CRICKET: Littlehampton slip 82 points from safety

Their defeat at Middleton, who are second from bottom, was their ninth in 11 matches this season and they are still yet to taste victory.

Survival now looks highly unlikely but Challen said: "We're still not mathematically down and if we are to have any chance of staying up, we'll definitely have to win five of our remaining games.

"But, even if we win five out of seven, that might not be enough to stay up now.

"With St James winning on Saturday, a big gap has now opened up but we're still not down yet.

"However, every game we don't win, it gets more difficult to stay up.

If we lose at Pulborough on Saturday, we've then got to look to win five of our last six matches."

After losing the toss, Littlehamp-ton were stuck into bat by Middleton and were dismissed for just 129 with only three players reaching double figures.

Benn Challen top-scored with 43, Gareth Challen hit 25 and New Zealander Ben Smith scored 14.

Brandon Hanley and Adam Rawstrone both picked up four wickets for Middleton, who reached their target four wickets down with Mark Hoare unbeaten on 54.

Gareth Challen said: "I'd have put them into bat if I'd won the toss as the wicket got easier as the game went on and I think we'd have won batting second.

"If we'd managed to get 180, I think that would have been enough to win also. But we didn't bat well enough and they bowled better than us.

"Ryan Budd, however, bowled superbly for us with a good length, and so too did Chris Heberlein.

"And Benn also looked like he was starting to find some form with the bat."

Dan Rive is unavailable on Saturday and former skipper Luke Vinter will not bowl again this season owing to his elbow injury.

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