Fuller’s League Division One Merstham 263-9dec
Long Ditton 176

Captain Naved Saeed declared at the first point at which he was allowed to in this 95 overs match and was glad he did, as unbeaten Merstham took a 10^th straight win with just three balls to spare.

Asked to bat on a flat track with not much movement, the Fuller’s League Division One leaders began well, with Joe Shinners (32) and Ashar Syed (37) putting together a strong opening partnership.

Suliman Younis, who usually bats in the tail, was sent in at No 3 and smacked the opening bowlers for 28, before Noman Javed notched 67, surpassing 400 runs for the season. Wasim Mohar, at No 8, bagged 38 in about 20 balls.

“He struck two extra cover sixes and they were absolutely smashed like I’ve never seen before,” enthused Saeed, who declared after 45 overs.

“We wanted all the overs we were allowed to bowl back at them and that decision proved correct,” he added. “Their intention was to stop us winning our 10^th game."

With ball in hand, Merstham notched an early breakthrough, Ammar Tahir having captain Ian Antonio caught by keeper Ed Dawson for a duck off an away swinging delivery.

While the other opener Jason Matthews scored 26 before Tahir (3-18 off 11, 5 maidens) had him caught by Humayoon Nasir and Charlie Hinchcliffe scored 22, Long Ditton never really looked like reaching the total.

But middle order batsman Mike Hall, the wicket keeper, seemed particularly determined to keep his wicket in tact, frustrating the visitors on his way to 33 off at least 20 overs.

“We tried medium pace, spinners and everything we could think of, but this one batsman was very steady and showed great technique,” mused Saeed. “We got to the last nine overs and then put in place a policy of short balls, took off the spinners and put a fielder out at deep square leg  in the hope of getting a catch. In the end he went for one and got caught at deep square and the game changed again.”

In the last over, Saeed took up a position of short mid wicket and caught James Chapple (23) off Younis (3-40) to win with three balls remaining. “Those two overs we didn’t bat proved crucial,” concluded Saeed.

Sunday’s Fuller’s League Cup quarter-final at home to Frimley ended in a disappointing defeat and was over by mid-afternoon.

Put in to bat on a damp wicket, Ed Dawson top scored with 29 in a poor batting performance which left Merstham 96 all out after 26.1 overs, Saeed not out on 12 at the finish.

The visitors’ main batting threat was dropped at mid-off on the first ball of the innings and went on to score 70 and they won by three wickets, scoring 102-7 off 23 overs.

Saeed believes another 40-odd runs might have put the hosts in a strong position to win, and blamed the euphoria and effort put into Saturday’s victory for a lacklustre performance and attitude.

“We beat them in the league comfortably (by six wickets) but they were more prepared than us. The teams left in the competition are from the premier division so we wanted to know what sort of level we’re playing at,” said the skipper, who is eyeing a second consecutive promotion. After that first defeat of the season, he hopes that Merstham can return to victorious cricket at home to third placed Shepperton on Saturday.

The second team had their lead at the top of the Fuller’s 2^nd XI Premier Division whittled down to 17 points by Staines & Laleham, who lie second.

Continuing their run of bowling out teams for low scores, club captain Richard Feist’s men took care of their visitors after 41.1 overs for 130 – higher than the 84, 67 and 51 of Merstham’s past three opponents, but still a relatively small total.

Andy Cranston scored more than half Staines’ runs, 75, before being caught by Lithon Tarofder off Mark Beckford, who took 3-19 off six overs, leaving the visitors 89-5.

Chat Ranawaka had trapped opener Peter Roberts lbw in the second over and Tarofder took 3-27 off 10 with only two other batsman scoring double figures.

Merstham’s reply began well enough, Jason Kyte (13) and Ameer Pasha putting on 51 for the first wicket before Kyte was caught. 27 runs later Pasha went for 40, 10 runs later Liam Powell went for 30 and a batting collapse (all top five batsmen caught) left Merstham 100-6. Manish Patel, on 20 not out, ran out of partners and the seconds lost, just four short of Staines’ score, after the exact same 41.1 overs. Staines’ Alex Ardis did much of the damage, finishing with 5-4 off 14 overs, 11 of them maidens.

The third team, also top of their division,  returned refreshed after a bye week to face strugglers Leatherhead down at The Ring, writes Jon Coleman.

Stripped this week of their talismanic leader in Mark Robson, who despite not being present wanted to captain from his back garden, Merstham bowled first with Ben Carter having won the toss.

From the first ball Merstham threatened, with a ball from opening bowler Justin David being edged just over the slips for four. From the other end, Jon Coleman wreaked havoc by dismissing four of Leatherhead's top order his first three overs, two of which were well pouched by stand in wicketkeeper James Lowe behind the stumps.

Reduced to 11-4, the mantra of "quick game's a good game" rang around the field, but the flow of wickets slowed, although two wickets for David reduced Leatherhead to six down, Merstham were frustrated by a seventh wicket partnership between Lewis Higgs and opposition captain, Damon Robinson. Bobby Sharp eventually removed both by using his knowledge of The Ring to perfection, a peach of a ball to earn Lowe his third catch behind the stumps and a great field placement to get Robinson caught by Michael Hanlon at forward short leg. This allowed Marcus Kyte to finish off the rest of the Leatherhead innings as the visitors were bowled out for 63.

Although the score looked quite easy for a rampant Merstham side, The Ring can be a cruel mistress. After an early loss of captain Carter, Lowe, partnered with Jack Letts, looked to be steering Merstham home with minimal fuss. However, both fell in quick succession and triggered some sort of a collapse. Jez Gray helped himself to a couple of boundaries in a four ball cameo, but the dismissal with the fourth ball faced was something more likely to be seen in a hammer throwing coaching manual than a cricket one.

Gray advanced down the track to a ball that pitched nearer the bowler than him, nearly pulled a muscle in the ensuing early heave shot that, in fairness, he could have tried twice more and still been early both times, while the ball politely disturbed the stumps with Gray so far down the track he was halfway to Redhill town centre.

However, with Merstham six down and absent skipper Robbo reduced to the foetal position after following updates via Twitter, a steady nerve from Sharp despatched the winning runs for four. 

The fourth team insist a write-up wouldn’t be worth the paper this report is not written on, which just means they are gutted to end their unbeaten run.

But for the record they came 14 runs short of a win – or nine balls shy of a draw.

Sanderstead, who were asked to bat, struggled to get starts, with No 3 Chris Carey top scoring on 21 before being caught by Khan Mohammed off youngster Craig Kenny (1-8 off 4, 1 maiden).

There were two run-outs and Michael ‘lost in Wales and now found again’ Pitcher took a wicket on his return from university. Opener Adam Mell (1-15 off 8) took a wicket on his Saturday debut in his second spell, while captain Tony Rickards (2-26 off 12) and Omer Shuja (1-18 off 10) both bowled four maidens. Bharat Sahani also took a wicket as the hosts batted the maximum 47 overs to reach 121, a score the hosts have only bettered once on their own turf this season.

The fourths are a better team now than the one which failed to chase just over 100 on the same pitch last year.

Batting is trickier on the public park pitch that at Sanderstead’s main ground next door and decent scores were put in by Kashif Noon (17), Will Prior (16), Shuja (22 not out) and Rob Wood (18), but Merstham slipped from 55-3 to 107 all out after 41.3 overs.

On Sunday, aside from the cup team, a mixed Sunday 1s and 2s XI hosted touring side Chadwick at the Ring, where the captains agreed a rule that any pea rollers thrown up by the pitch (well, not thrown up, if you see what we mean) would be declared a dead ball.

It wasn’t enforced once.

The visitors, asked to bat, enjoyed themselves sufficiently to post 182-6, with one opener sportingly recalled by bowler Bobby 'Bobzillar' Sharp when he was bowled but wasn't quite ready. He was bowled a short time later to a slightly shorter but equally difficult ball. 

In a 40-overs a side game, Chadwick ticked along until drinks, scoring around 80.

Adam Mell (2-29) took two wickets (both batsmen being caught) in two balls, then lengthened his run-up to start at the nearby church and stormed in like a rhino charging, only to see the “hat-trick ball” edged tantalisingly over the slips.

Sharp (1-13) and Rickards (1-36) both bowled a maiden, while Mell took two. Bill Ash took 1-27.

The reply started badly as Merstham were 12-2 and, with ‘Razor’ Sharp himself this time not quite ready, slow right arm batsman Ian Lamont (12) went in at four and ‘survived’ until after drinks, to support Jon White (29) and briefly Sahani. Redhill’s newest resident Sahani looked well set as the run rate was cut to just six an over needed off the final 15 overs before he was bowled.

David Harrison second top scored with 26. Put him up the order? The club has learnt the lesson of the dearly departed Terry Garrett not to over-promote those who have an early success with the bat. Garrett, the former long-serving treasurer who died in the spring, was ‘not out’ on his club debut many years ago, then promoted to open the following week.

Quickly bowled, he was swiftly returned to No 11, umpired every game he played in until he was absolutely needed to bat, and was regularly still taking five-wicket hauls as a slow bowler up until last summer.

Anyway, Harrison swiped a good number of fours which will give him confidence for cameos on Saturdays and Sundays, and batted with his son Jamie (who scored 8) but ultimately Merstham were all out for 118.

That was after 30 overs – which was sufficient time to bend Mell’s ears about playing on Saturdays!

Picture: third team fielding at The Ring, courtesy of former club captain Chris Lowe