Haywards Heath humble Three Bridges to the delight of skipper Smith

Jonny Phelps took 4-39 and hit 34 in Haywards Heath CC's win over Three Bridges CC. Picture by Derek Martin

Openers Milo Price (eight) and Conor Golding (49) got the visitors off to a good start but the loss of Price with the score at 33 saw Bridge’s top order disintegrate.

A destructive spell form Jonny Phelps (4-39), Charlie Henry (1-31) and skipper Smith (1-15) saw Bridges reduced to 82-6.

Ollie Blandford (38) and Michael Rose (13) offered lower order resistances before Ollie Bailey (3-18) mopped up the tail.

There reply saw Arran Brown (3-35) take opener Jethro Menzies (duck) with Heath’s score on four.

Heath pushed to 43 through Phelps (34) and Henry Sims (six) before Phelps was claimed by Brown.

This preceded a mini-collapse as Brown and Blandford (1-36) pegged Heath back to 62-4.

But an unbeaten 83-run fifth-wicket partnership between Shelton Forbes (54*) and Smith (45*) took Heath to 145-4 off 39.3 overs.

Smith said: “I’m very happy to get a win after a tough run or results. Saturday we were superb with the ball and everyone did the job I asked, we showed great discipline.

“We fielded well and it just all came together. Batting wise, we had a little wobble but ran out pretty confident winners in the end and hope to take that into the up coming games.”

Although Heath are still 24 points away from safety they should be encouraged with how they say saw off a very good Bridges team and will hope to take their win into the game at Brighton & Hove CC next weekend.

Smith added: “We are hoping for some more positive results moving forward but it’s Premier Division cricket.

“Every game is hard so we know we need to stay on top of our game.”