Burgess Hill U13’s secured their first win of the season with an excellent 65 run victory away to Newick in the Plate semi-final on a glorious summer’s evening.

Burgess Hill’s captain Owen Larder won the toss and decided to bat first. The opening pair of Kyle Jones and Alfie Lees took to the crease and made a positive start scoring 24 runs between then before Kyle was dismissed in the 5th over for 18, a knock which included 3 well struck boundaries.
Owen joined Alfie in the middle and started positively with a 4 off the first ball faced. He scored another boundary before being dismissed for 9. Ryan Goss was dismissed soon after and the innings started to look a bit shaky on 49-3 after 9 overs.
Toby Spooner joined Alfie and the pair of them stabilised the innings with some great batting. Alfie retired with an excellent 32 which included 6 boundaries. Freddie Cobham partnered Toby next and the pair of them kept the momentum going taking the score to 102 at the 16 over mark before Toby retired with an excellent 28 including 6 boundaries.
Billy Reid then joined Freddie in the middle and added 2 more to the score before being bowled. Lewis came out to face the last ball scoring a couple of quick runs before the innings closed with Freddie not out on 5 and Lewis not out on 2. Burgess Hill finished on 137-4.
After a drink of squash and a few biscuits the visitors took the field with a good total to defend. Radley Larder opened the bowling, followed by Freddie with Burgess Hill on the hunt for an early wicket.
A couple of dropped catches later and the home team were in the running on 33 for no loss after 7 overs. However a couple of quick wickets for Kyle (one caught by Madhavan and the other bowled) in the 8th over turned the tide the visitors way. Madhavan then took a wicket in the next over (caught Ryan) followed by Toby (caught Owen) to reduce the home team to 41-4 at the half way mark.
The visitors started to grow in confidence and further wickets fell including 2 more for Toby (bowled and caught Alfie), one for Lewis (caught Alfie), one for Billy (bowled) and a run out for Ryan. Owen took the final wicket to bowl out Newick for 72 and secure a 65 run victory.
It was a great performance and was really pleasing to see some great team spirit in a result in which everyone played their part. The team now advance to the Plate final vs St James or Ansty.