Rive – We have what it takes to stay up

And Saturday’s match was no different, as Slinfold defeated the Sussex League Divison 3 West bottom club by four wickets.

But Rive remains defiant in his belief that Littlehampton will avoid the trap door. He said: “Of course, I still believe we can stay up, especially with the quality of player we have here. That one win would put the smiles back on their faces. We certainly have the ability.”

Slinfold won the toss and bowled first on a green patch, and restricted the visitors to 156 all out. Harrison Webb took 4-45, and Guy Thorne 3-9. Rive said: “The score was totally below par, even on a slow wicket we should be pressing on from 110-3 after 34 overs to at least 180. That should be our solid platform to build on. We’re not scoring enough runs to put us in a good position at the moment,”

But Littlehampton’s Michael Askew received high praise after the 15-year-old top scored with 51 runs from 84 balls, including six fours and one six. “That’s exactly why we moved him down the order,” said Rive. “He’s 15, but bats with the maturity of someone much older. He and Rick (Heberlein) really held it together. But once Rick was out, we fell apart again.”

However, Slinfold slumped to 60-5 in reply and Rive sensed his team were in with a chance: “If we could have got two more wickets before they reached 90 then for them to chase the remaining 50 runs with only three wickets left would have been tough.”

Instead, the hosts rallied, and Hayden Mcintyre smashed a sharp 52 from 56 balls, with nine fours and one six. By the time Amit Midha had Mcintyre stumped, the game was gone. Skipper Rive finished with an impressive 3-28, with Chris Heberlein taking 2-41.

Winless Littlehampton host Stirlands, whose captain Sean Heather has hit three successive hundreds, on Saturday.