Batting form goes walkabout against lowly Nomads

The batting which had looked fairly assured all season deserted them when they needed it most allowing Nomads to snatch a surprise victory.

Captain Steve Phillimore couldn't hide his anguish. He said: "It was disappointing. We got ourselves into a very strong position. We bowled and fielded very, very well for the second game in a row. Matthew Blackman and Alan Cowley were excellent. Alan's playing more regularly now and he's got a bit of consistency into his game.

"The wicket was okay, it was a typical Nomads wicket. It keeps a bit low and if you bowl straight it's difficult to get it away. They bowled slow and straight but we just needed one bloke to get a 20. Maybe we could have tried to change the batting order but there's no excuse for not getting 120. I would say we got ourselves out. A couple of decisions were questionable but you should still get 120."

Keen to follow up last week's derby win against Sidley, Bexhill started in great fashion with some terrific bowling backed up by great energy in the field. Renown Travel man of the match Blackman, now operating mostly as a much-needed spinner, took 5-25, while Cowley blasted out their middle order with a handy 3-16.

All looked well after a run of good batting performances so far this season, but no batsman managed to get himself set at the crease, and good, accurate bowling from Nomads began to take its toll.

Dave Munro (24) and Martin Phillimore (21) were the pick of a poor batting display, and had either of these two managed to build on their score it would probably have been a different story. The departure of these two prompted an alarming collapse among the late order to hand Nomads their first win of the season.

It wasn't to be, however, and much to Bexhill's frustration they conceded 10 points to the side below them in the league.