Good afternoon Fellow MCC Members,

A few of you would have recently received an automated message from the Play Cricket website stating that Richard Pitt has added your details to Play-Cricket.com.

For the month of May, Mike Wadsley's ticket for the 100 club draw, No.15, was drawn at the club on Saturday 4th June and he receives £51.20 in winnings. Congratulations Mike!

The 100 Club is a fundraising prize draw that is drawn year round. You can join at any time and half of your annual £24 fee supports the club and the other half goes into the prize pots. You stand a chance of a prize every month, for 12 months, from the point you join. Click here to visit the 100 Club webpage.

The fifth team on Saturday made history for Merstham Cricket Club by featuring two female players at once, in a friendly against Reigate Priory Vikings at Mynthurst CC.

While Derry Ann Hammond (in the 1980s and 1990s) and Lizzie Donkin (after the turn of the century) played in Saturday sides thought of as "men's" XIs, this was special for several reasons. Never before has a team featured a husband and wife - captain on this occasion Jon and his wife Claire, the club's ladies captain - or a father and daughter. Senthilkumar Rajaram and his daughter from the U14s, Bav Senthilkumar were others from the team. Whether it is the first time a father played with his two sons is another question (if you know, do tell us). Imran Rashid turned up just to watch sons Ammar (a university student) and Hamdan (who plays for the U14s). But after a late pull out Imran stepped in to play - and top scored with 55. A fifth section of the club was represented - our disability section. Zahir Hafeez, who has featured in our Saturday and Sunday adult sides many times, also played, meaning that five sections of the club were represented: adult men, adult women, the girls' section, boys' section and disability squads. Merstham on this occasion scored 142 from 35 overs and while they contained their hosts for long periods, Priory surpassed the total in the 29th over.

On Thursday 2nd June, Merstham U14s Tier 3 side competed in a league fixture at Quality Street with SIX different age groups or squads represented. With the Tier 2 side also playing (and beating Sanderstead) on the same night, the T3s called on players from the boys U14s, U13s, U12s and U11s squads, plus the girls U14s and U13s squads. While losing a close game to Chipstead, Coulsdon and Walcountians, the spread of players within the team (pictured) highlights the strength in depth of the Merstham junior sides and the ambition to strive to play at a higher level. A huge thanks to all the players (and parents) for making this happen!

Bernard Feist pays tribute to another former Merstham Cricket Club chairman, Graeme Attridge, who died on Sunday.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Graeme Attridge (Mr A) on Sunday 22nd May.

Merstham Cricket Club had a humdinger of a weekend, with the women's team making history in style on Sunday, after, on Saturday, the club's four adult league teams achieved the rarity of all winning on the same day. Making history by entering the Surrey Women's Cricket SMASH IT softball League for the first time, the ladies defeated hosts Salford, Reigate Priory and Horley to top their group. This sets them up nicely for the next round. The club's Saturday first team continued their assault on the Fuller's League Division Two with a third straight win, defeating hosts Shepperton by 28 runs. Having elected to bat on another glorious day for cricket, openers Daniel Kite and Andy Rivers put Merstham on a stable footing. They accumulated a 68-run partnership before Rivers was caught at first slip for 37. Shepperton picked up another quick wicket of Jaikumar Uvaraju with a smart catch behind the stumps. However, from there, captain Noman Javed (42), supported by the incredible mature batting display of the 16 year old opener Kite, pushed the total to 137 with some great power hitting before young Kite fell four short of his first half century for the first XI. The middle order continued to tick the scoreboard over and Merstham finished on 189. Shepperton, opening with Richard Barker and David Sheward started strongly against the opening attack of Asim Jaffri and Javeed. However, an ever-reliable Manish Patel took a brilliant diving catch to dismiss Sheward (19), who looked established at the crease. The spin attack of Humayoon Nasir and Mohsin Ali managed to contain and stymie the Shepperton middle order with Nasir picking up 3-14 off his nine overs. Despite picking up wickets at regular intervals Shepperton continued to bare down on Merstham's total. To the delight of Merstham, Jaffri came back to ease any squeaky bums by tidying up the lower order to finish off with 4-48, giving Merstham the win by 28 runs. In the Surrey Championship, Merstham seconds bowled out Stoke D'Abernon for 111 (Callum Letts, 3-17) with nine batsmen caught. Jason Drewett (39) and Jo Czerpak (20) top scored in the reply. The third team won at Old Whitgiftians. Struan Clark took 4-20 as the hosts were all out for 95. Andrew Clarke (32) top scored in the response. The fourth team bowled out Wimbledon for 138 (Omar Shuja 4-35, Alex Reeves 3-22) and after a well-managed run chase reached the total with an over to spare, Dilhan Jayamanne (30) and Asif Akhtar (52) setting a great platform. Captain Gopa Nair (18) and Sentil Rajaram (12 not out) completed the task.

Merstham first team couldn't maintain their winning start to the season in the Surrey County League Division Two, but the third and fourth team maintained their unbeaten starts. Sheen Park elected to bat against the first team and amassed 229-7 in their 45 overs (Luke Ashbery 103 not out). Humayoon Nasir bagged 2-35 off nine overs. Captain Ed Dawson (27), Daniel Kite (14), Andy Rivers (36) and Jaikumar Uvaraju (29) all made starts, but the hosts couldn't keep up with the run rate and finished on 167-7. The second team were all out for 57, chasing 220 at Thames Ditton. The third team chased Kingstonian's total of 194 (Luke Sanders bagging 2-25 and Alex Reeves 3-30, Richard Pitt 2-30). In reply, Jo Czerpak opened the innings with 103 with Ollie Barkwith (22) keeping him company the longest. Hamish Walker and Reeves were unbeaten at the end. Merstham 4s looked to capitalise on their opening day victory against Chipstead Coulsdon & Walcountians by chalking up their second victory of the campaign. Captain Gopa Nair won the toss and elected to bat. At first, this looked like the wrong decision with the opposition opening bowlers starting well and having Merstham at 30-3. Steve Duncan came in and steadied the batting line up and had a good fifth wicket partnership with the captain which saw the runs total up to 90-6 when both were out within a few overs. A brilliant 42 and 24 from Dilhan Jayamanne and Omar Shuja respectively saw the runs total up to 172 all out of 39.4 overs.

Things start well for Merstham in the field with Shuja and Finlay Willshire bowling tightly to open the innings. Shuja took the wickets of batters two and three in the first few overs. Senthil Rajaram came on as first bowling change for Willshire and took out two more wickets in quick succession.

The bowling and fielding remained tight from Merstham. Nair then brought himself on to bowl and was rewarded with the key wickets of their opener and also their top scoring bat, before bringing the Spin King (Jayamanne) in to the attack to take another two, for Willshire to come back in to the take at his more end to mop up the innings.

Roehampton got off to a fast start, their opening batters punishing some rusty opening bowling from Merstham openers Asim Jaffri and Humayoon Nasir, who dropped short too often on a green track. Jaffri eventually hit his straps to remove the first Roehampton opener, before first change Charan Msdian took over to control the Roehampton run rate with some vicious inswing bowling, picking up a thoroughly deserved 1-28 off 7.2 overs.

We are delighted to announce the first winner of our 100 Club draw. For the month of April Jon White's ticket no.26 was drawn at the club on Saturday 7th May and won him £45.60. Congratulations Jon!

The 100 Club is a fundraising prize draw that is drawn monthly all year round. For full details click here. You can join at any time and half of your annual £24 fee supports the club and the other half goes into the prize pots. You stand a chance of a prize every month, for 12 months, from the point you join.

Having spent time in Harefield Hospital over the winter, teenager Ben Jones decided to hold a charity match to raise money for them. This took place on Saturday 23rd April between Merstham's youngsters and an adult side. Here he reports on the occasion, which now could become an annual fixture.

Wow, what a day. In total we raised around a sum of £1,350 for Harefield hospital. An unbelievable sum which I think is mainly a credit to the people we have at this cricket club.