Ansty Cricket Club, as one of the first of the English Cricket Board’s Disability Cricket Champions Clubs, hosted a disability cricket day on Sunday, supported by Sussex Cricket Foundation and The Lord’s Taverners, as three Super 1 teams from Ansty, Merstham Magics (Surrey) and Hackney (Inner London) competed in a mini festival in the morning.

The young players enjoyed a very good morning’s cricket, that was all about taking part rather than winning, before a lunchtime barbecue.  The visitors from Hackney then moved on for an afternoon by the sea in Brighton.

The afternoon’s activities focused on the hosting a County D40 match between Sussex and Middlesex.

Middlesex were put in by Sussex and began well with Maddox Colby (61) and Aryan Janjale (31) putting on 101 for the first wicket. Sussex struck back by taking seven wickets for just 11 runs, with Charlie Ferguson the pick of the bowlers with an excellent 5-19 from six overs.

Middlesex mounted a late recovery and were finally all out for 194 after some quick runs from the final partnership that added another 34 runs.

The Sussex reply began slowly as the Middlesex attack, led by England bowler James Nordin (4-18) piled on the pressure. Sussex found themselves very quickly on 30-5, but Dan Gee (42no) and M Loveland mounted a partial recovery that saw the home side to 92 before Loveland was run out for 15.

Sussex then lost their final wickets for 13 runs as Matthew Jones took 4-25 to finish 115 all out and a 79-run defeat.

The weekend’s activities was part of a regular programme of disabled cricket activities that now take place on the Ansty  Recreation Ground involving Super 1s cricket each Saturday morning and he hosting of games for the county disability (D40s) and visually impaired squads together with softball festivals.