Derham ton sets up victory - and three Horley CC sides are top

Horley 1st XI’s trip to another previously unbeaten team, Old Paulines, at Thames Ditton, ended with a comprehensive victory for the visitors by 144 runs. Winning the toss, Horley elected to bat and the score had reached 23 when Aryan Patel (14) was bowled by Upneet Arora. This meant that CP Singh, who had made runs in both previous outings, joined Regan Derham at the crease.

With the ground having an enormous boundary on the clubhouse side extending to 75 yards or more, fours and sixes were going to be at a premium. On any other day, the 266 that Horley scored would have been a good 300 and Singh would have joined Derham in scoring a century.

Early in the Horley innings, Singh chipped back to the bowler who was unable to hang on to the catch and that proved to be a very costly error. The 50 partnership came up in the 20th over and then Derham reached his 50 off 66 balls including five fours. By the 24th over, Horley had advanced to 100 and the century partnership came off 123 balls at 123-1.

In the 32nd over Derham was dropped at mid-off and in the same over Singh smacked the ball over the boundary for a huge six and the partnership advanced to 150 with the overseas player making his half century with five fours and one six off 67 balls.

In the 33rd over Derham was dropped again at square leg and the two kept the scoreboard ticking over, with the partnership extending to 150 in the 36th over.

With the score on 214, Derham reached his well-deserved century from 121 balls (ten fours). The partnership of 191 then ended when Singh was out for 90 at the end of the 42nd over (nine fours and one six). Derham was finally dismissed in the 46th over with the score on 250, caught at last at cover for 120 (12 fours).

A clatter of wickets fell whilst Horley tried to accelerate the score in the final few overs, which left Horley on 266-8 with the OPs bowlers finally getting some reward for a lot of hard work in the sun. Ben Stewart and Matt Ware were left at the crease at the end of 50 overs, both on four not out.

In the reply, Horley’s bowlers proved too much for OPs. In the second over Richard Hay was smartly caught at first slip by Will Taylor off Guy Derham (2-26) for a duck and with the score on 28 Ben McGee (15) was caught by wicketkeeper Regan Derham off Taylor (1-24). The Derham brothers combined to dismiss Matt Boreman (nine) and the captain Charlie Robins (3-19) came on to bowl and accounted for Tom Rigby lbw after he had scored a sprightly 25, and then bowled Freddie Light for five. Tom Peters was then dismissed for Robins’ third wicket, caught at slip by Taylor with the score on 86.

Adam Stephenson (3-11) took the seventh wicket with his fourth ball, dismissing Arora (20) caught behind by Regan Derham and then Ben Davies sent in a brilliant throw from mid on to run out Louis Cox by yards for a duck.

Chris Berkett was out caught and bowled by Stephenson and the final wicket fell when Jack Turner (24) was caught by Ben Stewart off Stephenson with the score on 122.

Horley will be very pleased with this result whilst OPs will be rueing several dropped catches, especially those off Regan Derham and CP Singh.

Horley are joint top of the Surrey Championship Division Five table with Alleyn, and are at home to seventh-placed Egham next Saturday.

Horley 2nd XI won away at Wallington by seven wickets in the Surrey County League 2nd XI Premier Division.

Jon Barnett put the home team in and couldn’t have wished for a better start, when the very first ball of the game from Rob Woodward found the edge and was caught at slip by the skipper. Horley kept the upper hand with Chris Webber and Woodward bowling superbly in tandem, restricting the opposition to few runs, with wickets flowing. Wickets fell in the sixth, ninth, tenth and 12th overs with Webber taking 3-22 and Woodward 2-22, with catches being held by Ryan Bunn and Khyan Patel, and Wallington were floundering a 39-5.

It was soon 39-6, as Dan Sired ran out Carter, but the home side then dug in. Will Hofmann and Trevor Stevens bowled tight lines but both were unfortunate not to get a wicket.

Overs passed and Barnett came on to bowl, hoping for a breakthrough. Slowly the Wallington batsmen started playing a few more shots, and whilst Barnett got one key wicket, a recovery had started. Liam Adams came on to bowl his seam up which, with a very soft and older ball, proved trickier. Wallington posted 142-7 in their 45 overs, a score which seemed some way off par, given the outfield and pitch conditions.

A new opening pair, Bunn and Toby Davie, got into their task to build and take charge of the game. Bunn was promoted to upset the opening bowlers’ lines and length and he did just that in over one, with a beautiful four. Sadly, he fell a little sooner than hoped but this brought the return of a familiar face to Horley, David Keyte, making a long-awaited return to cricket. Whilst he settled in, Davie was crunching boundaries all around the park. He used the outfield conditions to his advantage with some of the softer shots racing to the boundary.

Keyte hit a lovely cover drive four before he got bowled for 13 in the same over. Incoming bat Patel, took to his job, allowing Davie to keep rotating and scoring. Patel too, got in on the cover drive action, scoring a sublime boundary.

The score ticked over nicely until unfortunately Patel got caught for 12. Barnett joined Davie, with the end in sight. Barnett managed to get a hold of one particular bowler and hit three boundaries, and Davie didn’t want to miss out, doing the same. In the end, the result came in the 27th over with Davie carrying his bat for an excellent 73, and hitting the winning runs. Barnett was 24 not out.

Horley are joint top of the table with Croydon and next Saturday they are away at Merrow, who are bottom of the table.

A classy innings of 65 not out from Alex Field and an equally well-made 60 from Dave Hyde let Horley 3rd XI set an imposing total of 255-8 at Forge Wood and win by 85 runs to go top of Sussex Division 11 West (North).

Horley were put in and Hyde – playing his first match since August 2022, following a knee replacement operation – soon found his touch in an opening partnership of 28 with Anup Ghanshala. After two singles, he hit a six in the third over and Ghanshala followed suit in the next over, before falling for 11. Skipper Kieran Childs also cleared the boundary but was soon out, then Arun Gupta and Hyde took Horley past the first drinks break and on to 84 before Gupta was out for 20.

Hyde had tweaked a calf muscle but refused a runner and teamed up with Ollie Millard to add another 22 for the fourth wicket before he was out for 60, including seven fours and two sixes.

That brought Field to the crease for his first match of the season, having been away at university, and he played himself in sensibly while Millard began to open up. The two teenagers put on 50 for the fifth wicket and the score was 156-4 at the second drinks break, but a sudden collapse followed, as Millard was immediately bowled by Ramesh Puthenveetil, who then produced a triple-wicket maiden in the following over to account for Danny Patel, Ryan Smith and Andrew Longley.

Ed James came in and survived the hat-trick ball and from 169-8 at the end of 33 overs, he and Field took total command and moved the final total to 255 from 40. Sixth-former James battered seven fours and a six in a terrific 43 not out off 27 balls and Field reached 65 from 60 balls – his first half-century in adult league cricket – including nine fours and a six.

Oscar Hofmann and Smith bowled excellent opening spells for Horley and by the end of the 14th over Forge Wood were 44-4, with Hofmann (3-29) clean bowling batters two, three and four and Smith (2-29) having Rai Bhanot caught behind by Longley.

Forge Wood were finding it very difficult to get the ball away and although they put on 39 for the fifth wicket and 35 for the sixth, they were always well behind the run rate. Millard took the fifth wicket and a sharp catch by Smith off Childs in the 29th over made it 119-6, then Gupta (2-29) took two wickets in his next two overs, the second caught by Patel.

Millard took an excellent running catch over his shoulder from the first ball of Smith’s second spell to dismiss Arun Varghese for 74 from 97 balls in the 36th over, and although Horley didn’t manage to take the last wicket, it was a very comfortable victory, with the hosts finishing on 170-9.

Next Saturday Horley are at home to fifth-placed Southwater.