Crawley Eagles soar to August Cup final win

Crawley Eagles second XI beat Southwater firsts to lift the August Cup.
Crawley Eagles second XI were August Cup winnersCrawley Eagles second XI were August Cup winners
Crawley Eagles second XI were August Cup winners

The location had to be changed last minute and it was agreed to play it at Southwater, giving the hosts an advantage. But a solid team performance from Eagles ensured it was a thriller in front of a large crowd.

Eagles were asked to bat first and a solid 70 from Wazoomi Wahid held the innings together, but no-one else could help build a partnership.

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Excellent bowling from Jonny Mills 4-30 and Johan Brouwer 4-31 helped bowl out Eagles for a below-par 160 off 39 overs.

With a small target Southwater got to work quickly. Openers Alex Harding with 20 and Nick Baker 23 were going at eight and over until Safwan Muzamil trapped Harding and in the next over captain Imran Habeebullahkhan got Johan Brouwer out for a duck.

At 86-3 Southwater still looked on course for a win. Enter 18-year-old Dilshan De Silva who clean bowled three batsmen. His spell of 3-13 at a critical time was a match-winning performance.

The spinners closed out the game by bowling out the hosts of 145, winning by 15 runs.

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Habeebullahkhan said: “Everyone has played their part in this campaign - that has been the main reason for our success. They have played for each other and we have got to the final and win against a strong team.”

With Crawley Eagles seniors and their league-winning under-nine colts all successful, it has been a great summer.

Crawley Eagles Ladies play in their inaugural softball cricket festival at Billingshurst CC this Sunday.

Horley CC

Horley’s Development XI rounded off the club’s season of competitive cricket with two home matches in the Surrey Trust League, losing to Beddington by 48 runs and beating Sanderstead by 53 the following day.

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Horley put Beddington in and had Tom Maslona run out early by Christian Kelly, then Lewis Wright bowled by Ben Davies to make the score 29-2, but Harry Gardner was given not out when Horley were convinced bowler Alex Field had run him out for 1 when he was backing up, and Gardner went on to make a crucial 92 not out in Beddington’s total of 197-3 from 40 overs.

Field took the only other wicket, bowling Tom Wilkins for 41.

Horley’s reply got off to a bad start with both openers out for a duck and they were soon reeling at 9-3. Richard Waddington and Davies steadied the ship with a fourth-wicket partnership of 70 before Davies was stumped for 37.

Waddington went for 39 and while three other batters made it to double figures, no one stuck around long enough to take Horley close to the Beddington total and they were bowled out for 149 in the 31st over.

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The following day Sam Remfry hit a fine 73 from 67 balls to help Horley to a comfortable win over Sanderstead. It was Remfry’s highest score since 2017 and it included 10 fours.

Batting first, Horley made 210 all out from 40 overs. Apart from Sam Remfry’s lovely innings at number three, Ben Remfry and Aryan Patel both made 20 and skipper Ben Davies scored 41 but managed to run out two of his team-mates, taking suicidal second runs as he tried to retain the strike in the closing overs.

Sanderstead lost early wickets with Charlie Robins taking two and holding a terrific low slip catch off Davies’ bowling. From 11-3 they recovered to 51-4 but were always scoring far too slowly and Horley partially switched off in the field, dropping several catches.

Sanderstead’s last man wasn’t fit to bat so they finished on 157-9 in the 34th over. Evan Grimwood bowled very well, taking 2-22 from six overs, Robins ended up with 3-29 – including a one-handed catch from wicketkeeper Ben Remfry – while Patel got two wickets, one a caught and bowled, and Sam Remfry got one.