CRICKET: Littlehampton slump to another defeat

Captain Luke Vinter, Benn Challen, Gareth Challen, Chris Green, Stuart Hanks and Adam Tester were all unavailable, which meant Dan Rive skippered a young Littlehampton team.

After a steady start, which saw them reach 44-1, they had soon collapsed to 48-4, then 82-8, before they were all out for just 93 '“ a target Bexhill reached without losing a wicket.

James Askew top-scored with 27 in Littlehampton's innings but New Zealander, Ben Smith, with 19, and Rive, with 13, were the only other players to reach double figures.

The game, which started at 1pm, was all over by 4.36pm and Rive said: "What happened was the worst case scenario. It couldn't have gone any worse.

"Even if I'd won the toss, I'd have batted first because that was the only way to get any bonus points and try to put them under a bit of pressure. You would back our top five to get more than 93 normally and we were looking to post 200-220 to put them under pressure.

"But 93 was never going to be enough.

"We've got 68 points and Middleton, who are a place above us, have 100 and Roffey, who are third bottom, have 113.

"We've got to get at least five wins to have a chance of staying up. I think we'll need around 270 points, which will be a tough order, but we'll have everyone back available for our next game a week on Saturday."

On Sunday, Littlehampton went out of the Sussex Twenty20 Cup at home to Stirlands in the first round stage when they lost by two runs.

Stirlands scored 155-9 with leg-spinner Amit Midha returning excellent figures of 3-15 from his four overs. Adam Tester and Matt Parnell also grabbed two wickets each.

Littlehampton then finished their reply on 153-9. Gareth Challen top-scored with 42 and Stuart Hanks hit 22 not out but Littlehampton were unable to score 11 from the final over to win.

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