Fuller’s League Division One leaders Merstham face second placed Frimley on Saturday, hoping to reverse their losing streak.

After 10 straight league wins, Frimley defeated them in the cup, since when there have been two league defeats, the latest to bottom placed Putney at the weekend.

Winning the toss, visitors Merstham decided to field, but dropped Putney’s main batsman who went on to make 70 in a total of 195 in 41.5 overs.

With the pace bowlers not taking wickets, captain Naveed Saeed turned to spinners Tharusha Tilakarathne and Humayoon Nasir, who both took five wickets.

In reply, several batsmen made starts but did not go on to make the big score which was required. Noman Javed made 40 and Ammar Tahir, sent in up the order to push on the score at No 6, scored 45.

Merstham were eventually all out for 161 after 31 overs.

Saeed said: “It’s a strong league and the teams are tight knit together. One win and you rise up the league. They opened their bowling with a couple of spinners and that put us back a bit.

“Joe Shinners got 30 odd but Andy Rivers and Ashar Syed were out early. We’re a bit short of confidence at the moment, but I think if just win a game we will win the rest.”

Merstham now have a 37 point lead over Frimley.

The second XI continued to dominate the 2nd XI Premier Division, 17 points clear at the top after notching 177-7 from 43.1 overs, to overhaul Merrow’s target of 174 after 50.5 overs.

Merstham took two early wickets to leave the visitors 20-2. Imran Aslam finished with 3-16 off seven, Ameer Pasha 2-37 off 11, and Manish Patel 2-19 off 2.5.

In reply, opener Marvin Beckford scored 52, falling to leaving his side 116-5 with everybody else contributing double figures. Mark Beckford (19no) and Zeeshan Murtaza (14) finished the job.

The third team lost narrowly to SinjunGrammarians who now lead the 3rd XI East Division, four points ahead of Addiscombe and 24 points ahead of third placed Merstham.

Asim Ashraf led the way with 40 and James Lowe 41, before Will Preston notched 67 as they reached 226 off 53 overs.

In reply, Merstham seemed to be taking wickets at regular intervals with Lowe claiming four, but the hosts made the target after 45 overs for the loss of seven wickets.

The fourth team returned to the top of the Surrey Championship 4th XI East Division after a fantastic result which was a lot tighter game than a 35-run victory might suggest http://surreychampionship.play-cricket.com/website/websites/view_division?id=58689.

Having chosen to bat, Tony Rickards’ men found themselves quickly down 10-3. After a flash of inspiration from Mohsin Bukhari, whose 20 included a six and a four, youngsters Finn Harris (15) and Hamza Ali (35) put on a fantastic partnership as the first two umpires (due to bat nine and 10) scuttled to the pavilion to pad up.

Wicketkeeper Rob Wood struck 36, continuing his fine form of the previous week, before being bowled by one which turned genuinely from Andy Thompson (4-36).

The hosts clawed their way up to 170 off 43.4 overs, Rickards finishing on 11 and Duncan Carter six not out.

The total was the best the 4ths have scored on The Ring and gave them something solid to defend.

Oxted, who had led the division before play, started well but the run rate was creeping up, when Rickards had Simon Wardley caught and bowled for 23 and Bharat Sahani had fellow opener Paul Greenwood caught by Ali for 17. The run-rate still seemed manageable despite Andy Thompson (19) being caught by Rob Wood off Rob Harris, bowling for the first time in 10 years, and Andrew Evans being caught with a running catch by Michael Pitcher off Sahani (2-21 off 10) who bowled tight overs, maxing out the field placings on the off side.

As wickets fell, Merstham were increasingly of the opinion that they could do more than just hold Oxted to a draw - they could bowl out their opponents.

Rob Mitchell (26), though, was stubbornly determined to lead Oxted to a draw or even score the runs required, which gradually crept from 4.5 an over to six as he began to run out of partners.

Rickards had two more trapped lbw to finish with 4-52 off a marathon 17 overs (three maidens) while Ali finished with 2-8 off 6.5 including a court and bowled. Harris took 2-9 off five as the visitors were out for 135 off 44.5 of their possible 48 overs.