All of Merstham’s four Saturday teams thought they had a strong chance of winning - well, apart from the fourth team - but in the end none of them could do so, with the fours coming as close an any other to taking a victory.

The first team came up 24 runs short chasing league leaders Haslemere’s 144 in the Surrey Championship Division Five, despite the valiant efforts of Noman Javed who starred with bat and ball.

Asked to field by their hosts, Merstham didn’t let Haslemere accumulate too many runs before medium pacer Javed (3-23, four maidens from 11 overs) dismissed openers C Spooner lbw for 11 and had CJ Hooker caught for 23. Assad Naeem also bowled tightly without reward (0-21).

Glen Mullan also made an impressive impact, the second change bowler taking 5-27 from 10 overs. His slow bowling tempted batsmen to slash out and get themselves caught.

Razi Khan took 2-33 (five maidens from 14). All of Merstham’s five bowlers took maidens, with the team finishing with 13 from 49 overs, and Haslemere’s two top scorers both achieved only 38 runs.

In reply, Merstham lost both openers early before Ben Baker (14) and Javed (50) started to put together some resistance. But after Baker became the first victim of C Spooner there was no stopping him and another three swiftly followed. He finished with 4-15, six maidens from 12 overs.

Razi Khan eventually offered a decent contribution after Javed’s exploits, which included six fours and a six, before being caught for 26. With Javed then also caught, it was down to the tail including skipper Naveed Saeed who was 9 not out at the finish, as Merstham were unable to finish the job, with Imran Khan being stumped with a possible four overs remaining.

"Neither side batted well on a nice pitch" reflected Saeed. "They had a couple of spinners who bowled really well to take our wickets."

Back at Quality Street, the second team asked Kingstonian to bat and were cockahoop after taking early wickets to reduce the visitors to 24-5, in the Surrey Championship 2nd XI Division Four.

Imran Aslam (2-21) and Safyan Aslam (4-13, seven maidens from 12.1 overs) broke resistance in their first spells, but Cerne Iverson (31) and Sohaib Wasim (25) helped the visitors totter to 81-6 and 103-7 with Mark Beckford (2-35) having both caught. Kingstonian were all out in the 49th over for 133.   

The reply began badly, with Shakir Khan out before a run was scored and the first six wickets gone with just 13 on the board, Kamran Khan doing most of the damage, returning 5-21. A further 21 was put together for the seventh wicket, before Imran Aslam (41) was joined at the crease by Mark Beckford (24) who together put on 55 before Sohaib Wasim (1-6) had Aslam caught. Kingstonian brought back opener Raja Sultan to complete his 4-25 and dismiss Merstham for 93 in 35.1 overs.

The third team also won the toss, asking Old Emanuel to bat on their own track, with the hosts mustering a measly 99 from 28.3 overs.

James Lowe took 4-31 from six overs and teenage opener Joe Rees-Davies 2-18 from 6.3 overs, while captain Zeeshan Murtaza struck 2-28 from seven (3 maidens) and Ben Carter an excellent 2-4 off three overs, two maidens.

However, matters soon unravelled when Merstham batted, as Tom McGregor (3-7) and Mark Baptiste (5-36) rattled through the first eight wickets for 32 runs. James Lowe top scored with 11 not out from No 9 as Merstham finished on 58 in the 26th over.

A patient 55 - a first half century for senior cricket - from Hamza Ali, put the fourth team in with a chance of defeating Oxted and Limpsfield’s fifth team, after the openers failed.

The No 3, 16, is in his third season of senior cricket and, on a glass top outfield, struck 10 fours. Evidently, Ian Lamont had used up his nine lives (for the season?) in previous weeks. Testing his luck, he made a daft early choice to try to tickle a straught ball round to leg, stepped back and was inevitably lbw when he missed it completely.

That brought Ali to the crease earlier than expected and, with fellow opener Will Prior also out cheaply, Ali worked partnerships with skipper Gopa Nair (12) and John Young (8) which were all too short lived as Andy Thompson (6-34 off 14) punished Merstham’s top and middle order.

Tony Rickards mustered a tail saving 28 not out as the hosts managed 74 for the last three wickets, the same score as the first seven, to finish on 148 from 38 overs. As it turned out, this gave the 4th team the honour of being the club’s highest scoring team of the week, but that was no consolation as it was still not quite enough to win.

It proved a half decent total to defend though. Merstham, like Oxted had done, took a couple of early wickets. But they took too long to dislodge opener David Andrews (70) who was eventually bowled by teenager Anthony Maplesden, another welcome recruit to the senior ranks this season.

Rickards took a tight 2-29 from nine overs in his opening spell. Ali and Young also took a wicket each to put the pressure on at 65-4, before Maplesden turned the screw with 2-8 from his five overs. Skipper Nair took another with the score on 127 but the visitors conjured the required 22 remaining runs to win within 37 overs and three wickets remaining.

Batting practice is needed all round.

* Nav Saeed will appear on SusyRadio's cricket show on Tuesday at 7pm. Listen in on 103.4 FM