Match Reports & Results

3 August

*What a sensational weekend for Ferring CC!* Our young stars lit up the pitch with heart and flair! Here’s the roundup:

**1st XI vs. Rustington CC 2nd XI (Home)**

Rustington set a daunting 301/7 after Ferring chose to field. Our batters gave it everything, with young guns Harry Lewis (aged 17) scoring 36 and Luke Awde (aged 16) 72* leading a valiant chase, finishing at 229/8. A gutsy effort against the league leaders!

**2nd XI vs. Southwick & Shoreham CC 2nd XI (Away)**

Match of the weekend! Having lost the toss we opened the batting with Colin King (just back from a long term hand injury) and 14-year-old Thomas Watkiss, who built a rock-solid 79-run stand. Thomas Young (aged 14) and Joe Finch added firepower, with Watkiss smashing 18 runs in the final over for an unbeaten 90*!Ferring posted 193/4.

Our bowlers were relentless: Annabel Chandler (aged 13) pace and Jon Burgh’s spin strangled S&S early, while Mike Lewis (3 wickets), James Chandler, Rob Burgh (1 wicket) and Colin King kept the pressure on. The spotlight fell on Thomas Young, who turned the game with a stunning 5/30, including a treble wicket over and a dramatic final-ball wicket to seal the win and claim his maiden senior fifer!

**Sunday Friendly vs. Sunday Seconds (Home)**

A thrilling draw capped the weekend, with Henry Chandler (aged 17) retiring not out on a blistering 104 (75 balls, 4 sixes, 12 fours) and Joe Binns delivering a classy 101*. Pure batting brilliance!

21 July

There are games you play where you feel it is a complete mismatch in ability for much of it, yet at the end all results are still possible. Yesterday was one of those days, where somehow going into the last 5 overs all results could still happen, and even then there was still time for some late heroics.

After a bit of a washed out weekend, we got a game in Sunday afternoon, playing Stansted Park in a 42/38 over match (in summary a game which allows team batting first to declare between 38 and 42 overs and the other side has to bat the number of overs to get total to 80, but the result is a draw if the team batting second are not all out but don’t reach the target). And in truth it started well with Luke Awde clean bowling one of the opening bats in the first over for just 2. However, the number 3 bat who came in then proceeded to smash 77 off just 46 balls as the score raced to 131 off 16 overs (we won’t talk about the easy catch that was put down early on in his innings) with Harry Lewis finally making the breakthrough with an excellent slower ball.

Experience then came to the fore, with Mike Lewis ripping through the middle order taking 5 wickets for 52 runs with the score ticking up to 211 for 9 off 28.2 overs. Sadly, the last wicket eluded us, with excellent batting from the final pair putting on a further 48 runs as Stansted Park reached 259 off 39 overs declared. So, we had 41 overs to either score 260 runs to win or bat out for a draw. After the destructive start Stanstead made, it could have been a lot worse.

However, it got a lot worse in reply! We lost wickets quickly and for not many runs, falling to 11-1, 19-2, 23-3, 23-4, 38-5, 49-6, and that was after only 10 overs. Enter Iain Wardley, with solid support from Luke Awde (18), Mike Lewis (17), and Alex Williams (42). At one point the score reached 193-7 with 6 overs to go and with Iain and Alex going strong and with Luke having retired hurt but expecting to come back in. Game on, but Alex and Luke both got out with the score getting to 213-9 with less than 3 overs left, so the win was off the cards now.

Enter our number 11 batsman, he’d turned up to score the match but after sickness reduced us to 10 players, Ben Young stepped up to play his first game in probably about 25 years, in typical Sunday cricket clothing of shorts and t-shirt. 2.4 overs to survive and on strike, the first 4 balls saw a few play and misses but survived. Iain on strike for the penultimate over, all good, successfully seen off. Last over of the match, Ben back on strike, just needing to survive against the opening bowler now on his 8th over with figures of 4-26 (getting both Alex and Luke in his current spell). Dot, dot, dot, and then… a single complete with dive to avoid being run out, but off strike to let Iain see the game through for the final couple of balls, the match was drawn. Ben finished on 1 not out, Iain on 79 not out.

An excellent game that on several occasions felt was too far, but a great bowling spell from Mike Lewis and batting from Iain Wardley made a massive difference, but the main hero of the day was Ben for stepping in and seeing us through at the end. Lovely game against Stansted Park who are a really good bunch, and always nice to see an opposition team all come back to the Henty Arms for drinks after. Looking forward to next years game!

17 July

There are some great numbers to talk about, but this game was over in the first innings. Having spent all week with everyone trying to work out NRR and what we need to win by to qualify top. I've never known so many statistic masterminds at one club. We believe we needed to win by 22 runs to qualify as group winners. Jake fortunately won the toss and elected to bat first. The first job is done. Ferring posted, and I'm happy for the stastitions to tell me otherwise that is Ferrings highest score in a T20. 210-2 DT, Luke, Ewan, Thomas W, and James C all retired, having scored 30. Every person who batted had a strike rate of 100 or higher (including myself). Possibly another record. In the 210, there were wait for it, 0 6s scored. Ferring great 20/20 bowling attack proved its worth again. At 10 overs, Clymping had only posted 18 runs. There were wickets for Luke, Harry, Alex, and Ollie and catches taken by Alex, Sudantha, Ewan, and DT. Clymping managed to get to 54-5, having scored only 3 boundaries. Giving Ferring a 156 run win, which may be another record for Ferring.

1 July

Ferring Falcons came out on top against the Worthing Tigers in arguably the best victory of the group stage so far. Tigers won the toss and elected to bat. Within the first 6 overs, they were 5 down thanks to an incredible opening partnership of Sudantha and Luke (4 wickets). The Tigers never really took off, and smart bowling all round kept the runs down. This allowed Alex, Jake, and Ollie to restrict the Tigers to 106 In response and sensible opening partnership between Alex and DT saw off the threatening openers with Alex retiring on 30, this was followed by a great partnership between Harry and Luke to see the Falcons home with 5 overs to spare.

3/4 May

Ferring batted first, scoring a hefty 290-8, with James Chandler scoring Ferrings second century of the season, retiring on 102 not out (off just 67 balls). In reply Ifield managed a very respectable 240-7, giving Ferring a 50 run win. Lovely warm up game getting lots of people involved, but one other particular moment of note. David Thompson (raising money for Diabetes UK for every run he scores) played for Ifield to make the numbers even and scored 33 runs towards his pot, however, there is nothing like an early season attacking field of 9 slips to welcome him

Well done again James Chandler!

n, John Antony Hargreaves and 17 others

26/27 April

First weekend of the season and we played friendly matches on the Saturday and Sunday.

The Saturday side played a Littlehampton team at home. Our captain Cam Baldock won the toss and opted to field. Littlehampton then made an impressive 241 / 8 off their allotted 40 overs. FCC then came in to bat and with 2.1 overs to spare managed to reach the target winning on 242 / 5.

There were some impressive performances from our players but a very very special mention goes to Thomas Young who at only 14 years of age, scored his first ever 50 and then went on to score 62 not out. A truly magnificent achievement which we’re all very proud of.

The Sunday side lost a closely contested match at Balcombe. However, it also had its highlights with Joe Binns scoring 119 not out as Ferring set a target of 246. Despite 4 wickets from Mike Lewis, Balcombe succesfully chased down the score with 10 overs to go.

Well done to all involved but especially Thomas and Joe!