Sidley out of promotion hunt

In a hostile climate Sidley did well to keep their inevitably stirred tempers in check and concentrate on the cricket but they were outplayed on the day by a much-improved Littlehampton side.

Sidley were dismissed for just 148 in reply to the hosts' 251-8 but Litthlehampton's victory was something of a hollow one on the back of their totally unprovoked intimidatory tactics.

Skipper Scott Woodroffe was delighted with the way his players got on with the job in hand despite the blue appearance of the Littlehampton air. He said: "I'm really proud of the guys, they never gave up and it was really good. We were struggling for an 11 and we had a couple of guys filling in for us.

"In the field everyone kept plugging away and we nearly bowled them out again. We should have been chasing 160 but we dropped their guy who got a hundred (Darren Mathura) twice before he got 20. The bowlers were great. Kingy (Peter King) bowled really well and everyone kept it tight.

"We've got no complaints with the result but we could still have ended up winning the game if we had grabbed the key chances. They were the better side on the day."

Mathura rode his luck to post 101 while Andy Northcote (45) and Gary Tester (48) rubbed salt in the visitors' wounds despite the brilliance of Javed (3-66).

Sidley lost an early wicket in reply but Woodroffe (16) and Javed (89) dug in for a while. Woodroffe's departure and a questionable lbw decision against Haffenden exposed the less experienced members of the Sidley batting line-up which unfortunately couldn't stay with a fired-up Javed.