Merstham committed a crime against Geoffrey Boycott’s cricket 101 on Saturday and paid the price in the Surrey Championship Division Five.

One of the former England slow batsman’s mantras is that sides batting first in one day cricket must see out their overs - and Merstham only batted for 42, being all out for 161 and losing by three wickets.

“You can’t bat only to 42 overs and expect to win the game,” said captain Nav Saeed. “We’re just getting used to that.”

Losing the toss at Quality Street, Merstham were asked to bat on a damp wicket. They made a decent start with Andy Rivers (11) and Laurie Nicholson (10) but started to lose wickets regularly, Ben Baker (13) and Ed Dawson (15) being out cheaply.

It was left to last week’s star with the ball, Noman Javed, to top score with 87. “Nobody hung around to support him and he got out to one that kept low,” said Saeed.

In reply, Merstham took the wicket of Chertsey’s South African overseas player Wade Cupido for 25, caught by Saeed off Imran Khan  the first change bowler who took 2-42. But his fellow opener Dave Risk bagged 58 before another breakthrough saw him out to Razi Khan (2-16).

Only then did Merstham begin to make inroads, with Javed taken 3-27 before Chertsey skipper Greg Burton (12 not out) took control of matters to steer his team over the line after 35.3 overs.

The second XI were all out without completing their overs, too, but had notched 221 after 49.3 overs.

Opener Jason Kyte scored 49, with Marvin Beckford (56) and Manish Patel (67) putting on a fine middle order partnership, putting on 76 for the fourth wicket.

In reply, early wickets were had by Imran Aslam (who finished with 4-35) and Cheam’s middle order was eventually dislodged by Joe Benson (2-34) and Ameer Pasha (1-37), while Manish Patel (2-24). With four bowlers each bowling 10 overs, skipper Richard Feist even gave himself a bowl, conceding just 2 runs from his one over as Cheam were all out for 172.

The third team thought they were in for a swift defeat at six wickets down for very few runs - and then Bobby Sharp strode up to the crease.

Chipstead didn’t know what hit them as Sharp proceeded to crack 82 before being bowled, Jon Coleman taking 33 alongside him and James Lowe 27 batting at 10.

Merstham’s tally of 179 came after 43.4 overs.

Sharp then opened the bowling, taking 0-10 from his 9 overs before Zeeshan Murtaza took 2-15, and Coleman and Lowe a wicket each, with two more from the field to take six wickets in a 30-run victory.

The fourth team made a stunning start, Omer Shuja taking three early wickets - one an absolute ripper of in incutter with the batsman leaving it outside off stump - as Old Wimbledonians struggled for early runs.

However, only one more wicket was taken in the innings as the hosts made the most of a great batting pitch, one of them scoring a century (a different player to the previous week) on the way to 246-4 from 45 overs.

In reply, Ian ”four lives” Lamont (24) and Will Prior managed 3.5 an over for 18 overs, before Lamont carelessly got himself stumped.

Prior, despite straining a side muscle, went on to score 89, matching his best ever knock, and briefly it looked like Merstham could win what would have been a remarkable run chase.

However, after teenager Hamza Ali bagged a quick 39 and Shuja 19 the chance ended, with the bonus point target of 200 the new aim. It was achieved in the final over, eight wickets down.    

Pictures by Chris Lowe

A round-up of local cricket reports can be heard on David Jay's SusyRadio 103.4 show during the week and a news item found on their website.