Burgess Hill entertained Brighton & Hove on a hot and sunny day at St John’s Park still looking for a first win of the season .
Having lost the toss , Burgess Hill took to the field and opened the bowling with Hugh Warmisham and Bobby Barnes . The pitch was true and Brighton openers Jack Bradley and Martin Ford made good progress scoring at a steady three an over of the first 12 overs . Skipper , Tom Trowbridge made a double change and , with Ian Simpson’s first delivery the breakthrough was made as Ford was bowled for 26. In the very next over Dan Rapson bowled George Nash for just 2 . Bradley and incoming batsman Kurt John then put on a fifty partnership in good time before Joe Maskell trapped John (23) LBW before having Bradley(40) brilliantly caught by Kevin Ramsay.
With Brighton on 113 – 4 off 32 overs , Hill were looking to contain further . However they were met with positive batting down the order after Fergus Guppy departed cheaply to Ramsay .Ramsay and Maskell stuck to their task well but quick runs from Gabriel Martin (28) , 61 from Connor May and an unbeaten 20 from Alec Scott enabled Brighton to reach 231 for 8 off 53 overs .
All the Hill bowlers worked hard in the unrelenting heat and Maskell 2-33 and Ramsay 4-72 got the rewards.
After a healthy tea , Hill set about their reply, needing a good start as they chased 232 to win . In just the second over Penfold was caught by Guppy off Louie Miller- Marshall
for no score . Trowbridge was joined by the prolific Ramsay and all was going well until Trowbridge called for an optimistic run and was sent back by Ramsay . May’s throw was accurate and Trowbridge was run out for 11 . When Kirk Proto departed for no score in the following over bowled by Miller- Marshall the omens did not look good .
However , Ramsay was looking in fine form and got good support from Ian Simpson (19) as they put on a 50 run partnership . Simpson holed out to the experienced Dave Mates off Gabriel Martin and the game was finely poised with Hill on 100-4 off 23 overs .
Joe Maskell , in desperate need of runs joined Ramsay . What followed was a marvellous partnership of 118 in 18 overs as Ramsay went through the gears and Maskell batted with glorious fluency and timing to match the scoring of Ramsay.
Ramsay reached his 100 off 101 balls and just as it looked as though he would steer Hill to victory he fell to Jake Williams for a fine 105 .
There were to be no further alarms though as Maskell was joined by Ben Hopkins (11 not out) and the pair calmly reached the target with an over to spare . Maskell was not out on 69 off 71 balls with six fours and four sixes.
It was a much needed victory for Hill and lifts them off the bottom of the table .