Juniors start season with league wins

Merstham U13s won their ESCL Division Two fixture with Felbridge & Sunnyside by seven runs.

Merstham scored 101-9 while their opponents managed 94-5.

On a cool but sunny Sunday morning at The Ring the U13s won their first match of the season.  

Captain Max Yates won the toss and elected to bat first. The hosts found themselves at 5-2 because of some strong bowling from Felbridge.

Yates and Flynn McRobbie then put the team back on course with a partnership of 32. This included three consecutive fours by McRobbie, who was eventually out for 19 off 11 balls.  

Yates continued to bat through several partnerships, but a century score was looking unlikely when he was eventually out for 14 with Merstham on 58-7. Michael Noad and Matt Gray led the fight back, with Noad being the top scorer of the innings with 26, helping the U13s to make 101-9 off their 20 overs.  

Merstham defended their total with an all round team performance. All five Felbridge batsmen out were bowled. Man of the match Dinuk Jayamanne, who took two wickets, was on a hat trick ball at one point, plus there was one wicket each for Edward Jobling, Lucas De Acetis and McRobbie.  

Everyone worked hard in the field, including some great wicket-keeping by Josh Kenny, so limiting Felbridge’s scoring opportunities. 

Of course it was great to start with a win, but even better to see that last year‘s team spirit and hard work were still well in place.  The U13s have a large squad this year, making the competition for match play, based on enthusiasm and good attendance at practice as much as ability, very competitive.

Team: Haider Salik, Connor Thorpe, Max Yates (c), Flynn McRobbie, Tanay Patel, Dinuk Jayamanne, Lucas De Acetis, Michael Noad, Matt Gray, Josh Kenny (w) and Edward Jobling. 

The team didn’t have such good fortune in the Surrey Junior Cup, coming up against a well organised Trinity Mid-Whitgiftians and losing by 33 runs in the second round.

TMW won the toss and elected to bat first at Quality Street.  The home team bowled inconsistently, with 19 wides and three no-balls, but then the bowlers took the majority of their wickets by hitting the stumps.  

The wickets were shared out with one each to McRobbie, Alvin Sathya, Tanay Patel,  Noad, Rowan Smith, Alex Blair and James Pieters.

The pick of the bowlers though was Yates, who gave away only four runs off his three overs. Fielder of the day was Patel, responsible for two great run outs and for the second week running, Kenny competently kept wicket, with only four byes getting past him.

With Jayamanne taking a serious hit on the shin during bowling, Merstham were down to 10 batsmen.  Scoring runs proved to be hard work, due to long boundaries and some great bowling.

Top scorer was McRobbie with 18 off 26.  Pieters (13) and Noad (11) were the only other players to get into double figures.  Onwards and upwards, the U13s still have the ESCL cup as well as being able to “concentrate on the league”.

The U11 sides have had a great start to the season, both starting with convincing wins.

On Bank Holiday Monday, the U11 ESCL side hosted Outwood at Quality Street. Bowling first, they restricted the opposition to 186, taking 14 wickets in the process.

Ethan Joyce (on his debut for MCC), Ishaan Sah (who finished with the remarkable figures of 2-2-0-3) and skipper Will Chapman led the way with three wickets apiece, with Alex Wilcock, Oliver Wicks, Sam Lee and Samuel Millard-Burda sharing the other wickets between them.

Chasing Outwood’s score, Wilcock and Joyce made a solid start ensuring that no wickets were lost during the first pair. All the remaining batsmen made a good contribution, with Sam Pemberton and Chapman scoring well, and solid defence from all the boys meaning not too many wickets were lost. Merstham finished on 212, to come out winners.

On Sunday May 12, the NEC team travelled to Sutton for their first game of conventional cricket. Bowling first, Merstham quickly put the “when you’re out, you’re out” format to good use, with Dylan Kenny and Oliver White combining to run one of the Sutton openers out off the first ball of the match.

Three more wickets in the first four overs for White (2) and William Blair put Sutton under pressure.

Further wickets for Joyce, Pieters, Harry Ogilvie and Charlie Halford-Nichols (2), coupled with good catching and fielding restricted the opposition to 82 all out in under 17 overs.

Having missed out on bowling thanks to the excellence of the others, Captain Hamdan Rashid was keen to make up for lost time and made a perfectly crafted 32 before retiring. With Halford-Nichols  (25 not out) providing outstanding support, and Kenny (7 not out) coming in to finish the job, Merstham finished on 83-0, to win by 10 wickets. A fantastic performance from all the boys, in a thoroughly enjoyable game, that was also played in a very good spirit.