East Preston - 289 for 3 43.1 overs - 10 points

Southwick - DNB - 8 points

Well the weather forecast wasn't great for Saturday and unfortunately for EP the forecasters got it spot on!

The EP skipper lost the toss on what was a quite dry and patchy looking wicket and it was no surprise that EP were made to bat. The first surprise of the day was to see Grennan missing from the Southwick team and they opened the bowling with a spinner. After being dropped (caught and bowled chance) Sean and PP settled in well and the wicket seemed to be playing ok if a little slow. Runs started to flow thanks to the short boundaries and some lose bowling, the EP 50 came up with both openers looking settled. Then PP was out for 15, wafting a little outside of off stump and Colin took a little time to adjust to the pace of the wicket.

By now Sean was playing strokes to all parts and the scoreboard started to tick over well with Colin also joining in with the boundaries. Southwick were clearly missing Greenan and the bowlers were struggling with their line and length. Sean and Colin took  full advantage and punished the bowlers, Colin particularly enjoying himself smashing a huge straight six and hitting the other bowler for 3 consecutive boundaries through his favoured backward point area despite 3 fielders being placed there! Colin was then out for 39 (deserved a 50) and enter Jack who earlier in the season had scored 81 against the Wickers. jack settled well and quickly at the wicket and the score was racing towards first 150 and then the 200. Southwick now looked in disarray in the field, catches were put down and a no-ball was called for them having 3 fielders behind square leg, the dilema was now that with the runs being scored so heavily when should EP declare?

Sean then hit the run he needed for his 2nd league century and Jack reached his 2nd fifty of the league season before he was out for 69. By now the score was over 250 but again the Skipper was reluctant to declare as it would have handed Southwick plenty of overs to chase the runs. The wicket was playing well and the Southwick skipper had scored a big hundred at EP so not declaring at this stage was the right decision. A few of the Southwick players were by now showing their frustration and quite why the returning opening bowler had to tell Sean that "he was batting *hit" when he was 120 not out and had hit him for a huge six I am unsure!

Anyway the innings ended with EP declaring on 289 for 3 in 43.1 overs, again comments were made regarding the declaration but again as EP had scored so quickly handing Southwick an extra 15 overs to chase the runs could have backfired. EP were confident that with the pressure of defending 49 overs or trying to chase the runs that Southwick would fine life hard when batting.

Unfortunately we will never know as it started raining at tea and never really stopped for the rest of the day, despite the rain conditions on the square looked quite good so it was a real shame that the rain didn't stop as both Umpires would have been happy for play to resume.

10 points to EP felt like 20 points missed but it sees them 5 points clear of Scaynes Hill and level on points with Southwick.

EP play Scaynes Hill next week and a convincing win will see EP well placed in the league