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Merstham U9s entered two teams for the Capel 6-a-side festival last weekend.  The Rhinos (Matty Beggs, Alex Bird, Will Carney, Harry Colbourne, Connor Morris and Michael Noad) and the Hippos (Dinuk Jayamanne, Will John-Cox, Jacob Law, Flynn McRobbie, James Pieters and Max Thomas) were separated in the group stages, and for much of the day it looked like the final would be an all-Merstham showdown.

 
 

As part of our continued "Friends of Surrey Cricket" affiliation with Surrey County Cricket Club, we have been given tickets to the Surrey vs Gloucestershire T20 Blast match on Wednesday 1st July.

The tickets are available to any registered club member. Play begins at 6:30pm.

 
 

Captain Daniel Kite won the toss for the U10s and decided to bat first, his side posting a score that coach David Swan described as "always looking unbeatable", putting together 287.

This gave Merstham the opportunity to use all nine bowlers, each one returning their best bowling figures of the season. The fielding and bowling was exceptional. First ball of the innings: bowled Bateman, caught Kite.  A total of 16 wickets says it all. Daniel Kite took three wickets and took three catches, taking the man of the match award on his first game as captain as Oxted and Limpsfield only managed 249 in reply.

 
Merstham 195 - 8    Wallington 196 - 2 On a fair afternoon at Hillside Gardens a largely Sunday second XI took on a strong Wallington side.   Losing the toss, Merstham were put in but saw out all the 40 overs for the loss of eight wickets.   Two Merstham batsmen were forced to retire: John Turner, who got us off to a good start against lively bowlers had to concede eventually to his pulled muscle, Ryan Murrough, playing his first Sunday match, running for him for most of 10 overs.   Our septuagenarian all the same managed to hit a six amid his agony!   Skipper Jon White was unlucky to miss out on a  rapid half century, holing out on 48.  A half century stand between Bharat Sahani and vice captain Bill Ash (29) in the last 10 overs kept the scoreboard moving.   Bharat too (45) was unluckynot to pass his half century when struck by a sharply rising delivery on the forearm, making our second retired man.   Callum Letts opened the bowling with an extraordinary over of no balls and wides but flattened the stumps twice with two blistering yorking balls.   The Wallington top order then settled to knock the 196 required in just the 21st over.  The Sunday side welcomed some new faces: in addition to Ryan we welcomed Paul Calafato and, making up or 10th man in the field, given our two injuries, was his 12 year old son, Brennan, who did a mighty job over a large midwicket area.
 
 
 
 
Merstham U10 are into the semi-final of the East Surrey Colts League Cup after a hard fought victory against Trinity Mid-Whitgiftians. Merstham batted first and made 263-5 in their 20 overs, in this pairs game. Trinity's last pair came to the wicket requiring 10 runs, but Luis Grainger took two wickets to take the game away from them and Trinity finished on 250-7.  Coach David Swan summed up the game, saying: "Sunday's win was a show of perseverance, patience, and positive attitude. Our batting performance put us under pressure and a win at the innings changeover looked unlikely. Having said that, it was a credit to the batsmen that we only lost five wickets. "We were under severe pressure but, in the face of adversity, our bowling and our fielding (with the exception of one early nervous over-throw exceeded all expectations. This is where we won the match. And I must commend the bowling efforts of Will Broughton, Luis Grainger, and Matthew Evans."