Burgess Hill faced premiership Preston Nomads at Fulking on Sunday in a quarter final of the League T20 Cup competition.
Tom Trowbridge won the toss and chose to bat, opening himself with Kevin Ramsay. It was soon clear that the Nomads opening attack of Owen Kernan and Craig Alexander were going to give very little away. Trowbridge fell to a very smart stumping by James McKemey for just 4 in the fifth over and Kevin Ramsay was bowled by Kernan for 8 in the seventh over. Tom Penfold failed to connect with a reverse sweep off Stephen Rigg and was trapped LBW, quickly followed by Kirk Proto holing out to Alexander off Kashif Ibrahim and Joe Maskell (4) caught by Nathan Poole off Rigg attempting an optimistic maximum over long-on.
It was left to Karl Boffey to mount a counter-attack to give Hill something to bowl at. He targeted Rigg and hit some glorious blows which included five fours and a six. Young Martyn Box had fallen to Ibrahim , adjudged LBW and then Boffey fell to Rigg for 35 to a ball just held back by Rigg.
The tail fluttered with fluent runs coming from Hugh Warmisham who finished 13 not out in Hill’s all out total of 80 in the twentieth over. It was hardly a formidable total but far better than it had looked earlier.
Hill were determined to go down fighting and Hugh Warmisham, first frustrated and then bowled Dan Phillips for a duck in the first over . Ollie Gatting and Will Wright looked to repair the damage but Warmisham had Wright caught by Boffey for 12 and then Dan Rapson accounted for Gatting (16) caught by Proto . Martyn Box took a great catch to dismiss Dom Shepherd (0) for Warmisham’s third victim and when Alexander drove loosely to Trowbridge off Maskell, Hill were in with an unlikely shout.
Maskell then had a very confident shout for a caught behind expertly taken by Teddy Churchyard turned down by the umpire. What a difference that might have made. Hill continued to bowl and field competitively but Hugh Richards and Nathan Poole saw Nomads home with no further alarms.
Warmisham finished with 3-20 to cap a fine all round performance. Hill need to take some encouragement from this cup run into the second half of their difficult league season.