Derham and Gainsford star in Horley win

Following this season’s new regional merger in the leagues, Horley 1st XI travelled to Old Rutlishians to face the first of four 2nd XIs they’ll play in Surrey Championship Division Four East. After losing last weekend, Horley were eager to get their season up and running, with skipper Regan Derham making a good start by winning the toss and electing to bat on a slightly used pitch.

Usual suspects Ben and Sam Remfry were sent out to lead the Horley charge. The pitch made scoring fluently a struggle early on, with Carlton Anand (3-31) and Asad Khan (2-41) bowling tight lines.

Anand made the first breakthrough at the start of the seventh over, having Ben Remfry caught at point. Unfortunately, brother Sam only lasted another five overs, getting trapped lbw by Khan, leaving Horley 33-2 after 12 overs.

Horley’s overseas player, CP Singh, who had flown in the day before, made his welcome return at three and was joined by Derham, with both knowing they needed to endure the momentum Old Ruts had built up. Neither looked at their fluent best, however runs were being added and by the time drinks came around at the halfway stage, Horley were 87-2.

The Old Ruts skipper turned to his left arm spinner, Thomas Miller and he repaid his captain’s faith, claiming the massive wicket of Singh for 36. Derham brought up his first 50 of the league season in the 35th over and had the responsibility of anchoring the remainder of the innings. The returning Anand was doing his best to leave Derham stranded, picking up two wickets in the space of four overs, leaving Horley eight overs to push on from 168-5. Derham was still going strong, even though Khan returned to claim a second wicket.

At 185-6, Matthew Gainsford (32 not out) wandered to the crease and went about his work in typical Gaino style, bludgeoning any delivery that fell into his arc. With two overs left and the score sitting at 223-6, Derham fell just short of three figures, edging a ball from Vinay Patel onto his stumps for 93. Gainsford and Guy Derham saw out the remaining 11 deliveries, getting Horley up to 234-7 from 50 overs.

Cory Nelson (24) and Daniel Nuttall (30) got the home side’s reply off to a steady start. They had put 50 on the board before Will Taylor (2-34) found his way through Nuttall’s defences, clipping the top of off stump. Jon Barnett (1-31) made sure Horley didn’t have to wait long for another wicket, claiming Nelson in the next over and suddenly 58-0 had become 60-2 after 15 overs.

Will Futcher (18) and Eshen Patel (18) were looking to lead a rebuild, but weren’t finding it easy, thanks to some tight areas and a buoyant Horley in the field. Gainsford (3-35) struck with his first ball, removing Patel after a great catch from Luke Smith on the deep square leg boundary. He wasn’t done there. Futcher couldn’t resist a swipe outside off stump in the same over, and found Sam Remfry at backward point, leaving Old Ruts 97-4 and in a spot of trouble.

Ben Davies (2-54) got in on the action and the clusters of wickets Horley were picking up meant no partnership was allowed to flourish. Anand (67) joined his skipper, Rob Jones (12) at the crease with the hope of taking the game deep to have the best chance of chasing Horley’s total. Gainsford had other ideas, castling Jones in the 36th over.

At 131-6, Anand started to free his arms a little, taking a few more risks, as Adam Stephenson (1-25) had picked up another one of his teammates, so he knew he was running out of time and partners. Anand brought up a swashbuckling 50 in the 45th over, but Ruts still needed 53 to win off the last five overs. The returning Taylor settled Horley’s nerves, with Anand skying one back into the hands of the bowler in the 47th. Davies picked up one more victim, an easy catch for Stephenson at mid-on. Edward Grindrod and Vinay Patel got their side to 212-9, falling 22 short by the time 50 overs had been bowled.

Horley welcome Sanderstead to Horley Row next weekend, with the teams sitting in fifth and sixth respectively.

Sutton’s 3rd XI came to face a Horley 2nd XI unbeaten in 2025. After winning the toss in this Surrey Division Eight East match, Horley captain Chris Webber decided to have a bat with Danish Mehmood and the returning Toby Davie opening. Sutton opened up with the impressive Abdur Razzaq and Oscar Arzente and the former swiftly removed Mehmood lbw for 1.

Enter Richard Waddington, who struggling throughout with an injured elbow, looked to steady a rocky start. That rocky start got worse as Razzaq removed Davie caught behind also for 1. Horley needed a partnership in their top order and who better to provide than last week’s half-centurion Ryan Bunn. After a trademark aggressive start, Bunn soon became Razzaq’s third victim, well caught by keeper Nathan Bentley for 11 and Horley were in trouble at 18-3.

What followed was a revival of sorts, with Ant Puttick and Waddington seeing off the opening pair. It was however curtailed by Sutton captain Balajee Ramalingam who had Puttick caught at cover for a fluent 18, which included some sumptuous cover drives.

Ramalingam also removed Waddington and, on 50-5, Horley now threatened a sub-100 total, on what could only be described as an excellent batting track. Things didn’t improve as Dan Sired middled one to George Duckworth.

Enter Aidan Spalding and Will Hofmann. Both stood up superbly against a challenging attack, to slowly but surely turn the tide in a 66-run partnership, with authoritative strokes from both. Spalding was the first to go for a well-made 32, with Duckworth getting the wicket. Hofmann followed swiftly afterwards for 27 off impressive leg spinner Dylan Waldon-Ferguson to leave Horley at 128-8. Some lower order hitting from Irfaan Baksh (8 not out) and Webber (24 not out) – the latter including a six down the ground – took Horley to 159-8, which from 57-6 certainly represented a momentum shift to take into the second innings.

That started well for Horley with Oscar Hofmann routinely beating the bat, however captain Webber struck first, having Bentley caught and bowled in the second over. This brought Duckworth to the crease, who continued his impressive display to take the attack to Horley. Webber removed the second opener Griffin (19), very well caught by Will Hofmann and Sutton were 53-2.

With wickets in hand, Sutton were slightly ahead, however Horley then introduced their trump card Baksh into the attack and he didn’t disappoint. He soon removed Duckworth (40), well caught by Davie at slip, and his second came swiftly as Diyath Premasinghe was also caught by Davie, to leave Sutton at 75-4.

Adhrit Sridhar, meanwhile, was in the midst of a knock of 54 not out, including a series of exquisite conventional and reverse sweeps.

Run-outs became the topic of the day, with the first removing Chat Premasinghe, after great work from Will Hofmann in the deep, leaving Sutton at 89-5. A possible second came as Webber appeared to have Sridhar run out, but a bail was dislodged in the process of keeper Puttick removing the second bail. Whilst nobody quite knew the rule for this one, it was agreed to be not out, however over a well-earned post-match drink, a rules inspection deemed the run-out had been valid.

Anyhow, Baksh was well into his work, removing captain Ramalingam and Razzaq, well caught by Will Hofmann and Davie respectively, to leave Sutton 133-7. Baksh’s impressive final figures were 9-0-42-4.

In a nervy final 27 runs for Sutton, Mehmood managed to remove Waldon-Ferguson for 12, however it was the innings of Sridhar that ultimately proved the difference for Sutton, as they crossed the line with two wickets and more than ten overs to spare.

Horley will look to regain some momentum as they travel to Croydon next week in what promises to be an equally challenging match.

A calamitous batting collapse, from 56-5 to 57 all out cost Horley 3rd XI dearly as they lost by 64 runs at Crawley Eagles 4th XI in Sussex Division Ten West.

The Eagles elected to bat and struggled against opening bowlers, Chris Cosham and Alex Field. Only 20 scoring shots were hit off their 18-over spell, and five wickets fell.

Field struck first, bowling Faheem Tariq in his first over and Tom Jowett held a good catch off Cosham seven balls later. Mohamed Shifnas hit Cosham down the ground three times in a row: skipper Kieran Childs dropped a difficult chance from the first strike, which went for six, the second one went for four and the third was caught by Horley’s delighted captain.

Field had a big lbw shout turned down in the next over but uprooted Mohamed Lebbe’s middle stump two balls later. At 30-4 after six overs, Crawley eased back and added just 26 runs in the next 12 overs, while Field bowled his third victim to end with figures of 9-2-22-3. Cosham’s figures were 9-4-26-2.

Jowett had Asgar Thariq caught by Jack James before Eagles put on a valuable 40 for the seventh wicket, which was taken – caught and bowled – by Dave Childs (2-10). Field held a catch from a skied hook in the same over and Crawley were 95-8.

Tempers flared when a stone-cold lbw shout was turned down off Dave Childs, the latest of several harsh denials by the Eagles umpires. Trevor Stevens wrapped up the innings with two wickets off the last two balls of the 34th over, one caught by Jowett and one – ironically – lbw.

Crawley Eagles only needed three bowlers to dismiss Horley for 57 in just 26 overs. Tariq (2-20) dismissed both openers for single figures, then Abu Saim Irfan bowled James for 17 and went on to take 5-25.

Jowett was the only other player to get into double figures, before he was caught by Tariq off Muhammad Haroon (3-11) for 17. He had a lot to cope with in his 26-ball innings, as he he needed treatment after being hit on the back by a throw coming into the stumps, took another glancing blow from the ball off his own bat and – astonishingly – had his concentration disturbed by being asked to wait to face a delivery as an opponent was taking a phone call while fielding at cover.

When Jowett was out, Horley were 56-5, and the last five wickets fell inside four overs, for the addition of just one run.