And unfortunately for Horsham, only Devon Endersby (37) and Will Beer (33) were able to make a serious dent in the target, as 16-year-old Ben Shaore was the only other batsman to reach double figures.

Rueful skipper Craig Gallagher said: “We looked at their team and with James Anyon and Joe Gatting playing for Sussex instead, we thought we had a shot.

“At 108-8 we should have closed it off and we should have been chasing 120.” Simon was dropped in the 30s to compound Horsham’s frustration as they were set a higher than desire target.

The loss of James Johnson for a duck was not in the script and although Beer and Endersby added 64, a mixture of poor shot selection and good bowling hurt the home side as they succumbed to 127 all out.

Gallagher added: “We had a bit of a tail, and even though we had plenty of time, it was a bit of an ask for nine, ten and 11 to get the last 60-65 runs, and if we had batted them out we would have won.