Merstham 1s edge closer to promotion, 2s win title
Fuller’s Brewery Surrey County League Premier Division
Merstham 209-9
Whiteley Village 167
Merstham need one more win to secure a third successive promotion after a 42-run victory at Whiteley Village, who chose to field on a damp wicket.
“We lost half an hour’s play because of a shower before we got there,” said skipper Naveed Saeed, “so both captains wanted to win the toss and bowl.”
Nonetheless in-form opener Arsalan Abass scored 46, running out fellow opener Joe Shinners along the way. Ben Baker hit a couple of lovely extra cover drives before skying one on the damp pitch and being caught for nine.
Assad Naeem notched 31 and Laurie Nicholson 20 before the tail wagged with Sunny Bowry (28), Imran Khan (12) and Suliman Younis (17) all contributing as the lower order Magics pushed from 130-6 to 209-9.
In reply, Merstham concentrated on trying to get out the partners of home skipper Dan Roberts, who went on to score 99, confirming his status as the league’s leading scorer.
Merstham, defending a short boundary on one side, tried to starve him of the strike. But the batsman scored 12 fours and two sixes in 120 balls. No other batsman notched more than 14. Roberts was eventually the eighth batsman dismissed, with the score on 163, by Younis (2-32) who had him caught behind by Ed Dawson. Naeem took 3-28, Khan 2-27 and Noman Javed 2-25.
Merstham are nine points off leaders Merrow and 29 above third placed Lingfield, meaning, with two games left, one more victory will earn them promotion, while Merrow must slip up if the Magics are to win a third title in a row.
The second team continued their canter to the Surrey Championship 2nd XI Fifth Division title by winning it with two weeks to go, being an unassailable 47 points in front of Deando.
Merstham defeated third placed Old Emanuel by two wickets, surpassing their 270 with nine balls to go.
Safyan Aslam, Imran Aslam and Mark Beckford each took two wickets.
If the total seemed imposing then the task became harder when top three Jason Drewett, Jason Kyte and Manish Patel all returned to the pavilion leaving Merstham 43-3. However, Hamed Rehman smahed 75 from 76 balls and Shakir Khan 50 from 55 balls to get the middle order going, while Will Preston notched 52 not out to help steer Merstham home with eight wickets down.
Merstham thirds chose to field at Woodmansterne and restricted their hosts to 132-6 from 39 overs in a rain affected match. Asim Ashraf and James Lowe both took two wickets. In reply, Merstham lost Rory Crouch and Ben Carter, before Jack Letts (41 not out) and Zeeshan Murtaza (36 not out) scored the runs required for victory.
The fourth team suffered a one wicket defeat to visitors Beddington, who asked the hosts to bat on a damp wicket after a morning shower. Captain Ian Lamont (12) took the fall guy position and decided to open, in the hope the wicket would dry for better batsmen.
Usual opener Dilhan Jayamanne benefitted, striking his best league score of the season, 29, from No 3. But wickets fell too swiftly before Andy Pearce (38) put on 35 with James Nolan (12) to take the score to 100-7. Joe Rees-Davies scored a quick-fire 22 as the hosts managed 146 but used only 40.2 overs.
Hamza Ali had opener Sri Pathmanathan caught behind by apprentice wicketkeeper first ball, with one that was skied off the bat, which was the first of 3-31 for the youngster. Brother Hasan Ali took 2-18, Pearce and Rees-Davies the other wickets, with one run out, as Merstham had 10-man Beddington eight down by the time the visitors clawed their way to victory at the end of the 37th over.