Littlehampton climb to third with draw at EP

Littlehampton took 17 points from the game, while EP got 14, as Littlehampton were all out for 238 after losing the toss and batting first, before EP finished their reply on 180-7.

The draw helped Littlehampton move up a place to third, although captain Dan Rive felt his side would have won the game if they had won the toss.

He said: “If we had won the toss, we would have won the game as the pitch was fairly lethal earlydoors.

“The ball was bouncing around all over the place and we were 24-3 at one stage.

“It got easier to bat on as the ball softened up and they only had the two seamers and only had spinners after Mark Coskin and Jack Sunderland. If they’d had another couple of seamers, it might have been a different story.

“To get 17 points wasn’t a bad return but it was a game where the toss of a coin was so important. It’s part of cricket, though, and we all accept it.

“We’ve got our free week on Saturday now, so we’ll know where we are after this weekend.”

Littlehampton lost Michael Askew (one), Tom Lee (three) and Andy Greig (14) early on, before Ally James and Chris Heberlein put on 88 for the fourth wicket.

James fell for 57 after hitting four fours and five sixes from 83 balls.

Heberlein was sixth man out, with the score on 185, for 73 after smashing nine fours and four sixes off 59 deliveries, before Jordan Farrell then crashed 72 not out, with seven fours and five sixes, from only 45 balls.

Richard Laker took 4-54 from eight overs for EP, while Coskin and Sunderland both claimed three wickets each.

Littlehampton lost Rive to a dislocated finger seven overs into EP’s reply, before the dismissals of Gary Weedon (15) and Colin Smith (two) left the hosts 36-2.

Tim Miles and Jack Sunderland put on 64 for the third wicket, before Sunderland was caught by Tom Lee off Amjad Mohsin’s bowling for 27.

Tom Reeves (seven) and Miles (47) both fell with the score on 108, before Mark O’Keefe and Josh Carter shared a 69-run sixth-wicket stand.

Carter (30) and Dan Williams were both out with the score on 177 but O’Keefe finished unbeaten on 31 and Matt Laker was two not out as the game ended in a draw.

Lee and Mohsin both picked up two wickets for Littlehampton, while there was one each for Tim Peters, Farrell and Ryan Budd.

East Preston captain Gary Weedon said: “We were certainly hoping to do a little better.

“There were positives in the batting to take away, but our fielding is letting us down at the moment.

“We dropped a couple of chances and that would have helped kept the total down.

“We just need to put a whole performance in now and bring it all together.”

EP travel to local rivals Arundel on Saturday.