Roffey prepared to fight for their survival

The visitors got off to a flying start having won the toss and opted to bat first on a good wicket. Australian overseas wicketkeeper/batsman opened with 58 and Will Adkin also made a half century, before Roffey’s bowlers dragged it back, slow seamer Rohit Jagota with 5-96 and spinner Matt Davies also impressing with 4-73 as East Grinstead made 241-9.

In reply Roffey lost three early wickets before Jagota led a fight back. The Indian batsman hung around for a classy knock of 90, but he lacked any real support and Jagota was the final man out, caught going for another big shot as Roffey crashed to 177 all out.

Still with relegation rivals Worthing, Brighton and Chichester also losing, Roffey actually climbed out of the bottom two, though their skipper Josh Fleming knows the side have a real fight on their hands to stay in the top flight.

He said: “We’ve been prepared for that (a fight) for a while, we know the league’s so open that anyone can beat anyone. Obviously we’re missing a few players here and there so we’ve got to fight for as many points as possible. We only took 11 points this week which was disappointing, but saying that we only took eight from last week and probably played better.

“We don’t want to go down. We know we’ve lost a lot of players this year, but if we can stay up hopefully we can attract a few and then build the side up again. We’re a lot weaker than we’ve been the two previous years in the Premier League, especially our bowling. With our two seamers and Barney (Luke Barnard) we probably had one of the best attacks in the league which makes it easier.

“We just have to work as hard as we can to stay up this year.