Merstham Cricket Club was a much happier place on Saturday night than after the previous week’s four defeats, with the Quality Street clubhouse awash with jubilation at three wins - and tales of woe from the third team’s draw in a game that threatened to last into darkness.

The first team were feeling much more positive after a second victory of the season in the Surrey Championship Division Five, beating Farncombe at home by 127 runs.

Asked to bat, Merstham openers Joe Shinners (59) and Andy Rivers (40) took full advantage, putting on 98 for the first wicket in a quick start, putting away any bad balls.

Rivers fell first, bowled by Jack Durrant, before Jason Kyte was stunningly run out with a direct hit from the boundary for 99-2. Durrant caught and bowled Shinners as the hosts suffered a bit of a wobble, but Noman Javed (28 off 30 balls), Assad Naeem (23), Ed Dawson (30 from 27 balls) and Razi Khan (39 off 32 balls) all contributed well towards the total of 247-7 declared after 49.5 overs.

In reply, Assad Naeem (2-40) had both openers caught with the score on only 26 and Razi Khan took 3-13 as Merstham chipped away at the wickets.

But the best bowled of the day was Imran Khan, who ended up with 4-17 off 8.2 overs. Captain Naveed Saeed said: “He came off his long run and was ineffective in his first two overs, so I had a go at him and told him to came off his short run and he got four wickets.”

First team action from Quality Street - by Harry David

Merstham clearly benefited from a batting net session in the sunshine before the game, having failed with the bat in recent weeks. “We had some good batsman playing and they wanted to win,” said the skipper. “There was a problem with the trains which only ran to Purley and they all pulled together to get there for an 11am meet so they could get in the nets. We’ve made a slow start to the season and if we just had one more pace bowler we’d be close to the top instead of the bottom.”

The second team were also celebrating after a four-wicket win at Alleyn, where they dismissed the hosts for 174 having asked them to bat.

Opener James Bridgeman offered most resistance for Alleyn, notching 60 while the rest of the top six mustered just 29 between them. He found an able partner in Gavin Van Der Merwe eventually (39no) before being run out by Ashar Syed.

The wickets were shared, with Imran Aslam (2-21 from 14 overs), Ameer Pasha and Manish Patel all taking two, with Safyan Aslam and Justin David taking one apiece. Pasha also claimed a run out from Mark Beckford’s only ball as the hosts strung their innings out for as long as they could – 54.1 overs.

In reply, Jason Drewett (35) made a steady start with Syed (20) before the latter was run out. Richard Feist notched a notable 33 in the middle order in a partnership of 79 for the sixth wicket with Williams Preston (49no) who finished the innings with Imran Aslam, Merstham managing 176-6 from 44.4 overs – just 8 balls remaining.

The third XI took on 2nd placed Cheam at the Ring and were eager to forget about last week’s poor display, writes Ben Snelling.

Captain Zeeshan Murtaza lost the toss and Merstham were sent into bat. Shakir Khan and Mohsin Ali looked to get them off to a steady start but Moshin was dismissed shortly after for five when he chipped the ball into the covers. This wasn’t all bad because in stepped the ever fruitful Struan Clark who relishes the opportunity to face the new ball and has a new-found confidence with the bat.

Shak and Struan were batting sensibly, hitting the bad deliveries while nudging wicket worthy balls for singles which frustrated the Cheam attack.

The partnership was unfortunately cut short when Struan was sent walking for 20 after being the recipient of “an unplayable delivery”. Underwhelming events followed when the in-form Ben Snelling and Asim Ashraf both got out for 0.

The team was in turmoil with memories of the previous week still fresh in their minds, but In stepped Zeeshan who immediately stopped the rot and accumulated a much needed 50 partnership with Shak before going for 26.

Shak continued with the Merstham lower order until he was given lbw for 48. The ship was again steady and the bottom order batsman Maplesden (6), Ahmed (16), Carter (5) and Lowe (5) all chipped in before Merstham were all out for 169.

With the match being a timed game and only 169 on the board, Merstham had to be aggressive in the attack but had to be careful not to leak needless runs. James Lowe and Ben Carter (1-22 off 12) opened up, both were extremely accurate and going for few runs.

Carter took the first wicket with the assistance of Mohsin who was calm and collected  under the high ball.

From then on, Merstham were struggling to take a wicket and putting down irritatingly infrequent opportunities. Cue Asim Ashraf. Asim’s sharp bowling combined with an increasing amount of pressure from the field allowed Merstham to get the breakthrough they so desperately need with two quick consecutive wickets.

As tensions ran high between slip cordon and the opposition captain, confrontation was inevitable but fortunately James Lowe was on hand and stepped in as mediator and sorted the issue in a "James Lowe fashion".

With wickets in dire need, both Clark (2-25 off 7) and the formidable Ashraf piled on the pressure and skittled the Cheam bottom order in ruthless style.

Two splendid catches from Lowe at short leg must be noted. In spite of the squeeze, Cheam managed to hang on for 144-9 and Merstham had to settle for a winning draw. Although we did not get the desirable result there was certainly a positive atmosphere amongst the team after the game knowing the strength of depth in our squad and the attitudes that had been shown on the pitch.

MOTM - Asim Ashraf. 5-18 off 11 overs.

Sanderstead 4s suffered a shock defeat to Merstham 4s. It was as much a shock against form, because Sanderstead had won three games and Merstham one, as it was in terms of the size of the victory – as well as the manner in which it came about.

Sanderstead, with a few players who needed to ‘leave early’ for social duties, decided to bowl first, (after winning the toss) on a grassy, Ring-like pitch.

And when they had reduced Merstham to 21-6 from 15 overs, the hosts probably through they would be sinking beers at tea time as a prelude to a long celebratory night out. But Gopa “the doctor” Nair had other ideas up his surgical sleeve. Emboldened by a winter of expert tuition by quality coaches, the skipper found an able and willing partner in No 4 Simon Griffin, on his return to League cricket after six years, to give the innings some respectability.

Working their way through a minefield of balls that dropped right on the money and couldn’t be got away, the pair picked off the balls they could play in a patient seventh wicket stand that lasted a remarkable 29 overs and produced 114 priceless runs.

On a slow outfield, Griffin managed five fours on his way to 50.

He was congratulated heartily by his team mates who had little else to do but top up their tans on the sidelines.

He was out next ball, suffering a mysterious case of the “congratulations curse”.

On the basis it might be similar bad luck, the team wondered if they should clap when the skipper Nair himself reached his maiden 50 for the club (the captain’s steady knock included three fours and the only six).

However, the team did congratulate him, because he reached the mark with the dodgiest second run survival that any of them had ever seen, so they assumed his luck was in.

He was out a couple of balls later.

The “congratulations curse” had struck again.

No matter. Dan Carter (2) and Marcus Kyte (1) - nos 10 and 11 -  both hit out in the final over believing that every run would be crucial. The whole team had scored 109 between them, with extras boosting the total to 150-9 as Merstham used up the maximum 47 overs.

With a team talk after tea re-iterating that Griffin and Nair had fought for every run on Sanderstead’s green Rec and the hosts might well face the same struggle, Merstham took to the field in determined mood, knowing that 148 had almost been enough to win the previous weekend at home to Oxted.

Omer Shuja, raring to go after a break for Ramadan, and Avinash Malhotra both bowled maidens to open the innings, as Sanderstead had done. In his second over, Malhotra (1-16), had one player caught by wicketkeeper Rob Wood, not so much "caught behind" but leg side of the wicket, after waiting an age for the ball to come down from the clouds.

That batsman wasn’t the only one to throw away his wicket while trying to bring down the nearest aeroplane, with Wood taking another sky-attacking ball off Griffin's fourth delivery. Nobody was going to get in the way of the man with the gloves! Not even Kyte, who - sandwiched in between those catches - had taken a stunning hold at point, shoulder high, to dismiss the left-handed opener.

A kamikaze attempt at a run resulted in a run out by Malhotra – after the batsman initially dared to challenge Kyte to get the ball in – reducing Sanderstead to 27-4 from a mere 12 overs.

As "the Dr" Nair resisted all temptations to ease off the anesthetic, ruthlessly tightening the noose, what happened next was nothing short of astonishing.

Shuja, having supplied the catch for Kyte, continued his wicket spree, finishing with 4-10 and 3 maidens from 8.1 overs (an lbw, one bowled and the final one caught by Ian Lamont to finish the match), while the flying Griffin polished off the rest, finishing with four wickets in just three overs – conceding just one run in the process. Nair caught one while two had their stumps rearranged in dramatic fashion. Two of his overs were maidens as Sanderstead disintegrated to 32 all out, gaining their wish for an early finish in thoroughly unexpected fashion.

Nair and Griffin show the 4s how to bat