The Saturday first team suffered their first league defeat of the season, the Fuller’s Division Two leaders falling to Woodmansterne, who now lie fourth.

After being bowled out for 184 and defeated by six wickets, Nav Saeed’s men remain top with a 32-point lead over Chaldon, who also lost, at Wallington who climbed to fourth bottom.

Merstham, who had won all 10 completed fixtures in a remarkable season so far, were invited to bat at Quality Street and reached 48 before Woods keeper Robert Hicks ran out Jason Kyte for 18.

Ashar Syed made a valuable 60, his highest of the league season and first half-century, taking his tally this term to 225.

Caught by Arron Wells with the score on 120-3, he was one of Tom Beaumont’s (3-57 from 15 overs. All three were caught. Merstham’s biggest partnership after that was 22.

Noman Javed made a good start with 26, before becoming one of four dismissed by Wells (4-17 off 6.1), again all caught. Third highest scorer was captain Saeed on 20, batting at No 9. The hosts were all out for 184 after 50.1 overs.

With ball in hand, Merstham made a great start. With the score on 16, Alex Squires was dramatically caught and bowled by Arsalan Abass (1-12 off 6 overs) for 6.

Fellow opener Wells was next to go, but not until Woods had 78 runs on the board, thanks to Danny Turner, whose unbeaten 88 with 14 fours proved crucial.

Wells’ conqueror was Asim Jafferi (3-46 off 11), who bowled him for 25 and also took the only other two wickets to fall. Rushikesh Deshmukh (8) was caught by Andy Rivers making the score 89-3 but Turner, at that stage 45 not out, upped the momentum to before Ian Miller was bowled for 16 with Turner on 73 and the score 144.

Robert Hicks (24 not out) helped Turner steer the visitors to victory by six wickets in the 41^st over.

Merstham seconds kept up their chase for promotion and lie in fourth in their division after victory at Woodmansterne.

Put into bat on a green, damp wicket, the visitors had a good start with a quick run rate from Liam Powell and Jason Drewett. Then with Glenn Mollan, Shakir Khan, Manish Patel and Gus Locke maintaining good momentum this allowed the Magics to declare on 235-5.

After a brief flurry of runs some good bowling from Chris Clayson and Locke had the home side toiling, losing four quick wickets and with some excellent bowling from Imran Aslam, Woodmansterne were staring down the barrel.

But with the dark clouds building Merstham needed to close the game out as quickly as possible. Some excellent fast bowling at the end from Locke finished off the tail, with Mollan picking up the match-winning wicket as the hosts fell for 81 in the 33^rd over. Some good fielding and support from the team helped get another much needed win in the chase for promotion.

The third XI had a tremendous victory at SinjunGrammarians.

Mike Hanlon won the toss and chose to bat. Ben Carter helped himself to 49, Jack Letts 90 and Kanchana Kahakachchi 110 as Merstham mustered 339-9 in their 50.5 overs.

As Geoffrey Boycott might say, a hatful of runs batting first won't win you the game - you have to take wickets. The visitors set about the task quickly with Bobby Sharp having one opener caught behind by Mark Robson for six and the No 3 bat caught by Struan Clark soon after.

It seemed a case of Sharp by name and also by nature as the Merstham paceman took 8-31 in total, with five maidens from his 14.5 overs. Six wickets were catches.

Ben Carter took four catches, three off Sharp and the other – the No 2 bat – off Jack Letts (1-32 off 7). Three of Carter’s catches were also the only three SinjunGrammarian players to compile more than 20 runs.

Jack’s brother Callum (1-13 off 6) took the other wicket, trapping a middle order batsman leg-before for a duck, as the hosts were dismissed for 131 in the 37^th over.

The fourth XI also chose to bat but in an error-strewn innings managed just 52 at The Ring, captain Will Prior top scoring with 10 and former skipper Mike Wadsley hitting nine, both batting late in the order. The hosts lasted 30 overs.

Then Merstham gave themselves every chance of winning with some attacking field placings to put Sanderstead under pressure. Bharat Sahani donned protective equipment to field in the ‘silly’ positions and was rewarded with a catch, while Sumair Qasim – whose previous best figures were 5-19, against Sanderstead – took all six wickets to fall. Qasim returned season-best 6-17, 2 maidens, off 11.

Prior (0-17 off five), Duncan Carter (0-11 off 3) who made a valiant attempt at a caught and bowled chance, and youngster Matt Mandell (0-9 off 2.3) bowled sufficiently tightly to force Sanderstead to bat for 20 overs to reach their target.