Horley CC celebrate promotion for second XI

The 1st XI are still chasing promotion from Division 4 East after their seven-wicket home win over Sinjun Grammarians 2nd XI left them in third, 11 points behind second-placed Croydon with three weeks remaining.

The game started sub-optimally for Horley with the visitors at 57-1 in the seventh over, thanks to some good shots by Muhammed Faizan (28) before he was caught in the slips by captain Regan Derham off the bowling of Ben Stewart (1-30).

At 68-1 in the tenth over there had already been 21 extras due some very loose bowling but Adam Stephenson’s spin slowed the scoring rate with a maiden.

In the 14th over Tom Jowett bowled Aryaan Maruf (19) and it was 85-2 at the first drinks interval. Aidan Spalding then took the wicket of Rohaan Sharma (37), bowling him with the first ball of his spell.

Soon afterwards, there was a flurry of wickets with the score on 129. Spalding had Adnan Khan (1) lbw and in the next over Stephenson (1-26) took the wicket of Abdullah Lughmani (22) well caught in the slips by CP Singh.

Spalding (3-32) then took his third wicket, having Omar Mannan caught behind by Toby Davie and the visitors were 129-6.

Steady progress advanced the score to 170, then Derham turned to the spin of Udith Molanguri (1-21), who had Sohaib Wasim (31) caught at the long-on boundary by the skipper. Another 24 runs were added to the total before Kashif Rashid (13) was similarly caught by Stewart off Jowett.

A few lusty blows followed before Haris Khan was lbw to Ben Davies (1-39) thanks to a lovely slower ball and Ahmad Bilal, who had made an enterprising 31, was caught on the boundary by Derham off Jowett (3-42) and SinjunGrammarians were all out for 211 from 49.3 overs.

The Horley innings started at breakneck speed and Derham must have been thinking of his birthday celebration after the match as he struck four fours in the second over, despatching the ball to the various parts of the boundary with venom.

Horley reached 50 in 5.3 overs, Molanguri having fallen for 14 with the score on 40, lbw to Bilal. In the 12th over Derham was smartly stumped by Khan off the bowling of Maruf (2-42) after making an excellent 55 (nine fours).

Singh, who had already been in for eight overs, then produced a real masterclass of stroke play, including taking Lughmani for 15 runs in an over, with Davie providing support but seeing little of the strike. The 150 came up in the 19th over, when Singh was on 77, and the unlucky Davie (9) was out caught by Lughmani as the ball flew skywards off Maruf in the 23rd over.

Singh reached his century – his third of this league season – in the next over, with the score at 186-3. At the start of the 28th, Davies (17 not out) smacked the ball to the boundary to end the match, with Horley on 215-3. Singh’s unbeaten 111 came off 72 balls and included no less than 21 fours.

Horley 1st XI are away to bottom team Merton next Saturday, knowing they must keep winning and hope Croydon slip up sometime in the final three matches.

Horley 2nd XI travelled to seventh-placed Chaldon knowing a win would secure promotion, and duly delivered by 78 runs.

With the square as brown as the outfield, Horley skipper Chris Webber opted to bat after winning the toss and Chaldon began with only nine players, but the latecomers soon arrived.

Openers Ant Puttick and Andrew Thomas both fell victim to Asad Khan Jadoon in the first eight overs and the unpredictable bounce on a pitch which had been rolled and watered immediately before the match, made batting tough for Henrick Cook and Richard Waddington too. They played watchfully to take the score to 46-2 by drinks at 15 overs, then opened up briefly before being tied down again by Haroon Mazhar and Mohammed Haque.

Waddington finally fell in the 28th over for 28 (three fours, one six), furious at picking out Farhan Butt on the square leg boundary off Mazhar.

Two overs later, Mazhar (2-26 from nine) dropped a sharp caught and bowled chance offered by Cook, but then bowled Jon Barnett and Horley went to 30-over drinks at 92-4.

Cook was almost caught turning a shot off his legs for 50 but he continued batting beautifully, with Guy Derham starting to motor in support. The feeling had been that 150 might be par on a tricky track but Cook and Derham blew apart that ambition, with Derham taking 20 off the 39th over, including a reverse-swept four, then scooping a four a couple of overs later.

Cook struck two lovely straight sixes in the 43rd over but was caught next ball having made an excellent 81 off 118 balls, including nine fours.

Derham continued punishing the bowlers. Chaldon thought they had stumped him just after he reached 50 in the 44th over, but the bails had been dislodged before the keeper broke the stumps so he was not out. Derham retorted with another six and when Alex Field came in in the last over he smacked his first ball for six.

Derham was bowled for 60 (52 balls, five fours, two sixes) off the last ball and Horley finished their 45 overs on 213-7.

Ollie Holman (2-30 from five) took two wickets in the first seven overs of the reply, caught by Rob Woodward and Thomas, as his hostile bowling unsettled the openers.

However, the top order was scoring more quickly than Horley had, until Irfaan Baksh came on after 11 overs and bowled three maidens on the trot. At the other end, Woodward (1-18 off seven) had Kamlesh Vankar caught by Holman and that duo bowled 13 good overs in tandem for 32 runs (with Baksh conceding just four from six overs).

Webber then switched to Barnett and Field, who both kept turning the screw. Butt and Shabbir Mohammed survived until the 30th over, when Barnett had the latter lbw in a wicket-maiden and Chaldon were 105-4.

Barnett struck again in the 32nd over, with top-scorer Butt (28) hitting a catch straight to Field at backward square leg. New batter Mohsin Ali was keen to up the rate and smacked a straight six off Field, who responded with two wickets in his next over, having Prasanna Kumar caught by Puttick then bowling Mohammed Khizar four balls later.

At 122-7 after 35 overs, the game was almost up for Chaldon and Barnett (3-20 from nine) rubbed salt into the wounds, diving forward to have Mohammed Zahid caught and bowled.

Enjoying his work from the top end, Field (4-30 from 8.1) shattered Ali’s stumps in the 39th over then had Mazhar caught by Barnett off the first ball of the 41st and, with Chaldon all out for 135, Horley’s promotion celebrations could begin.

The 2nd XI play eighth-placed Cheam at home next Saturday. They are 38 points ahead of second-placed Kenley so could seal the title next week if Kenley lose at Merstham.

Horley 3rd XI backed up last week’s big win in Sussex Division 10 West with another, this time beating Bosham 2nd XI by ten wickets at Copthorne.

Bosham elected to bat first and their openers started off well, hitting a few loose balls to the boundary, but then found it difficult to continue the momentum in the face of some terrific bowling from Horley.

Dan Sired was the first to take a wicket, with a comfortable catch taken by Will Hofmann dismissing skipper Tom Cole for just 9.

Horley quickly got back into their work with opening bowler Oscar Hofmann clean bowling new batsmen Jeremy Abbot for a duck.

Bosham then began to find some rhythm and the fightback was on as they ran at every opportunity and occasionally found the boundary. The other opener, James Ellis (23) was next to depart after a bowling change for Horley, with Will Hofmann taking the wicket, caught and bowled.

It wasn’t long before Horley picked up another, with Kieran Childs taking the catch in the deep off Will Hofmann to dismiss Guy Elson for 0.

David Maclean (28) fought back well on a tricky wicket, finding the boundary multiple times before eventually losing his wicket, bowled by Shrey Vaid. The wickets began to tumble, with Will Hofmann (3-35) picking up his third, seeing off Joel Lane with a blinder of a catch taken by Horley skipper Rob Rigby.

Vaid took two wickets in an over with both Joshua Gestetner and James Williams going for 0 to catches by keeper Rayan Patel.

Andrew Roan boosted Bosham’s score, hitting important boundaries in the later stages of the game to finish on 24 not out but wickets were falling at the other end, with Oscar Hofmann and Sired both picking up their second wickets of the match.

Bosham were all out for 129 in 37.4 overs, after a great bowling and fielding performance from Horley. Oscar Hofmann’s figures of 11-2 off his nine overs with six maidens, and Vaid’s figures of 13-3 off nine, with the one maiden, were outstanding.

Horley made short work of the reply. Openers Dan Farmer and Matt Ware both started and finished beautifully, with terrific shots finding the boundary with ease.

The dangerous duo were rotating the strike superbly and peppering the boundary when they could to chase the total down at a fast rate, with a little help from some poor fielding from Bosham, who failed to take a single wicket.

Horley reached 134 in just 19.2 overs – a dominant performance. Farmer finished on 83 not out (16 fours and one six) and Ware was unbeaten on 37 (five fours).

Horley are still third in the table and play away at bottom-of-the-table Goring next week.