Horsley & Send 121

Weybridge Vandals 153

Last weekend wasn’t so much a bad day at the office for the two Under 11 teams, but rather a catastrophic disaster where the corporate internet went down, half the sales team quit and the junior receptionist ran off to South America with the keys to the coffee machine and the contents of the company bank accounts.

The nightmare started even before a ball was bowled in the ESCL game on Friday evening, a pre-match "training ground” accident seeing Thomas Harris fracturing his elbow.  Put into bat against a very strong Trinity Mid-Whitgiftian team (who were fielding some of their Division 1 table-topping side), the team then got off to a terrible start, with two run-outs in the very first over.

Merstham’s Under 14 Falcons beat Dorking U14s in the first round of the ESCL Cup in a re-arranged match on Monday 4th June.

Merstham 141

In their second NEC league game, Merstham Under 11s won the toss and put Spencer in on a wicket best described as “a monster”. With further rain forecast later in the morning, the game was shortened to 20 overs per innings. 

Merstham 143
Old Emanuel 146-4

After their first victory of the season the previous week, Merstham suffered at the hands of Old Emanuel in the Surrey Championship Division Five, losing by six wickets.

Last season the U11s were known for their close finishes; thankfully they haven’t lost the knack in 2018, writes Graeme Law.

As part of the clubs affiliation with Surrey County Cricket Club, we have 30 free tickets for this Friday's Royal London One Day Cup match vs Sussex at The Oval.

Play commences at 11am and tickets are free to any club members who have registered and paid their subs (or on direct debit scheme). Seating is unreserved, so you can sit anywhere, except the pavilion.

Merstham 198-7
Guildford 89
Surrey Championship Division Five

The 1st XI gained their first win of the season with a strong all round performance away at Guildford City.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, captain Laurie Nicholson (16) and fellow opener Andy Rivers (62) set off in watchful fashion before Nicholson was bowled in the 10th over. 

A string of LBWs then saw for a steady fall of Merstham wickets  with batsman Pervaiz (10), Javed (17), and Baker (8) all making starts. 

With the score falling to 121-6 Merstham were in danger of squandering a much more assured batting performance than previously seen this season.

Rivers remained steadfast throughout, and held the innings together. He was joined by Locke (37) with about 10 overs to go at a pivotal stage of the innings, and a combination of Rivers’s grit and Locke’s powerful stroke play clawed Merstham up to a respectable total of 198-7 off their allotted 50 overs. 

Merstham’s attempt at defending started with a few expensive overs to the Guildford openers, who were clearly looking to bat positively.  

The ever reliable Javed (4-36), last season's player of the year, was able to take the vital wickets at the top of the order to settle Merstham's nerves and allow the rest of the attack to exploit the Guildford middle order. Fellow opener Locke took 1-20 off six overs with two maidens, removing one of the Guildford openers for 13.

Asim Jaffri (1-21) bowled a hostile spell, regularly proving too quick for the batsman. David Neal (0-20) also caused the batsman problems throughout his spell and provided control from the other end.

But it was newcomer Muhammed Waqas (4-7) whose seam bowling sealed the win with another outstanding spell, carrying on his impressive start to his debut season at the club.

Waqas wrapped up the game with Merstham bowling out Guildford City to win by 89 runs.

A good all round performance, and plenty of positives to take into next week at home to Emmanuel.