Sidley off and running

Scott Woodroffe’s side picked up its first win of the Sussex League campaign with a crushing 10-wicket victory over Seaford last weekend to sit third in the embryonic Division Three (East) table.

Woodroffe said: “We’re off and running now. It’s good not to be waiting too long for the first win. We’ve certainly got the strength in depth that we’ve not had in previous seasons.

“Looking around the options we have batting and bowling, if we can keep ourselves in there and avoid having too many disasters, we’ve got a strong enough team to be there or thereabouts.”

Next up tomorrow (Saturday) is another home game against a Crawley team which also won emphatically last weekend. Crawley thumped Hellingly by nine wickets with Harry Chaudhary taking 5-14 and scoring 42 not out off 35 balls.

Woodroffe added: “It’s difficult to know what team will turn up from Crawley. I’m sure they’ve picked up some new players. If we can put a team performance together, we’ve got a good chance of winning.

“But I’m sure they will think the same. They’re all going to be difficult games. I don’t think there’s any team in the division that are cast adrift or anything like that. I think everybody’s reasonably well matched.”

Peter King is still away on holiday and fellow opening batsman Ian Crittenden is likely to miss out after injuring his calf while batting against Seaford and requiring a runner.

Kevin Deeprose is set to make his first appearance of the season and Richard Harrison is in line to make his Sidley debut. Ahmed Saleh is expected to drop down to the seconds.

Jet-heeled wicketkeeper/batsman Harrison is the third player to move from Bexhill to Sidley this season, although he probably won’t feature in many games due to his work as a tennis coach.