Twos Beat The Rain And Hailsham To

On a grey, overcast day Seaford 2s welcomed Hailsham 2s to the Salts, on winning the toss the visitors gave Seaford first dig on a green wicket. Some excellent bowling from Moorman and Garbett kept it very tight early on, Moorman removing in form Jonty Reynolds for 8 with Seaford only on 25 off 9. This bought in Tom Date who soon got into his stride finding the boundary on 5 occasions, but, one boundary shot to many sent Date back into the warmth of the pavilion. The solid looking Rob Gravett was starting to open up a bit by now and his was joined by Bilesh Jayamanne (37) who got on top of the change bowlers to take the score onto 118 before  Gravett (50) managed to stick a sherry bottle full toss down the throat of deep mid-wicket. Sighs all round as the watching spectators were expecting it to end up by the rugby club. A great knock by Rob though really making his mark this season.

Seaford then managed to lose three more quick wickets to put Hailsham back in the game at 140 for 6 off of 30. Seaford’s strength in depth turned this around with Deano Cooper 26*, Mick “Team Bus “Spragg 18* and Tim “Boom Boom “Page 18 all chipping in to get Seaford maximum batting points and through to 200, a great effort against a good bowling line up backed up by some great fielding. Game on as this is very achievable at the Salts this season.

Seaford came out determined not to let Hailsham get a good start, veteran Jolly John Smith struggled to find his lines for once keeping the scoreboard ticking over and the umpire stretching his arms on regular basis. At the other end Team Bus was bowling an excellent line and length finding copious amounts of bounce on the now damp pitch, this proved the undoing of the top order with Spragg claiming 2 for 15 and Smith digging that straight ball out the kit bag to get an LBW. Hailsham now 37 for 3 the game was going Seaford’s way. The rain then came, but, not hard enough for the players to leave the field of play but making things much more interesting for all. A lot of Hailsham batters got in but not one went to play that match winning innings. All-rounder Bilesh then came on, inspired bowling change number one with a wicket in his first over and then two more to slice through  the middle order and expose the tail. His 3 for 20 having a huge impact on the result. Jon Pitts  (2 for 27) then came on and sent down a rip snorting first delivery that top scorer Bellett (25) wasn’t expecting and couldn’t handle, he gloved it to Date at first slip who did the rest. Another followed in his second over as the stumps were rearranged with a quick yorker, inspired bowling change number two.

With the rain getting harder, Seaford bought on Date for his first bowl of the season to try and get through the overs. His first ball again wicket time, inspired bowling change number three. This left the visitors 102 for 8 when the rain got harder and the teams left for the dry of the pavilion. After watching it come down for 45 minutes it relented, the pitch was fine so out we all went to finish the game. It didn’t take Seaford long to prise out the last two wickets, Bilesh and Date grabbing one more wicket each. A great effort in difficult conditions, well done all.

Seaford move on to Mayfield next week on match day 8 looking to keep the impressive start to the season going. Thanks to Hailsham today for wanting to play the game to the end result, deciphering the rules of play for rain affected game was a struggle today so we just got on with it in the end.

Scorecard

Author: Karl Wootten