Sunday side suffer defeat

Merstham 195 - 8    Wallington 196 - 2

On a fair afternoon at Hillside Gardens a largely Sunday second XI took on a strong Wallington side.  

Losing the toss, Merstham were put in but saw out all the 40 overs for the loss of eight wickets.  

Two Merstham batsmen were forced to retire: John Turner, who got us off to a good start against lively bowlers had to concede eventually to his pulled muscle, Ryan Murrough, playing his first Sunday match, running for him for most of 10 overs.  

Our septuagenarian all the same managed to hit a six amid his agony!  

Skipper Jon White was unlucky to miss out on a  rapid half century, holing out on 48.  A half century stand between Bharat Sahani and vice captain Bill Ash (29) in the last 10 overs kept the scoreboard moving.  

Bharat too (45) was unluckynot to pass his half century when struck by a sharply rising delivery on the forearm, making our second retired man.  

Callum Letts opened the bowling with an extraordinary over of no balls and wides but flattened the stumps twice with two blistering yorking balls.  

The Wallington top order then settled to knock the 196 required in just the 21st over.  The Sunday side welcomed some new faces: in addition to Ryan we welcomed Paul Calafato and, making up or 10th man in the field, given our two injuries, was his 12 year old son, Brennan, who did a mighty job over a large midwicket area.