Sussex by the edge
Good old Sussex by the Sea is the song that heralds the cricket and football teams in Hove and the Amex. It’s a rousing, cheerful, marching song but sadly in the case of the cricket season not reflective of our dire position. We are out of the T20, bottom of the Royal London and one from bottom in the Championship. We have now gone eleven games without any win in any format,the last being at Glamorgan. Last night we were well beaten by Northants Steelbackers who achieved the total with 4 overs and seven wickets to spare, David Willey scoring 100 in 40 balls with 10 sixes and 7 fours. He hit Mike Yardy for 34 off one over.
The defeat was all the less acceptable as Sussex had 4 top class batsmen in T20 in their line up: Luke Wright, Jayawardene, George Bailey and Chris Jordan. Wright went for a duck and, although Jayawardene and Chris Nash both made half centuries, the rest of the batting stalled. 166 is not enough in T20 and Northants with the rampant Willey made this easily.
All is left now is a relegation dogfight with two crucial matches against Worcestershire and Somerset in the Championship. The other two are against Yorkshire and all we can hope for is that they have won the Championship by then and are not that committed. However if they field their test stars a half-committed Yorkskire would still beat us.
It’s almost beginning to resemble the bad, sad, old says prior to Robin Marler and Tony Pigott leading the revolution. It’s difficult to see how coach Mark Robinson can stay. Peter Moores would be the best replacement but he is apparently happy at Nottinghamshire. Chris Adams wants the job but he did not have a successful time at Surrey. Prior to the match we were planning our trip to Edgbaston for the semi-final and maybe final. Should we book a coach? A box is £150 per person, who’s interested? With all our stars back we must surely overcome a side from the second division of the LV Championship though they won the competition in 2013. Alas it was not to be and we filed heads down out of the stadium. At least with 2 one nil victories Brighton HAFC have preserved some dignity for this proud sporting city.
