Burgess Hill 2nds continued their winning ways with an unexpected victory over leaders Haywards Heath. With many people unavailable it was great to let a few of the youngsters loose into 2nd team cricket. Stand in skipper Maskell showed the skip how to win the toss and asked HH to bat,and it wasn’t long before B Barnes bowled Thilakarathra in the 3rd over. In the next over new batsman Haynes cut at a wide one from N Brailey and Curley at gulley didn’t know whether to catch it or eat it but he did neither as the ball smashed against the top of his rib cage and throat. It was a frightening blow but he was ok and had to sit out the next 20 overs to recover. Burgess Hill to their credit stuck to their task as Haynes was caught at 2nd slip by skipper Maskell from another fine Barnes delivery. Charlie Hepburn then was in the action as she caught the dangerous Dan Woodfield at square leg, and when Brailey finally got the wicket he deserved, bowling Iqbal HH were 56-4. HH then started to recover but D Maskell had Hannah Phelps superbly caught low down by Mason who nearly trod on his hair ! HH were 88-5 this nearly should have been 88-6 when Morris was dropped at mid off. With Hill on top at drinks Curly re-entered the field but the drop catch before seem to affect Hill as Dave Woodfield and Morris went on to make a fine partnership of 144 as Woody scored a brilliant 95 before being caught by Ifill off B Barnes for his 4th wicket and Morris ended up with an unbeaten 57. Even though we were under the cosh heads never went down and Charlie Hepburn fielding was inspiration to us all. HH having declared early we needed to chase 232 in 49 overs.

With Alec Hepburn injured in the field we opened with Curly and our normal number 10 Teddy, Curly batted sensibly and hit the bad ball with some glorious off drives but Teddy thought best form of defence was attack. It worked brilliantly and they put on 52 before Curly was caught at slip. In strode Akeem, the big wicket HH wanted and they nearly got it as he was dropped on 3 but after that he played one of the best innings witnessed in a Burgess Hill shirt. First of all, he was there to witness Teddy’s maiden 50 with a fine partnership of 87 before Teddy departed and Jack Cooper joined the fray. Jack was outdone by the spin of Morris and in entered Mason and a valuable partnership with Akeem of 72 saw Akeem reach his 100 with a towering six. It was still a tense finish as we needed 8 to win off 8 balls but when Mason was caught at mid off the tension was taken away from us in laughter as Mason hair was entangled in his helmet. Lewis Mahoney strode to the wicket and cut a valuable 2 and we need 6 off the last over. With Akeem facing it went wide, a two and then a brilliant 6 as Akeem reached 122 not out hitting 10 fours and six sixes off only 88 balls. Well batted Akeem and a truly spirited performance form the whole team in a match played in a wonderful spirit.