Sidley 3rd XI v. Crowhurst Park 3rd XI (August 5th)

Sidley 124
Crowhurst Park 114

THE thirds of Sidley kept their outside hopes of East Sussex Division Ten survival alive with an unlikely win on Saturday. The maximum points haul took the basement dwellers to within seven points of second-bottom Linden Park IV and 15 of third-bottom Crowhurst Park having played a game more than both. It looked for so long, however, as if doubling a side they hammered by 157 runs back in June would prove elusive.

Sidley only just achieved a solitary batting point and Park appeared to be in a winning position for most of their reply. But Craig Ramsden (4-36) took three wickets in his second spell, including the crucial one of Ben Forward, to put them on the brink before Andy Pearson (3-13 off 10 overs) finished things off. Fine catches earlier in the innings from Robin Cooper, Simon Newstead, Toby O'Connor, whose running effort removed dangerous opener Paul Anderson, and Ross Settles had kept Sidley alive. Steve Ramsden (2-29) and O'Connor (1-21) took the other wickets on a Sandrock pitch of slow pace and slightly variable bounce.

Sidley's innings began well with 42 runs being scored for the opening wicket before Simon Newstead fell for 30 attempting to up the pace and four more batsmen followed for the addition of only 11 runs. Ross Settles (30), Kevin Kempthorne (19) and Robin Cooper, who scored four consecutive 4s in one over, and unluckily out hit wicket for 21, added crucial runs in the second half of the innings. Ian Harvey took 4-16 and Richie Lade 4-18.

So, back to winning form in a very exciting game that could have gone either way right up to the closing stages. Although 124 did not look a challenging total, the slow pitch did enough to give the bowlers a chance, and thanks to some excellent catching, we managed to turn around a likely defeat into a welcome victory.

It is always said that catches win matches, but this really was the case in this game, with Robin setting the standard by dismissing the Crowhurst danger man. (Was Ross's catch a dive full stretch to his left, or just a lucky fall?)