Sometimes one ‘flowers up’ a defeat and presents all the positives but occasionally, when it all goes horribly wrong you just have to put your hands up and say, we were not up to it. On a warm day when temperatures at last began to drop, sadly so did heads and catches. Wanderers toiled in the field on a very good batting wicket and never really maintained any spell of control. To be fair we were very depleted and missed the bowling of both Chris Staight and the injured ‘Darkness’ West, but it’s hard to see Littlehampton not having posted a winning score whatever team we put out. That said, on another day I am sure we would have made a better fist of it. Seven bowlers were used, as Laurie sought to stem the flow, and each went for an average of around 6 or 7 an over. Anything short or over pitched was creamed to the boundary and it was an uphill struggle for all. At a quarter to five the opposition thankfully called it a day at 237-1.
 
Our reply was equally anticlimactic with the exception of a solid innings from Neil Lightfoot (17) and also a good knock by Simon Barber (19) that saw him middling the ball with ease. Monty’s golden duck summed it all up really and he was the first to acknowledge that he should not be allowed near a bat again. Dan West does not know how lucky he was to achieve 0 not out without facing a ball!  Overall then, little to write home about, but hopefully it was character forming!
 
Just to say finally that it was a pleasure to host Littlehampton and we strongly hope that we will get at least one fixture against them next season and hopefully a couple. They played in a good spirit and our congratulations to Paul who clearly benefited from his winter nets with us!

Monty’s man of the match. Simon Barber for a good effort in the field despite carrying his knee injury and for a sparkling cameo of 19 runs. And a special mention to Neil for taking on the wicketkeeper’s mantle

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