Wright Pitts of A Game

On a breezy overcast afternoon, Seaford made the trip to Newick and losing the toss were asked to bat on what looked a hard and bouncy track.

Newick made a great start, sending back in form opener R.Gravett without scoring and B.Wootten (10) hit wicket to a brute of a lifting ball from M.Evans (2-43) who along with tight bowling from R.Manning (4-31) soon had Seaford in trouble at 41-4. Fortunately again for Seaford the lower order and tail batted well, O.Miller (19) then S.Pitts (12) marshalled by the excellent G.Wright (89no) pushed the score on to 148-7 at the end of the innings.

In reply Newick got off to a good start through J.Hitchens (24) and C.Patel (17) and after 15 overs sat at a comfortable 49-1. Needing some inspiration Seaford turned to the wily senior pro S.Pitts (6-31) who after last weeks 5 wickets was bang in form. Could he follow that up? After taking an over to settle, Pitts then set on working through the Newick batsman enticing them time and again to try and lift him out the ground, but all falling to catches as they mistimed shots with his usual nagging line and late dip.

Young Oscar Miller deserves credit as well for some excellent ground fielding and two good catches. T.Rylats (32) and M.Evans (20) nudged the score on and as the final over arrived Newick needed 10 to win. Pitts conceded just 1 run from the first 4 balls leaving 9 from 2, Manning then crashed the ball for 4, but needing a 6 to win holed out on the boundary to end the game on 144-9 and probably a fair result of a draw.

An excellent game once again played in the true spirit of cricket