Rye welcomed Henfield to the Rye Cricket Salts in a match sponsored by My Sweet Old Etcetera, in Division 4 of the Sussex County League. Henfield, placed fourth, are the type of opposition Rye have failed to dominate this season, but on Saturday the lessons of this hard season started to bear fruit as Rye won by three wickets, thus making the achievement of their target for the season of mid-table ever so more likely.
Winning the toss, skipper Gary Willis invited Henfield to bat and immediately Gandhi Tandoori Man Of the Match Craig Pierce imposed himself on the game removing two early wickets before Adam Scott (34) and Brighton Mugodhi (64) shared a 62 run partnership until Neil Browne dismissed Scott and then caught Mugodhi off the bowling of Craig Pierce.
Once they had departed it was the Craig Pierce show as he took 8 for 34 off 12.2 overs as the Henfield batsmen performed a steady parade of low scores before they were finally dismissed for 124 in just 37.2 overs. Pierce’s wickets were the product of good accurate bowling as most perished bowled or LBW.
Rye’s response was positive as Dan Seabrook (36) and Neil Browne (48) put Rye onto a straight forward path to victory. However 73 for 0 quickly became 99-5 as Scott (2 for 38) and Mugodhi (4-34) transformed their batting partnership into a bowling partnership. Rye were rocked and in these low scoring games nerves were jangling. Young Ben Clifton’s 20 settled those nerves however and, although he was one of two more victims, Rye got across the winning line with only seven wickets down.
Next week Rye travel to play Hellingly who eased their own relegation fears by defeating Crawley, who now occupy the second relegation slot along with Lewes Priory, Rye’s final day opponents on September 6.