Horley Cricket Club round-up: 1st XI involved in exciting tie, big partnership in 3rd XI

Looking to continue their unbeaten start to the Surrey County League Premier Division season, Horley welcomed third-placed Godalming, but both teams ended up a little frustrated as the match ended in a tie, despite a fine innings of 88 by Regan Derham.

Charlie Robins put Godalming in and Horley kept up their incredible form in the field over the past weeks, Will Taylor (3-26) and Ben Davies (1-23) combining for the first three wickets for just 12 runs on the board.

Godalming were looking to dig in to try and stop the flow of wickets. However, Charlie Robins (1-18) and Matthew Puttick (2-42) accounted for another two wickets to make sure Horley were firmly on top at the halfway stage.

Max Mikhail (71) played a very patient and well-timed innings that gave Godalming the impetus they needed to post a defendable total. Mikhail was aided by Will Hern (35) and Henry Bowen (21 not out) who scored some potentially crucial lower-order runs and Godalming ended up on 170-7 after their 45 overs.

Horley sent out openers Derham and Christian Kelly to start the run chase. As in previous weeks, they lost an early wicket with Kelly falling to Will Hern (3-21) without troubling the score. George Hyde (22) and Derham were building a nice partnership to steady the ship until Hyde was dismissed by George Stow (1-33) with the first ball after the drinks break.

That brought 16-year-old Ben Stewart to the crease on his first team league debut and he made 12.

Derham continued to score at a consistent rate but was also seeing consistent wickets fall at the other end thanks to a mix of Oliver Bowen (2-25) and James Ketteringham (3-36).

With Horley at 154-7, Adam Stephenson (10 not out) joined Derham at the crease and just five balls later, in the 42nd over, Hern claimed the crucial wicket of Derham, swinging momentum massively in Godalming’s favour. Derham had hit nine fours in his 88, off 133 balls.

Hern then dismissed Horley skipper Robins in his last over, leaving Horley’s last pair needing eight from the last over for victory. Matt Puttick (3 not out) joined Stephenson. Some questionable running between the wickets took Horley up to 170 with one ball remaining, but Stephenson couldn’t lay bat on ball with the final delivery meaning the game ended in a tie with both teams taking away 10 points.

Horley sit second in the league behind Effingham and travel away to Merrow on Saturday to see if they can get back to winning ways.

Horley 2nd XI had a bad day at the office, losing by nine wickets at Shepperton in their Surrey County League 2nd XI Division One match.

Horley were in trouble from the off, as excellent opening bowling spells from Pavan Patel (3-33) an Jaisunder Duraikannu (4-11) reduced them to 14-4. Poor shot selection in some instances didn’t help, while Kieran Childs was unlucky to be out in bizarre circumstances. He thought he had been caught low to the ground as, even though the fielder didn’t claim the catch, his team-mates ran to him to celebrate, so Childs started to walk, and was then run out.

The only three Horley players to get into double figures were three of the colts: Luke Smith scoring 14 runs, Aidan Spalding scoring 16 and Alex Field making 18. The score was 36-6 when 13-year-old Spalding came to the crease and he batted very sensibly, facing 67 balls and hitting two fours. He and Field put on a 48-run partnership for the eighth wicket, frustrating the Shepperton bowlers and helping Horley reach 95 all out from 36.1 overs. Field was almost out for a duck as a ball grazed the stumps but didn’t dislodge the bails, and he survived to hit three fours in his 56-ball innings.

Shepperton mostly made batting look easy in reply as they reached 97-1 off 21.1 overs. Chris Cosham took the wicket, lbw, and Harry Crespin made 56 not out.

An unbeaten 120-run partnership by Nick Chadwick (82 not out) and Ryan Bunn (44 not out) took Horley 3rd XI to victory at Billingshurst and maintained their winning start to their first season in Sussex League Division 11 West (North).

Billingshurst opted to bat first. Their openers started steadily but once the first wicket fell, more tumbled at regular intervals. While at one stage it seemed they would struggle to get to 150, some big hitting by Tom Welch (44) and a useful 33 from John Sheehan saw them to a useful score of 187 all out.

Wickets were shared around all the Horley bowlers with debuts in this league for Dave Bunn (1-12), Evan Grimwood (2-23) and Khyan Patel (1-16) but it was Sam Terry who impressed the most with his two for 25 off eight overs.

Horley’s chase started rapidly as Dave Hyde scored a quick 25 despite some tight bowling from Rob Webster (2-23) and Mark Barnard (1-33).

Three Horley wickets fell around Chadwick before he was joined in the middle by the explosive Ryan Bunn. Their unbeaten 120-run partnership saw Horley home with more than ten overs to spare in a game played in great spirit.

Horley 3rd XI will be looking to continue this winning run at home against Ram CC on Saturday.

Horley’s under-15s players played and won two cup matches in one day. In the afternoon, they formed the Oakwood School team which played in the second round of the Surrey State Schools’ Cup and beat last year’s winners, Reigate School. Oakwood School made 114-4 and Reigate School made 80-8 from 20 overs. Many thanks to Christian Kelly for giving up his time to umpire Oakwood’s fixtures.

In the evening, playing as Horley CC, they took on Dorking in the first round proper of the Surrey Junior Cricket Championship U15 Plate 100 Competition.

Winning the toss, Horley decided to bowl. Some excellent shots from Dorking opener Advait Barhate looked ominous before Daniel Sired bowled him with a ball staying low.

This was followed by two wickets each for Sam Terry and Khyan Patel, whose second was thanks to a well-taken catch by William Hofmann, who was also excellent in the field.

Dorking had continued to score but wickets were hurting them and from 45-5 they were 57 all out, with two wickets apiece for Luke Smith – the second being caught by Patel at cover – and Hofmann, both bowled, to close the innings.

Horley commenced their chase and after losing an early wicket, Sired and Terry set about knocking off the runs.

A couple of flashing edges and good shots from Sired ensured he retired on 22 not out from his 20 permitted deliveries in this competition. As a pair, they added 42 runs and ensured Horley were well on track. Terry fell for 12 shortly after Sired retired. With the scores level, Hofmann smashed a four over mid-off for a comfortable win, with Horley finishing on 61-2 from 45 balls.