ECC 1st XI vs Clymping CC T20

The first Sussex Men’s Slam Cup game got underway for the Gaters on Thursday evening with everyone in attendance knowing it was going to be a chilly one. Skipper Andy continued his form of losing the toss and the Gaters were stuck into bat by local rivals Clymping.

To begin with the skipper told multiple of his players to put their pads on as he didn’t know what the order was going to be but he opted with Brad and Dan to open up for the Gaters. To say the least the boys got off to a flyer but in the 4th over Dan sadly departed after being bowled for 18 hitting two 4s and a 6. This brought Joey to the crease who continued the fast scoring with Brad who was hitting the Cymping bowlers to all parts of the ground then after 25 balls at the crease Brad had to retire at 53* hitting four 4s and four 6s and having a 87 run partnership with Joey really got the boys going for the rest of the innings. Joey was the next man to go after scoring 46 off 28 with seven 4s this led to 2 new batters coming to the crease with Curt and Skipper Andy sadly the Andy got tempted by the veteran spinner and was caught for 3. The centurion from the previous game then joined Curt at the crease but sadly Henry couldn’t replicate his batting performance from the weekend and departed for 2. Liam then came walking to the crease took his guard the ball hit his pad and then he was walking back off without troubling the scorers he went for a golden. The two barmen were now at the crease looking to continue the quick scoring game and they did just that with Aaron hitting three 6s in the 19th over as the boys put on an unbeaten 73 run partnership to get the Gaters up to 210-5 after 20 overs. Curt finishing 39* off 26 balls with three 4s and two 6s and Aaron 32* off 18 balls hitting one 4 and three 6s.

The second innings began with Henry opening the bowling from the top end of the ground but unlucky for him he wasn’t rewarded for his opening spell. The other opening bowler Jamie had a reply to the Clymping opener by dismissing the number 2 batter bowling him for 2. The first change in the bowling so Brad come onto bowl and with his tidy 4 over spell he was rewarded with a wicket caught by wicket keeper Dan. Replacing Jamie with his tight opening spell was Jack who also picked up a wicket that was caught on the boundary by skipper Andy. However the main bowling performance came from the chairman Steve who in his first over picked up 1 wicket caught by Brad, then in his second over he got another caught by Dan then the third over had it all. The first ball was chipped up into the air and caught by Curt then second ball Steve bowled the new batter to make it 2 wickets from 2 balls and Steve was on a hat trick the fielders surrounded the Clymping batter and Steve bowled hits the pad of the batter and everyone goes up and appeals and it was given LBW. Steve finished the game with 5-23 off his 4 overs. In the last over the Clymping batters decided it was too dark to continue the game was we ended the match 2 balls early with the Gaters coming away with the win by 79 runs.

Special Mentions: Brad 53* and 1 wicket, Joey 46, Curt 39*, Aaron 32*, Dan 2 catches, Jamie 1 wicket, Jack 1 wicket and Steve a hat trick and 5-23

This leaves the Gaters top of the table after the first game let’s hope we can continue this form in to Saturday at home to Crawley CC. #UTG