Day 1 Malta Seniors Cricket Festival - Opening Day sees Sussex and Essex chalk up wins

The Malta Seniors Cricket Festival got underway under blue skies and those attending were treated to two excellent games of cricket on the first day.

Game 1

The opening match saw Sussex Over 60s defeat Kent-Bedfordshire by 5 wickets, scoring two runs off the very last ball to secure victory. Kent-Beds  batted first and reached an impressive 195 for 4, with player of the match Ceri Davies top scoring with 90 runs off only 65 balls. For Sussex, Tim Peters was the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 23 from his 6 overs, while Nic Straiton took 2 wickets for 34.

In reply, there were useful contributions from the Sussex top order with Straiton (31), Suresh Navaratnam (44) and Richard Seager (42); until Tim Peters swung the game in their favour with a quickfire 37 off 26 balls. With 10 runs required off the final over, Jonathan Bodansky and captain Martin Burgess steered Sussex to a memorable victory.

Game 2

The afternoon match was an equally thrilling affair with Essex defeating Norfolk in the very last over.  Batting first, Norfolk’s openers Robin Yates and player of the match Andrew Harrison contributed 41 and 71 respectively, before a flurry of wickets by Essex Skipper Nigel Green (3 for 27) halted any chance of any late order batting heroics. Norfolk finished their allotted 30 overs on the impressive score of 187 for 7. The Essex openers Kevin Thain (52) and Martin Robinson (36) laid a superb foundation for their team and it was finally Colin Baxter (53*) and Nick Goode who completed their 5-wicket victory with just 4 balls to spare. For Norfolk, Harold Van Zanten captured 2 wickets for 37.