Thornely up for the cup as Horsham ease through to last eight

They progressed to the quarter-finals with a seven-wicket victory over Cuckfield on Sunday.

Cuckfield won the toss and elected to bat, but lost wicketkeeper Sam Whiteman (26) early on and ended on 131-7, while the hosts replied with 135-3 in 17.1 overs.

Thornely said: “I’m really happy with that. We got beaten by Cuckfield at their place, so it was good that the result was on our end this time.

“We lost the toss, which I’ve not won any of this season which isn’t great, but we put them under pressure with the ball.

“We managed to get Sam Whiteman out fairly early. He got 26 really quickly. We were able to restrict them through the middle period, and restricted them to 131.”

Bradley Gayler (46) top-scored for the visitors, before the inform Craig Gallaher led the way for the hosts (66 out), whilst they were also boosted by the return of Tom Clark (33 out).

Thornely added: “It was another good wicket, so we needed at least 160 to be in with a chance of defending it which we did with about four overs to go so it was quite a comfortable win.

“Craig played well again and Tom came in which was a real bonus for us. He played really well at the top of the innings. They did most of the most, those two. It was quite a comfortable win in the end.”

Thornely is confident Horsham can win the competition this year, with several key players coming into form.

“We’ve got Nomads next so that will be a tough game and one we will be really up for to try to get to the semis,” he said.

“We’re definitely looking to win it. We won it a few years ago and we’ve got a great chance this year.”