Disappointing start for Littlehampton

Littlehampton, who were relegated from Sussex League Division 3 West after finishing bottom last season, were bowled out for just 100 and West Chiltington then reached their target in only 16.1 overs.

West Chiltington, who won Division 2 of the West Sussex Invitation League last year, won the toss and put Littlehampton into bat on a fairly green and wet wicket to start with, after rain in the morning.

Left-arm seamer James Chaloner took apart the Littlehampton batting line-up as he finished with eight wickets from 15 overs.

Michael Askew top-scored in the Littlehampton innings with 34, although was out shortly after the drinks break, while Tom Lee (16), Matt Parnell (11) and Amjad Mohsin (10) were the only other batsmen to reach double figures as they were all out for 100 in 30.3 overs.

Littlehampton took three early wickets in the West Chiltington innings as Tom Lee bowled with aggression.

But James Howgate, who was dropped on 26, struck a quickfire 51 to get the home side to the brink of victory.

When he was Lee’s fourth victim, West Chiltington were closing in on victory and Iain Haggart finished unbeaten on 31 and Callum Wyatt scored nine not out as they got home with six wickets to spare.

Lee finished with 4-34 off seven overs.

Littlehampton captain Dan Rive said: “It was very disappointing. A total of around 170-185 would have been about par, although they know their pitch better and they might say we’d have needed to have got around 230.

“We got them three wickets down early but James Howgate scored a quick 50, although we did drop him on 26.

“We’ve just got to forget about it, move on now and dig in deep and show some fight and bottle, starting at home to East Preston on Saturday.”