All four of Merstham’s teams won on Saturday, while the Sunday team regained the Matthew Lewis Memorial Trophy outright after last year’s tie.

The first team scored 290 runs from their 45 overs, having been asked to bat by their hosts Roehampton in their Fuller's Brewery Surrey County League Premier Division match.

Assad Naeem scored his first half century for the team, while Noman Javed scored another 50 to add to his runs total, while Manish Patel also batted well having moved up from the second team. Joe Shinners also contributed 35 with the bat.

In reply, Merstham restricted their hosts to 220-8, with Imran Khan who also usually plays in the second team taking four wickets.

Captain Nav Saeed was delighted with the performance and the result. He said: “Our total of 290 was a massive score in 45 overs - I don’t think I’ve ever played in a team that has done that.

“They never looked like they were going to reach the total and we took our foot off the pedal a little bit in only taking eight wickets.” To win the limited overs match, all they had to do was restrict their opponents from scoring.

“Damien Barnett bowled well again and the fact we had two guys step up from the second XI and perform so well shows our strength in depth we’ve got at the club. They didn’t look out of place.”

The second team won by six wickets, at Quality Street against Old Hamptonians.

They restricted the visitors to 156-9 off 50 overs, Jacob Doherty scoring 53 off 78 balls after the visitors lost a wicket without scoring a run.

Safyan Aslam took 3-26  but the bowling star was Joe Benson with 5-19 off 10 overs. Imran Aslam also bowled tightly with 0-16 off 10 with four maidens.

Merstham opener Jason Drewett led the reply, scoring 91 from 85 balls (17 fours) setting the early pace with Marvin Beckford (31) and Benson (17) as the hosts knocked off the runs in the 27th over, losing four wickets.

After a week of fretfully refreshing the weather reports, the 3rd XI woke to find a surprisingly promising outlook on Saturday morning, prior to travelling to Wallington. Captain Robson however was taking no chances, and was sure to relay this to his band of merry, if not slightly hung over men; win the toss, bowl them out cheaply and knock off the runs before the rain comes.

A seemingly foolproof plan, however even Captain Robson with his abundance of optimism could not have fully anticipated the dominating performance that was to follow from the Merstham men.

With the captain extending his impressive record at the toss this season the first part of the master plan was complete, and the new opening bowling partnership of Lowe and the returning Chris Clayson were able to put the Wallington opening pair under pressure immediately.

The batsmen were unable to deal with the nagging accuracy of Clayson combined with the aggressive, and at times erratic approach of James Lowe. The pair ripped through the top order of the Wallington team, and two wickets for Clayson capped an impressive return (5 overs, 2-12).

Lowe continued to bowl through his allocation of overs with ferocity, with Zeeshan Murtaza now providing some firepower from the other end. Between them they managed to wrap up the innings in style, albeit not helped by the captain dropping a chance in the slip cordon. Murtaza (6 overs, 3-20) bowled fast and straight, and this ultimately proved too much for the Wallington batsmen. Lowe (9 overs, 5-18) was neither fast nor straight, but managed to produce multiple deliveries that would not have looked out of place in a highlights reel of James Anderson at Headingly, and continued his remarkable start to the season with the ball.

Merstham had again delivered an impressive bowling and fielding display, and the Wallington total of 53 all out was testament to this. Despite this the 3rd XI’s collective paranoia about a potential downpour failed to go away, and with the first half of the job convincingly delivered they were not going to take any chances with the run chase.

Opening partners Ben Baker (10) and Laurie Nicholson (29 not out) managed to get the chase off to a quick start with some lusty blows and questionable running, and with the help of Struan Clark (6 not out) the top order managed to knock the runs off within 10 overs, and all without a drop of rain in sight. The game had lasted all of 31 overs, and the 3rd XI were able to reflect on a ruthless performance that will provide confidence in the more challenging games ahead.

Man of the Match was James Lowe, 9 overs 5-18. Special mention to William Preston for contributing nothing with bat or ball after a 258-mile round trip from Bath. Thanks for coming.

The fourth team didn’t have a game again, because their opponents pulled out for the second week in the last three, giving them a perfect three from three win start to the season. As it was too late to arrange another game,  they enjoyed more practice at The Ring and are itching to get some competitive action at Trinity next Saturday.

On Sunday, in the Matthew Lewis Memorial Match, Mogador Wanderers bowled first and Merstham notched 178, with Sunny Bowry scoring 72.

In reply, Andy Pearce - returning to cricket after a few years - took four wickets and Imra Rashid, playing alongside his son Ammar, took a wicket too as Merstham restricted the Mogs to 150. It means that the seventh time this trophy has been played for resulted in a Merstham victory. Last year's game was a tie.

Action pictures by Chris Lowe.