Another crushing defeat for 3rd team
Despite on paper having a much stronger team, Burgess Hill 3rds succumbed to a 6th successive league defeat with a resounding 96 run reverse at Hurstpierpoint 1s. Chasing 216 to win, Hill collapsed again from 72-1 to 119 all out, as once again poor shot selection and application at the crease cost any chance of securing a first win of the campaign.
With Steve Cromb, Charlie Punter and Martyn Box all coming into the side, together with Josh Daniels, optimism was high but this was soon dispelled as 53 from Ben Tunley, 43 from the prolific Matt Parsons and a belligerent 48 from Josh Dolan, allowed Hurst to declare on 215-6 in the 42nd over. Pete Murphy 2-32, Steve Cromb 2-51, Tom Booth 1-24 and Ryan Jackson were the Hill wicket takers, but a couple of dropped catches and some average fielding allowed Hurst to get above the 200 mark.
In reply, Hill lost Ukesh Mittal early but some sensible batting from both Steve Cromb and Charlie Punter (not often you hear sensible before those 2 names!!) saw them put on a partnership of 68 before Steve was caught and bowled for 42. Martyn Box followed for 0 and then inexplicably the next ball, the skipper had a brain freeze and was caught at cover first ball and when Charlie was caught for 26, Hill had lost 4 wickets for 6 runs. Dan Austin hit a quickfire 21, including one superb straight six but when he played on and Tom Booth was caught behind, the writing was on the wall. Josh Daniels was last out with the score on 119 as Hill gained just 3 points from the encounter.
Another tough fixture follows this weekend as we host Smallfield Manor 1st team.