Season blows hot and cold – but plenty of promise for the future

The summer of 2026 - a season of comebacks and near-misses. But also of promise for the future.

There were distinct green shoots of recovery at Beech Hurst this season as a new generation of bowler started to make an impression at our club.

And all this achieved with possibly the most inexperienced captain in the club’s long history.

As with so many clubs, one of the toughest tasks is to deal with diminishing numbers as experienced players stop playing – or at least, cut down on their commitments.

While we’ve continued to attract new bowlers every year to replace them, compensating for the absence of experience and knowhow is far trickier – which has meant a few fallow summers for Haywards Heath and Beech Hurst when it comes to club honours.

But there were definite signs of progress this year as we made a great fist of our external league and cup competitions.

Mid Sussex League

Our Mid Sussex League side made great strides this season and were an integral part of an exciting four-way fight for the one promotion place from Division Three, eventually finishing third.

We entered the Tom Francis Sunday knockout competition and reached the semi-final, coming so close to an upset against Buxted Park before losing by a single point to the very last shot.

And we eventually bowed out of the Edward Rowland Cup, agonisingly on the extra end, to Southwick Park, after having put out the highly regarded Hove & Kingsway in the previous round.

In the Sussex County Senior Fours, we went out early but only after being pipped once again on the last shot, having lost 31-4 at the same stage the previous season.

While our junior Mid Sussex side, which competed in the John Spriggs League, finished bottom of the clubs who completed the season, the inexperienced squad learned some important lessons along the way, crowning their season with an impressive 66-34 victory against Horsham, which earned the maximum 10 points, and supplying a number of players to the more senior Mid Sussex League team along the way.

Friendly improvement

Likewise, we may have finished last in our group in the Nicholas Soames Trophy, but plenty of players honed their skipping skills in the Australian Pairs competition.

And if you learn more in defeat than in victory, our female quartet who bowed out of the Gladys Rowland Trophy amid the downpours on an artificial mat at Portslade must have an encyclopaedic knowledge by now after facing incredibly trying conditions against a team that was used to them.

In the bread-and-butter of the friendlies, with Jill thrown in at the deep end on the eve of the season, we fared substantially better than in the previous year, 22 wins and 30 defeats in a summer of contrasts, which saw our match at Hurstpierpoint abandoned in a hailstorm and four of 14 cancelled matches called off because of the extreme heat, prompting the club to post guidance notes for players on how to cope with the hot weather.

One of the highlights of our season was our internal competitions, which threw up some extraordinary matches, with more than their fair share of sensational comebacks – and produced four first-time competition winners, including brand new men’s and ladies’ singles champions.

All of which promises even more for season 2027.

The season in numbers