Skipper wants batting improvement

Sidley remain top of Sussex Cricket League Division Three (East), but their advantage was cut to four points on the back of an extraordinary tie away to Seaford last weekend.

Their captain Woodroffe said: “I think we need quickly to find out what it takes to bat on wickets other than at Sidley where we can play our normal game.

“I don’t know whether it’s valuing our wickets a bit more and applying ourselves a bit better, but from some of the positions we’ve been in, we should’ve notched up at least one more win than we have.

“We’ve had a couple of unfortunate dismissals as well, and it’s not a case of people going out and playing big shots willy nilly, but we do seem to be finding some ways of getting out.”

Sidley will seek to consolidate their advantage with a second away victory of the season tomorrow (Saturday) against a bottom-of-the-table Crawley side which has won only one and lost six of its last eight matches.

“We’ve managed to keep our place (at the top) going into a game against Crawley which we know we can win,” added Woodroffe. “The wicket’s not easy for batting and we’ve got to make sure we turn up in the right frame of mind.”

Sidley hope to welcome back Neil Priddy, who dropped out of the Seaford clash due to work last Thursday night, but Richard Harrison is again unavailable so it’s likely to be a fairly similar side.