Park seek reply to first defeat

The Crows were edged out by just five runs away to Hellingly in a match that could have gone either way last weekend.

Despite the setback, Park sit joint top with Crawley after five matches in Division Three (East) of the Sussex Cricket League.

“It was a close game and they are a good team,” said Park skipper Paul Lindfield. “Like all close games we probably felt we got in a position to win it but lost a few late wickets. It was annoying to lose but everyone is still in good spirits.”

Lindfield, who was unavailable for the match, went on: “From what I understand it was a really good game but they have got a very good player in Tim van Noort who scored a lot of their runs and took a lot of the wickets.”

Former Priory all-rounder van Noort scored 71 off 84 balls after opening the innings for Hellingly and settled the contest by claiming 5-12 with the ball to not only condemn Park to a narrow defeat, but also end a run of three successive victories.

Lindfield returns tomorrow (Saturday) to lead the side at bottom-of-the-table Henfield - the only team in the division still without a win this season.

“We’re equal top and that’s where we want to be,” the captain went on. “We’ve just got to keep going.” Richard Coleman, who returned fine figures of 5-58 last weekend, is unavailable.