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."
 
Bookham 122-7 off 38 overs Merstham 123-6  27.5 overs   Playing their first Sunday match at The Ring the Sunday 2nds secured victory against Bookham by four wickets with nine overs to spare. Skipper Bill Ash, winning only his second toss out of five this season, put the visitors in on a typical tricky track.   Bharat Sahani was pick of the bowlers with tidy figures of eight overs, two wickets for 19.  Catches from Tom Kenny, Joe Rees-Davies, Sahani and Will Prior were well held to ensure Bookham set a modest score.   After a superb tea supplied by most members of the team, Sahani (16) and Ash (20) got the home side off to a steady reply despite some quickish bowling shooting bruisingly both high and low.   To seal the match Prior made another well crafted, patient innings of 41 while birthday boy Callum Letts arrived to hit 20 of the remaining  22 runs required in just four overs.   The seconds welcomed two new faces, father and son Tom and Toby Byrne and one 'old ' face, Mike Wadsley who had the pleasure of arriving at the crease with scores level to stroke the winning run. Thanks to all for a fine team performance and to the sterling Mrs Letts and Mrs Prior for setting out the tea and tidying up afterwards. The Sunday first team tied the Matthew Lewis Memorial Shield match at Quality Street, with each side scoring 170 runs. The trophy has been played for six times, Mogador Wanderers winning three times and Merstham twice.
 

Merstham under-11s won for the first time this season in the NEC League, against Spencer, scoring 82-6 off 23 overs to Spencer’s 81-6 after 24.

It was a tight game throughout, matching scores with Spencer all the way through. Our wide ball total has improved as has our cautious batting.

 
 

The first of two games for the U10s last weekend was a cup match against Sanderstead. Merstham batted first and posted a score of 273 losing 4 wickets in their 20 overs. Highest scoring pair was Luis Grainger and Samuel Solomons scoring 19 in their 4 overs. When taking the field Merstham completed a dominant performance restricting the opposition to 212 taking 14 wickets. Akif Sabir opened the bowling and conceded just 5 runs in his 2 overs. The fielding was excellent and special mention must go to Jasper Parsons for two sharp run-outs.