Cuckfield record another win as they chase down Roffey for title

Cuckfield are 19 points behind Roffey as Josh Hayward's side they recorded another win in the Suussex Premier League.
Brad Gayler hit 88 from 72 balls for Cuckfield against BillingshurstBrad Gayler hit 88 from 72 balls for Cuckfield against Billingshurst
Brad Gayler hit 88 from 72 balls for Cuckfield against Billingshurst

Cuckfield hosted Billingshurst on Saturday with hopes of reducing the gap between themselves and leaders Roffey.

Having won yet another toss, Cuckfield elected to bat on a slow, grassy wicket.

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Openers Silk and Sear again looked assured from the off, driving through the covers and clipping anything off their legs, before the prolific Silk was undone by some unnerving extra bounce, giving Shane West an early wicket, caught at first slip. Stafford joined Sear and both looked assured, before Barr caught the edge of Stafford’s bat as he offered no stroke. Weston followed quickly after, skying a long-hop to mid- on. As Cuckfield began to feel a bit of pressure at 77-3, Brad Gayler joined Sear at the crease and both began quickly accumulating runs.

Dominic Sear continued his good form with 71 against BillingshurstDominic Sear continued his good form with 71 against Billingshurst
Dominic Sear continued his good form with 71 against Billingshurst

The graceful Sear was complimented beautifully by the belligerence of Gayler, who’s 88 included 3 huge sixes and came off just 72 balls. As both quickly advanced the score, making use of the countless bad balls offered by the visiting attack, it looked as though it would take a stroke of luck to find a breakthrough, and after the two had added 123 for the 4th wicket, a rasping drive and the boot of Andy Barr saw Sear sent on his way, run out backing up for a beautifully compiled 71. Wickets then fell at regular intervals, as Ben Williams picked up 3 wickets at the back end of the Cuckfield innings.

The returning Nick Patterson added some late impetus, adding 22 at near run-a-ball to take the Cuckfield score to 268 as they declared with 7 overs to go.

The Billingshurst innings got off to the worst possible start as Hutchings removed Stuart Barber (8), thanks to a spectacular catch by Tom Weston, and Scott Stratton (0) caught by Brad Gayler. This brought Sri Lankan overseas Rataratne to the crease, who played some beautiful shots on his way to 55, before a leading edge saw him caught and bowled by Hayward. Haynes played a relatively solid innings, before he didn’t pick Ben Candfield’s googly, LBW for 27. While wickets kept falling, Billingshurst began to score fairly quickly, however, cameos from Hartard and Mike Burroughs were not converted into the innings of substance that were required to chase down the Cuckfield total.

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As Greg Wisdom removed both, the game looked well out of the visitors reach, and when Andy Barr was adjudged LBW off the bowling of Ben Candfield to leave Billingshurst 187-9 Cuckfield thought the game was over. However, a rear-guard effort from Ben Williams and Awais Malik lead to a few nervous overs for Cuckfield, before Hutchings finally removed Malik to bowl Billingshurst out for 227. Wisdom finished with 3-32 and Hutchins with 3-25 as Cuckfield took 30 points.

Cuckfield travel to East Grinstead on Saturday.

Cuckfied 2nd XI v Three Bridges 2nd XI

Cuckfield lost the toss and were put into bat at Three Bridges on a pitch which had been severely affected by torrential rain on Thursday. The Cuckfield openers Tom Mole and George Galbraith-Gibbons battled solidly in difficult conditions before G-G fell for 22, caught by Ross Legg off the third change bowling of Archit Patel. Jack Denyer joined Mole at 65 for 1 after 23 overs and continued the resistance until he fell for 20, lbw to Ben Butcher. The in-form Darren Senadhira joined Mole and they made 42 and 71 respectively. A late flurry of wickets finally brought some points for Three Bridges before Joe White went on the attack hitting 21, mostly off the last over, to get Cuckfield up to 213 for 7, and maximum batting points, after their 53 overs. Archit Patel took 4/50 for Three Bridges.

Aaron Brown and Sohail Shah opened for Three Bridges and looked to be following Cuckfield’s lead until they were dismissed caught behind by Ben John off Robinson for 28 and bowled by White for 25 respectively. From here on wickets tumbled and Three Bridges drew to the drawbridge to bat out for the draw as number 9, Ollie Brown, faced 45 deliveries for just 1 run. Cuckfield had 3 overs to get the last wicket, but the match ended in a draw with Three Bridges 109 for 9. Joe White took 3/27 and James Robinson 3/25.

Cuckfield 3rd XI by Colemans Hatch 1st XI

Colemans Hatch won the toss and put Cuckfield into bat on a good looking Cuckfield pitch. The Cuckfield batsmen all took advantage of some indisciplined and at times wayward bowling to rack up 296 for 6, enabling them to declare after just 35 overs, 12 overs early. Will Rossiter (49), Graham Hart (30), Dan Turner (44), Tommy Watson (55), Sam Candfield (46) and James Buckeridge (40) did the damage. Roger Thorogood took 4/70 from 11 overs for Colemans Hatch.

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This left the visitors 55 overs to bat and that’s exactly what they did. Opener Steve Pollard hit a well made 95 before he was run out by Jack Best. He was supported with 16 from Peter Gann, 37 from Thorogood, 71 from Tim Singer and 38 from Paul Brady as Colemans Hatch made 285 for 5 to draw the game. Matt Slinger took 2/86 for Cuckfield.

Cuckfield 4th XI v Smallfield Manor 1st XI

Smallfield won the toss and put Cuckfield into bat. The reliable Tom Wright opened up for Cuckfield, but struggled to find a partner to build with as Caleb Hawkins, Tom Bonanate and Charlie Best all went cheaply. Andrew Middleton (33) stemmed the flow of wickets but once he and Wright (42) got out the rest of the order collapsed to 136 for 9 from Cuckfield’s 47 overs. Vikash Panwar took 4/33 for Smallfield.

In the chase four of the Smallfield batsmen made 20 as Raj Biradir hit 31 to help his team over the line in the 39th over losing just 5 wickets. Tom Bonanate and Glenn Smith took two wickets each for Cuckfield.

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