Cuckfield skipper hails complete performance against Hastings + full match reports

Cuckfield cruised to an eight-wicket win after bowling their opposition out for 172. Joe Cambridge led the way in the reply with 92 not out from 77 balls.

Candfield told Middy Sport: "It was a complete performance on Saturday.

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"We bowled well as a unit to a simple plan, building pressure which allowed us to take early wickets.

"One of our key takeaways from our early defeat [to Eastbourne] was to be accountable for your individual performance, and Joe Cambridge has really taken that on and batted excellently.

"Overall I’m very happy with our last two games, and we plan to continue building upon these performances.

"Haywards Heath and East Grinstead both bring their own challenges, but I’m confident that if we play our best cricket then there’s no reason why we cannot win them both."

Candfield's side take on Haywards Heath in Group A2 of the August Cup this Saturday before finishing off their campaign against East Grinstead a week later.

Eastbourne and East Grinstead, who face each other this weekend, both have 100 per cent records in the group, but Cuckfield are just behind with two wins from three.

Match report round-up contributed by Nick Patterson

Cuckfield welcomed Hastings to a damp Cuckfield Park. Having won the toss, Cuckfield captain Ben Candfield again bowled first on what looked to be a good batting surface. Fit-again 17 year old Will Rogers shared the new ball with Abi Sakande, and both bowled excellent spells up top, removing Joe Billings, Tom Gillespie and Elliott Hooper either side of a short rain delay to leave the visitors 25-3 on a wicket offering appreciable pace and bounce. Nick Patterson and spinner Josh Hayward continued the good start, with another 3 wickets falling in quick succession to leave Hastings reeling at 43-6. William Hutchings and John Morgan had begun rebuilding, putting on 87, before Candfield removed Hutchings. Morgan batted on valiantly, taking Hastings to 177 before he ran out of partners 2 balls from the close, finishing on a well compiled 77. The wickets were shared around the Cuckfield bowlers, with Rogers, Sakande and Hayward taking two apiece.

At the halfway stage, Cuckfield were the more confident of the two sides, and that quickly translated into runs as Joe Ludlow and Joe Cambridge put on 67 in the face of some testing Hastings’ bowling. Having played relatively comfortably, the introduction of spin threatened to throw a spanner into the works as Ludlow was adjudged caught behind for 33 and Dom Sear followed soon after LBW for 4, both falling to the left arm spin of Elliot Hooper (2-28). Chris Mole (27*) joined an unusually circumspect Cambridge and began to accumulate safely, combining good running with a few strong shots through the covers and square of the wicket. With the rain falling and a Hastings win looking less likely, Cambridge went on the attack, launching 2 massive sixes to go with his 16 4s. A slap over wide mid-on took him to 92 and Cuckfield passed the visitors total for a second consecutive August Cup victory. Next weeks sees Cuckfield face Mid-Sussex rivals, Haywards Heath, for the first time since 2011.

2nd XI: Cuckfield 2s went to Newick on the back of a convincing win over Plumpton in their previous match. On an overcast day, Newick won the toss and chose to field.

Will Rossiter and George Galbraith-Gibbons opened the batting for Cuckfield and they quickly realised that it was a difficult pitch to bat on. With runs hard to come by, Rossiter looked to be proactive where he could but was then bowled by Scott Warren for 12, which brought Nathan Buckeridge to the crease. Not long after Rossiter fell, Galbraith-Gibbons was also out LBW for 22. The quick flow of wickets continued when Jason Oates was caught off the bowling of Lloyd Jones for 9 and suddenly Cuckfield were 65-3. However, captain Chris Taylor and Nathan Buckeridge steadied the ship during the middle overs to ensure that Cuckfield kept wickets in hand. The pair made things look easy and put on a partnership of 87 but, when looking to increase the run rate, Taylor fell for an important 43. Dan Turner then came to the crease to join Nathan Buckeridge and made everyone wonder why previous batsmen had struggled earlier in the innings, he scored 28 off 18 balls and their partnership was key in getting Cuckfield to a competitive total. Wickets began to fall quickly again towards the end of the innings as Cuckfield tried to increase their scoring. The last wicket to fall was that of Nathan Buckeridge who scored an extremely important 63 after anchoring the innings superbly during a great knock. Cuckfield finished 208-7 after 40 overs.

Newick openers, Samuel Carter and Lloyd Jones, faced an extremely accurate spell of bowling from Will Galbraith-Gibbons and Chris Osborne to kick of the innings which meant runs were hard to come by. Looking to cut away Galbraith-Gibbons through point, Jones was expecting to see the ball race away to the boundary. However, Will Rossiter had other ideas. He leapt to his right-hand side and caught the ball one handed, an absolute worldie which sent him off running around the outfield Imran Tahir style. Osborne got himself a wicket during his spell of economical bowling which left Newick 19-2.

With opener Carter and new batsman Joe Waylett in the middle Newick began to put Cuckfield onto the back foot, they made a good partnership of 52 but when Carter fell for 32 Cuckfield looked to shift the momentum. Sam Candfield and Theo Barker bowled very well during the middle overs and began to regularly take wickets to put Cuckfield in the driving seat. The pair took 2 wickets each and managed to reduce Newick to 108-6. With Joe Waylett still at the crease 35*, Newick still looked like they would push this game right to the last over. Although an inspired bowling change to bring on left arm off spin pair Jason Oates and Greg Seed took the game away from Newick. The pair took 2 wickets each within 8 overs to bowl Newick out for 138.

A very good team performance from Cuckfield who now join Newick and Plumpton on four points at the top of their August Cup group with two matches still to play away at Fletching and at Home against Crawley Down.

3rd XI: Cuckfield 3rd XI’s match at Bolney started in thick drizzle with Cuckfield winning the toss and electing to field. Josh Downey and Rodney Candfield mastered the wet conditions to claim a wicket each against a combative top order. Runs continued to flow with it difficult to pin down an end and at 80-2 Bolney were well set. Goff Baker got some control coming up the hill and runs dried up. Jack Best got the third wicket which brought the dangerous James Flower to the crease and he unleashed a couple of sixes over long on to get Bolney going again. Matt Slinger then brought himself on and first delivery got Flower stumped with some fine glovework from Alex Hardwicke. Bolney continued to attack and at 150-5 off 30 they were eying in excess of 200. However, a couple of good catches from Iain Pringle got Cuckfield into the Bolney tail and at 186 they fell thirty runs short of a really testing target.

Alex Hardwicke (24) was making short work of the chase when he was on the wrong end of a controversial run out decision. Iain Pringle (57) added to the mayhem with some clean striking and 14-year-old Henry Rogers (63) put in a mature innings to swing the match in Cuckfield’s favour. That left Piers Harrison (21*) and Sam Shepherd (10*) to bring the team home with four overs to spare to make it 3 wins from 3 in the August Cup and leaving Cuckfield 3rd XI top of the table.

4th XI: Cuckfield 4th XI played at home to Hurstpierpoint 2nd XI in an engaging game in the on/off drizzle. Cuckfield won the toss and fielded. Hurstpierpoint started steadily and at an increasing rate, benefitting from frequent enough loose balls for easy boundaries. Cuckfield were able to regain control with 14-year-old youngsters Adam Hatt and Ellis Buckeridge, who bowled superbly to restrict the runs and take wickets with an impressive display of controlled leg spin in the wet, ending with figures of 3-27 and 2-47 respectively, both off 8 overs, including a double wicket maiden for Adam Hatt. Hurstpierpoint finished on 227 for 9 off 40 overs.

Cuckfield began their chase steadily with James Buckeridge and Richard Black. After the loss of Black for 14, Caleb Hawkins strode to the crease and began the match winning partnership. Hawkins and Buckeridge increased the run rate gradually eventually completed the chase in the 37th over without further loss of wicket, with Buckeridge finishing on 89* and Hawkins 94* to seal a clean sweep for all Cuckfield sides.