets – Nomads accumulated regular boundaries, taking advantage of some early season bowling from Grinstead, ending on 254 all out from their 50 overs. O Graham and W Taylor were the other pick of the bowlers ending with figures 3-38 and 3-37 respectably.
Unfortunately for Grinstead the weather took a turn for the worst when it was their time to bat, with three forced breaks with heavy rain. With a total of 14 overs lost and no Duckworth Lewis in place, Grinstead were hard done by with the adjusted target. Nomads deserve credit for better bowling, extracting more movement from the surface accounting for many of the Grinstead batsmen. Patel was the pick of the bowlers ending with figures of 3-18 from 8 economical overs. T Haynes (fresh back from Loughborough MCCU side) was the pick of the batsmen ending with 38 runs before being caught in the deep in the desire to score quick runs. The only other score of note was O Graham who scored 29.
Grinstead are away to Middleton on Saturday and look to bounce back with a win. However, they will be without W Adkin.
Sunday 28 April – Holmesdale CC
National 40 Over Cup Competition
Holmesdale won the toss and elected to bowl on what looked like an excellent April wicket at East Grinstead. They made early inrodes when Tom Haynes (East Grinstead’s new signing) was adjuded LBW to David Hudson. This brought Will Adkin to the crease and him and newly appointed captain Darryl Rebbetts began accumilating runs comfortably. They put on 62 before Rebbetts fell for 41 well made runs. Ollie graham kept momentum Grinstead’s way scoring a breezy 24 to take the total to 152-2 at the 30 over mark leaving plenty of wickets in hand for final 10 overs to pick up the rate. However this wasn’t to be and with regular wickets lost in the final 10, Grinstead finished 30 runs short of a par total on 184-8. Will Adkin top scoring with an excellently made 70. David Hudson (Holmesdale’s overseas player) ending with excellent figures of 5-31 off his 8 overs.
Unfortunately for Grinstead the Homlesdale openers started well making it to 67 before Ollie Graham took two quick wickets to give Grinstead hope. However, David Brabham was relentless, scoring regular boundaries in his 110 not out off only 103 balls. Especially quick onto anything too short or wide. Will Adkin took a forth consolidation wicket, but Holmesdale got home with 4 overs to spare and were worthy winners by 6 wickets. Ollie Graham looked to bring some form into the league season with 3-40 off his 8 overs. George Cave bowled well without any luck and is a positive to take from today’s loss.
Grinstead look to improve in our first home game against a strong Preston Nomads this coming Saturday, once again at home.
