Graeme Law rounds up recent Under 11 matches, while Sara Smalley reports on another Under 14s nailbiter!

The Under 11s NEC team played against Sutton, looking to bounce back from their heavy defeat the previous week.

Merstham were put into bat and lost both openers early, but then, remarkably, didn’t lose another wicket.  

Against some excellent bowling, Lyle Wesson, Jacob Law and Bailey Warren batted with relative ease and all retired after passing 30.  Wesson and Law strongly down the ground and through the leg side, whereas Bailey kept the scoreboard ticking over with some well-taken singles, and hit boundaries behind square on both sides of the wicket.  

This gave Matty Cripps the platform to attack, and he did so to great effect - scoring 20 from just 20 balls. Merstham finished on 158-2, a fantastic batting performance.

But, unfortunately, Sutton’s opening pair showed real intent straight from the off and, in a fantastic display of power batting, raced to 84-1 from only nine overs. Rayhan Ahamadali took the one wicket to fall in that period, inducing a lobbed catch that Bailey gratefully accepted behind the stumps.  

Whilst Merstham then tightened things up with some good bowling, the damage had been done, and the remaining batsmen could soak up the pressure knowing they were well ahead of the run rate.  Sam Flower and Wesson were the pick of the Merstham bowlers, and both deservedly picked up a wicket, but Sutton made it home with three overs to spare.

The following day, the Under 11 ESCL team played at Felbridge, and again batted first.  Byron Wood scored 11 with some particularly lusty hitting, but all the boys contributed.  Impressively, the team only lost three wickets, and finished on a score of 90-3 (net 272).

After a solid start from Felbridge’s opening batsmen, Merstham picked up four wickets in the space of four overs, which brought them back into it.  Oli Walker took a good catch off Seb’s bowling, Law got a direct run-out and took three wickets, but the key incident in the game was when a ball bowled by Law somehow managed to pass through the stumps without displacing the bails.

Despite our bowlers’ best efforts, Felbridge’s last batsman played fantastically well, scoring 12 from the first four balls of the last over, enabling him to see out the remaining two balls for a two run win. Had the stumps been properly assembled, then maybe it would have been a different story...

The following week’s NEC game was called off due to a wet pitch, but the ESCL game a day later went ahead as normal. Merstham bowled and fielded fantastically to take nine South Nutfield wickets and restricted them to a net score of 213.  Both Tom Webb and Matty Beggs took two wickets in two balls, and Charlie Webb did really well in his first outing behind the stumps.

Merstham made rather heavy weather of the reply, regularly losing wickets, but 12 from Thomas Pieters (playing up from the Under 10s) and 14 from Jacob gave Merstham a comfortable victory in the end as they posted 102-9 for a net score of 248, and a win by 35 runs.

The Under 14 Falcons played only their second ESCL league match and their first away game of the season on June 14, against Sutton Challengers.

Sutton won the toss and elected to bat and Merstham’s bowlers soon placed them under pressure, with the first wicket falling to the bowling of Matt Cripps in the second over. The next wicket fell quickly with a run out in the fourth, courtesy of some tidy fielding from Matt Retter with the score at 18-2.

Sutton were pinned back by Merstham and struggled to get runs on the board before three wickets fell for two runs; two wickets in the same over with another run out, clean bowled by Matt Greaves and a catch by Max Anderson off the bowling of James Cripps.

From there on, Sutton struggled to build up any kind of momentum and Merstham’s bowlers were rewarded with a steady stream of wickets. Luca Retter caught and bowled Sutton’s only batsman who made it to double figures, Jude McRobbie made a stunning running catch from Max Anderson’s bowling.

Ben Clements claimed the eighth wicket with a catch by wicketkeeper Theo Elliott, then Liam Barry took the ninth wicket with the first ball of his only over. With the final ball of the last over, Luca Retter dismissed their last batsman. Sutton were all out for 100, giving Merstham a target of 101 to achieve with their innings.

Sutton Challengers commenced their assault on Merstham with some very quick bowling, claiming the wicket of opening batsman and captain Noah Young in the first over with the score on zero. Matt Retter quickly responded, adding ten in the second over before the wicket of his new partner McRobbie, fell in the next.

Greaves continued to threaten Sutton’s bowlers until he was caught for 19 in the seventh. As with the Sutton innings, a flurry of wickets fell around the middle of the match for a small number of runs until James Cripps joined Anderson’s at the crease. A very successful partnership of 50 meant Merstham were still in the game but both wickets fell to run outs in the fourth and fifth balls of the final over, with the score on 99.

The pressure was on the last two batsman, Clements and Barry, to keep their nerve - and their wickets - and score at least a single with the final ball of the innings to equal Sutton’s score of 100. Ben was on strike and hit the ball. Barry was practically in Clements’s crease before he had started running and with the pressure now on the fielders, successfully completed the run.

Merstham finished the match on 100 and won with one wicket remaining, as Sutton had been bowled out for the same score. Another nail-biting finish that demonstrates how well the U14 Falcons are working as a team and under pressure.

Merstham U14 Falcons: Max Anderson, Liam Barry, Ben Clements, James Cripps, Matt Cripps, Theo Elliott (w), Matt Greaves, Jude McRobbie, Luca Retter, Matt Retter, Noah Young (c).