Littlehampton lose at home to Bognor

After a 178-run thumping in the opening game of the season, Littlehampton were looking for pay-back. But after they were bowled out for 196 in 47.4 overs, Littlehampton captain Dan Rive felt the total was never going to be enough and so it proved as Bognor got home for the loss of six wickets with 25 balls to spare.

Rive said: “We should have scored 30 or 40 more runs and, if we had, the game would have been a different story.

“Around 230-240 would have been a very competitive total, especially if we’d batted out all our overs.

“But they had 52 overs to get the runs and didn’t need to play any big shots.

“All of our bowling figures are fairly reasonable and we bowled okay but it would have been good to have had a second spinner.”

Littlehampton openers Sajid Khan and Darren Bazley were both out early on, and when Sam Mellor and Matt Parnell soon followed, they were 52-4.

Guy Souch and Michael Askew put on 81 for the fifth wicket before Askew fell for 30 and Souch followed nine runs later for 69, just after a drinks break.

Chris Heberlein fired 30, with four fours and one six, and Tom Lee hit 15 as Littlehampton were all out for 196.

Littlehampton dismissed Bognor’s big-hitting batsman Michael Spaseski for just 12 but Max Ashmore hit 64 and Oliver Handson 37 as Bognor eased home.

Rive and leg-spinner Amit Midha took two wickets each, with Lee and Parnell picking up one apiece.

On the rest of the season, Rive said: “Our goal has always been to stay up and we’ll just go out and enjoy ourselves from now on.

“We’ve got eight games left and if we get 10 points a game, that will give us 240 points and should be enough.”

Littlehampton are at Slinfold on Saturday.