Hunt was aided and abetted by 17-year-old, Ben Buckley, in a matchwinning fifth-wicket stand of 171, which enabled Steyning to snatch from the jaws of defeat a four wicket victory with an over to spare.

Appropriately, Hunt reached his century with the winning hit by driving Scott Woodroffe to the boundary. Afterwards, he admitted that he had lost touch with his score. "I had no idea that I was so close to a century, as I was concentrating on taking Steyning to victory," he said.

However, Hunt, who faced 87 deliveries, owed much to the youthful Buckley. When the pair came together, Steyning, chasing a target of 251, were in trouble at 73-4 after 19 overs.

Buckley batted like an old hand as he helped Hunt turn the match on its head in their 25 overs together.

Their relieved skipper, Andy Stillwell, said that this was just the performance Steyning needed to give them the necessary confidence to avoid a second successive relegation.

He commented: "The league table doesn't lie which is why we had to beat Sidley. We must aim for a win or a good draw next week which could well prove the springboard we need — especially as we still have to play Haywards Heath twice."

Stillwell also defended his decision to field first, which seemed to have backfired before Hunt and Buckley put Steyning on the road to victory.

Stillwell explained: "The wicket was wet at first and my feeling that it would get better proved correct. We also wanted to chase runs as this gave us our best chance of winning."

However, Steyning's target was more than they had bargained for. Elliot Bullock's century and Brad Holt's 51 were largely responsible for the visitors posting a competitive total.

Steyning suffered an early setback when Stillwell, who had been their most successful bowler, departed in the sixth over.

Guy Montgomerie dismissed Owain Jones and Nick Colley in three deliveries of the 17th over. Worse was to follow when Matt Sewell was bowled by Woodroffe three overs later.

Hunt and Buckley then started their rescue act as they maintained a striking rate of eight runs an over. They took Steyning to within seven runs of victory when Buckley was bowled for 81 by Holt. David Kennett was lbw off the next delivery but Ian Simpson avoided the hat-trick and was a bystander when Hunt assured Steyning of their third win of the season.

On Sunday, Steyning lost by five wickets at division-higher Chichester in the Sussex League 20-20 Cup.

After being stuck into bat, Steyning scored 159-5. Matt Sewell hit 47 before he was run-out by a direct hit from the boundary, and Nick Colley and David Kennett both struck scores in the 30s.

Australian John-Paul Stewart took two wickets in Chichester's innings, but John Haynes' 39 and David Leaver's 38 took Chichester home.

Stillwell said: "Looking back, we were probably 20 runs short of a winning score, as they won with nine or 10 balls to spare."


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