Firsts lose but seconds take a giant step towards survival: Saturday round-up

Ian Lamont 21 August, 2018

Merstham came up against Horsley & Send’s bowlers in blistering form, as any hope of promotion from Surrey Championship Division Five evaporated.

Having won the toss, the Magics were bowled out for 74 and lost by nine wickets.

With two games left, Merstham are fifth on 202 points among a host of clubs chasing Alleyn, in second, on 247. Horsley are on 225 having held fourth spot.

All too soon in Merstham’s innings, the captain Laurie Nicholson, batting number six, was at the crease with number seven Ed Dawson, coming together at 12-5. They put on 44 for the sixth wicket, before Dawson (28) became Dan Collett’s first victim (3-21).

Nicholson (22) hung around for another two wickets but was the first of Ben Isaac’s 2-25.

The early damage had been done by two bowlers in terrific form - the league’s top wicket taker with 39 Sean Hunt (2-18) and Rob Clayden (3-8) ripping through the top order.

With such a low total, Merstham had little answer to Horsley’s 10.4 over spell, with only Merstham top wicket taker with 33 Noman Javed (1-33) taking a wicket, bowling Luke Trimming for a duck at 13-1.

The second team took a giant step to safety in their six-way relegation battle, dismissing Addiscombe for 133 having set them a target of 170. The result lifts them to third from bottom in the scrap to avoid the second relegation spot, 22 points covering those teams. They play second-bottom Sinjungrammarians next.

Jason Drewett top scored with 38 (taking his season’s tally to a leading mark of 200) and Sunny Bowry and Joe Benson also hit 28, Imran Khan rallying at with 23 at number nine to take the total to 170 off 42.5 overs.

In reply, Imran Aslam (1-21, 10 overs) started the steady flow of wickets (he has 29 for the season) in partnership with Joe Rees-Davies on his way to 4-31 from 7.3 overs which included the final two wickets. He also claimed a run out.

Imran Khan snaffled 3-30 in eight overs, while Tom Jenkins took the other wicket as Merstham won in the 35th over, taking the final three wickets for two runs.

The third team asked hosts Epsom to bat and were rewarded by bowling them out for 93.

Callum Letts took no prisoners in his nine overs, returning 3-31 and dismissing three of the top four batsmen - he lead’s the team’s wickets tally with 18 this season. Fergus Carrick snaffled the other, caught and bowled, in a spell of 1-15 with five maidens.

Rufus Perkins took 1-20, and Ali Khan blitzed the middle order with 3-12 before promising teenager spinner Josh Young finished the job with 2-4 from two overs.

The other Letts brother, Jack, then stepped in to complete victory, with a little help from his friends, scoring 51 not out in partnerships with Nav Saeed (who scored 12) Rob Harris (15) and Gopa Nair (5) to win in the 23rd over.

The fourth team took to the field full of the joys of summer, happily inserting Wimbledon 5s in the hope of chasing a target. Unfortunately the visitors scored 233 and Merstham 4s, well, didn’t.

Rustiness after a weekend without a game and rained off practice nights took their toll as the bowlers could get little penetration.

Bill Ash eventually broke the opening partnership, courtesy of Asif Akhtar’s catch, then bowled league top scorer Kane Laurence for a golden duck on his way to 3-23. Sadly Umair Anis clocked up an unbeaten 91 and a 111 partnership with Will Thomas (68) in his first adult game before the latter was run out via Will Prior. John Young took the other wicket (1-35) in a decent nine over spell. Akhtar also bowled relatively tightly for 0-27 in six overs.

While hitting 200 is in the fourth team’s abilities these days, four quick wickets brought Ian Lamont and Rob Wood to the crease all too soon in the middle order. Wood suffered a direct hit to his ankle during one single and hobbled to joint top score with Lamont. They took 14 apiece.

So a good chance wasted to alter the fourth team batting statistics, which Wood leads on 189 from captain Gopa Nair (who played in the third team this week) on 163, Kashif Noon on 160 and Lamont on 127. Young knocked 13 but couldn’t prevent the team losing - by 169 runs - in the 29th over.