Cricket: Horley back to winning ways in Surrey premier

Merrow elected to bat first and made a strong start with openers James Bain (31) and Toby Corning (41) looking comfortable at the crease against opening bowlers Will Taylor and Charlie Robins. Ben Davies found Horley’s first breakthrough, bowling Bain, to slow the run rate.

His bowling partner, Adam Stephenson was also keeping it tight at the other end, with the added bonus of a runout off of his own bowling. Davies clean bowled Corning to leave Merrow needing to rebuild.

Stephenson didn’t allow this, taking two wickets in his nine overs to keep restricting the scoring. Matt Gainsford and Guy Derham chipped in with one and two wickets respectively, to stifle any partnerships. Taylor came back to claim his first wicket of the day, but Horley struggled to finish off the innings, and a last-wicket partnership between James Ayliffe (20 not out) and Tristan Christie (10 not out) took Merrow to 156-9 off their 45 overs.

Horley started their reply in quick fashion with Regan Derham making 32 before being caught by Andrew Keeble off the bowling of Jonathan Walmsley. Merrow were looking good in the field and keeping a lid on the Horley scoring once Derham had departed and were rewarded with another couple of wickets, both claimed by Ollie Clark, reducing Horley to 66-3.

Things wouldn’t get much better for Horley as they lost another two quick wickets, this time to Prince Kumar and Tristan Christie. At 80-5, Horley needed to consolidate and build a partnership as they had plenty of overs to score the 77 they needed for victory.

Matt Reid (15) and Matt Gainsford (22) put on 40 for the next wicket before Reid fell to Corning. Gainsford was bowled by the returning Walmsley and at 127-7, Horley were under pressure. Taylor (18) and Stephenson (12 not out) steered them towards their target before Taylor fell to Walmsley, four short of the winning total. After a few maidens had built a little bit of pressure, Stephenson finished off the innings with a four down the ground.

Horley entertain top-of-the-league Effingham next week, knowing a win would be crucial to their promotion push. Effingham are well clear at the top, but Horley are just one point behind second-placed Weybridge Vandals and so need to keep winning.

Horley 2nd XI’s hopes of promotion from Surrey County League 2nd XI Division One were all but ended as they lost by six wickets at main promotion rivals, Croydon.

On a devil of a pitch, with unpredictable bounce, Horley were bowled out for 101 in 38.2 overs. Skipper Andrew Thomas top-scored with 20, Kieran Childs made 19 and Luke Smith 16.

Croydon’s teenage spinner Vaibhav Vaidyanath, who took three wickets at Horley earlier in the season, went one better this time, taking 4-18 in an excellent nine-over spell that included three maidens. Horley found it very difficult to score off most of the bowlers, with the ball sometimes holding up in the crumbly surface, forcing mis-timed shots.

Croydon made a steady start to their reply, with opening bowlers Smith (six overs, three maidens, four runs) and Alex Field (five overs, one maiden, 16 runs) restricting their scoring but not making a breakthrough.

The first wicket fell with the score on 40 when Smith leapt up to take a world-class one-handed catch off Thomas’s bowling and two more wickets fell with the score on 50 runs, one lbw to Thomas and one caught at slip by the skipper, off Trevor Stevens. Suddenly Croydon were looking jittery and Horley had some hope of pulling off an unlikely win, but the momentum swung back to the hosts. Childs bowled the number four, but Horley couldn’t take any more wickets and Croydon reached 103 off 28.2 overs.

Several 1st and 2nd XI regulars were unavailable this weekend, so Horley will hope for better availability for the remaining games of the season so they can keep the pressure on Croydon in case they slip up on the run-in.

Horley Development XI maintained their unblemished record in the Surrey Trust League Tier Two East, beating Lingfield by seven wickets and are now essentially guaranteed a place in the final. Four wickets from Richard Waddington and a half-century from Udith Molanguri formed the foundations of Horley’s win.

A young Lingfield side batted slowly, taking 17 overs to reach 50 but also not losing wickets. Waddington finally got the breakthrough in the 21st over, with Ben Davies catching Meet Patel (27). Waddington then caught and bowled Tyler Robertshaw first ball, but couldn’t complete the hat-trick.

However, Davies struck in the next over and picked up his second wicket soon afterwards, so Lingfield were 67-4.

Two more wickets for Waddington, one caught by Harry Grimwood and one bowled, saw Waddington finish with 4-16, Ben Stewart chipped in with two wickets and Alex Field held onto a caught-and-bowled as Lingfield finished their 40 overs on 137-9.

Molanguri and Harry Grimwood opened Horley’s reply with a partnership of 104, both mixing some clever, delicate shots with strong hitting, and good running. Grimwood fell for 48 off 47 balls (eight fours) and George Hyde hit 21 from 14 balls to help Molanguri take the score to 130 before Hyde was stumped.

Andrew Reid joined Molanguri, who had ridden his luck a couple of times before being out caught for 55 from 49 balls (six fours, one six). Stewart hit a four off his first ball to take Horley to the seven-wicket win.

Horley have one group game remaining, at Beddington on 21 August, and as long as Horley don’t forfeit the game, they will secure enough points to take their place in September’s final.