Ansty Cricket Club enjoy a successful cricket week

Ansty CC had a fantastic week in which their under 15 squad managed to win the Sussex Under 16 Shield in a final against Barnes Green played at Steyning.

The week had started with a tough game away at Buxted Park where a majestic 104 from Will Galbraith-Gibbons saw Ansty to a total of 221 for 6 off 42 overs . Buxted batted well and looked likely winners before some tight bowling including 3 wickets for Paddy Maye slowed them down to an eventual score of 197-7 meaning a winning draw for Ansty.

Tuesday’s fixture was at home to St Matthias . At 98-3 after only 16 overs the visitors looked well set before 5 wickets for Galbraith-Gibbons and 4 for Flinn Herbert saw them all out for 158. A sticky start to Ansty’s reply saw them 48-5 before a 50 partnership between Sam Phelan and Toby Vander followed by another between Vander and Galbraith-Gibbons saw Ansty home with Vander unbeaten on 54.

Littlehampton away saw a clinical bowling performance with 3 wickets each for Galbraith-Gibbons and Henry Starkey and 2 for Phelan seeing the home side restricted to 56 all out. A lack of concentration in the Ansty innings saw them stutter home with 7 wickets down.

Needing to beat Ifield on Friday to top the table and reach the final Ansty scored a huge 252 with Galbraith-Gibbons starting things off with 43 but being overshadowed by a maiden century from Cameron Reed who finished 101 not out at the declaration with his second 50 coming in under 20 balls.

Tight bowling with 2 wickets each for Starkey, Herbert, Luke Beveridge and Luke Green saw Ifield bowled out and a place in Sunday’s final guaranteed as Ansty topped the table of fifteen clubs.

Barnes Green were the opponents in the final at the neutral venue of Steyning under the watchful eye of independent umpires where there was some excellent cricket on show. Extremely disciplined bowling from Barnes Green coupled with some athletic fielding saw the Ansty openers struggle to score runs quickly.

Critically Ansty did not panic or lose any wickets so even though an opening partnership of 100 had taken 25 overs they had a platform to try and reach a defendable score .

Galbraith-Gibbons went for 57 with his opening partner Luke Green giving a man of the match performance when eventually falling for 82.

Late order hitting from Starkey and Beveridge saw Ansty to a competitive total of 205. Early key wickets put Barnes Green on the back foot in their chase with impressive strike bowling from Starkey who ended up with three wickets supported by some highly committed fielding from the entire team. The rest of the bowlers chipped in with wickets, the leg spin of Beveridge taking three of them as Barnes Green were eventually bowled out for 95.

After the difficulties of lockdown it was great for this bunch of boys to get out and play some competitive and quality cricket across the county and the fact that they were all under 15 players will mean that they can have another go at winning the cup in the top division of the Sussex Junior Cricket Festival next year.

Ansty Squad: Galbraith-Gibbons (capt) ; Luke Green; Luke Beveridge; Henry Starkey; Cameron Reed ; Flinn Herbert; Toby Vander; Angus Tranter; Charlie Bennett; Ben Chalmers; Paddy Maye; Sam Phelan; Josh Mann ; Dan Jarman