Brown’s five-for spins Hawkley to ten-run victory

Hawkley v Chichester All Stars: HAWKLEY batted first and lost a couple of wickets inside the first five overs.

Paul Cross proved more resilient and led Hawkley’s fightback, however, wickets continued to fall at the other end and when Cross fell for 40 with the score on 72-6 it seemed Hawkley were going to be all out for less than 100.

Steve Clark (13), Sam Mullard (23) and Nick Hudson (31) provided lower order firepower to help Hawkley to a defendable score of 156.

The All Stars made a cautious start to their innings, their first run off the bat not coming until the sixth over.

Mullard took a catch off his own bowling to gain a breakthrough for Hawkley, however, the All Stars batsmen rallied and the score mounted steadily.

Liam Lloyd claimed the wickets of two well-set batsmen, but it was the introduction of Hallam Brown’s off-spin which brought the game to life.

In a 14-over spell Brown took some punishment but worked his way through the All Stars’ middle order as the game entered the final stage.

With 20 runs needed and only two wickets left a dropped catch looked to have cost Hawkley dearly, however, Cross bowled the penultimate batsman and with the last two All Stars batsmen scoring freely and only four overs left all results were still possible.

Finally the All Stars number 11 picked out Steve Clark on the mid-wicket boundary, and Clark took a good low catch to seal a fine ten-run win for Hawkley and another five-wicket haul for Brown.