Billingshurst bowl Arundel over to stay on Pagham’s tail

Hurst skipper Ben Williams stuck the visitors into bat having won the toss and then proceeded to take five wickets as Arundel were all out for 111.

And despite losing opener Scott Stratton second ball of the reply, good knocks from Tim Weston, Dhanushka Mitipolaarachi and Sam Goodway saw Hurst home with seven wickets in hand.

Williams said: “Our batting held up well this week. It started off a bit shaky losing Scott but Tim and Sam got in together and really committed themselves.”

Off spinner Williams’s figures of 5-37 were aided by two Andy Barr catches in the deep and two fine slip catches from Phil Marshall as Arundel’s batsmen did a good job of picking out Hurst fielders.

Seamer Andy Barr also took 2-22 as Billingshurst took all 30 wickets from their opening three games.

And despite losing Stratton, Weston made 39 and after Mitipolaarachi’s quick-fire 26, Goodway helped see Hurst over the line with an unbeaten 36.

“A great team effort, everybody played their part,” Williams said. “It’s good to be second but we’ll take each game as it comes and keep working hard.”