Back to drawing board for Sidley

The Gullivers club had gone three Sussex Division Two games without defeat, including their magnificent single wicket win over Steyning seven days beforehand.

But they were unable to reproduce some of their fine recent displays with the bat, precipitating a resounding seventh loss in 10 matches.

Sidley had scored 717 runs in their previous three encounters, but they dipped below 200 for the first time since their defeat at Worthing on June 3, being shot out for 175 which enabled Stirlands to ease home by seven wickets.

The good thing for Sidley is that most of their batsmen got starts only to be dismissed when looking capable of posting the big score the innings so desperately needed.

After the initial loss of Peter Capon for a duck, Scott Woodroffe (27) and Shahid Mansoor (39) - a replacement for injured overseas player Kashif Rasheed - consolidated nicely for the second wicket.

Skipper Jonathan Haffenden, who became a father on Monday, continued the form that had brought him 226 runs in his three previous knocks with 36 at number four.

Peter King (21), Phil Belfield (10) and Tyrone Wildman (24) also got going, but the last three men contributed only two between them.

A total of 175 was always likely to be an insufficient score on one of the best wickets in the Sussex League, and so it proved as Stirlands knocked the runs off in just 34.3 overs.

Sidley removed Nick Hunt relatively early, but the second wicket stand between Tim Robinson (31) and Richard Thelwell (62) put the hosts firmly in command.

Danny Cox (53 not out), who had earlier topped Stirlands' bowling with 3-34, and Dave Chordia (14 not out) applied the coup de grace.

King (2-37) and Wildman (1-34) took the wickets for Sidley who remain bottom of the table, although their deficit to second-bottom Worthing has gone down by three points to 17.