Horley Cricket Club round-up: Last wicket partnership helps set up defendable total

Fourth-placed Alleyn put second-placed Horley in, with the pitch looking batter-friendly, but Horley were soon 39-5 thanks to some disciplined bowling from Amjad Hussain (3-48) and Joe Colebrook (4-29) but also some bad shot selection.

Horley were in desperate need of a partnership and Matt Ware (14) andl Taylor (16) tried to dig in, but with Alleyn constantly changing their bowlers, they kept finding ways to dismiss the Horley batsmen.

At 97-9 with 15 overs to go, an early finish looked on the cards. However, Robert Woodward (20 not out) and skipper Charlie Robins (38 not out) made sure this wasn’t the case. They started cautiously picking up runs where they could, and Robins was the main aggressor in the last five overs, hitting five fours and a six. Horley pushed up to 162-9 off 50 overs, giving themselves a fighting chance.

In the reply, Taylor (5-60) gave Horley the start they wanted, dismissing the Alleyn skipper with the first ball and soon picking up his second, leaving Alleyn 9-2 after five overs. Ben Davies (3-28) was his usual consistent self at the other end, picking up two early wickets and with the score at 38-4, Horley were right in the game.

Opener J Lawrence (42) looked comfortable until Taylor trapped him lbw in the 17th over and now Alleyn needed a partnership to steady the ship. Robert George (20) and Simon Norris (23 not out) obliged until Horley skipper Robins (1-7) brought himself on to dismiss George.

At 86-6, Alleyn still had plenty of overs to go for the win but Adam Stephenson (1-14) got in on the action and after his wicket, Alleyn were 93-7 and looked to shut up shop for the draw with 13 overs remaining. The returning Taylor wouldn’t let this happen though, picking up two more wickets for his ‘five-for’ and reducing Alleyn to 117-9. With time running out, Davies found his way through the last batsman, as Alleyn were all out for 125.

Horley remain second in the table at the season’s mid-point and they welcome Byfleet CC to Horley Row on Saturday.

Excellent bowling from teenager Dan Sired in tandem with veteran Trevor Stevens, plus an undefeated half-century from captain Andrew Thomas helped Horley 2nds win at Warlingham by seven wickets and remain third in the Surrey County League 2nd XI Division One table at the mid-point of the season.

Horley got off to a good start, and Warlingham were 6-2 with some tight bowling by the openers Luke Smith and Chris Cosham and a runout courtesy of great bit of fielding from late call-out Jack Poplett.

A wicket each for Jordan Robins and Alex Field (caught by Harry Grimwood) had Warlingham at 36-4 before they recovered to 111-5 after a good partnership between Manveer Sokhi (51) and Ritul Patel (34). The evergreen Stevens split them up by bowling Sokhi and the introduction of Sired changed the game as he cleaned up the middle to lower order, taking 3-14 from four overs in partnership with Stevens, who took 3-26 in 6.1 overs.

Warlingham were bowled out for 125 in the 34th over.

Horley’s chase didn't get off to an ideal start when opener Grimwood was caught one-handed at first slip. However, captain Thomas and number three Khurram Jalil restabilised the reply and ground out a 92 partnership to put Horley well in control of the run chase at 94-2, by the time the latter fell for 40.

A combination of Poplett, and then Robins helped Thomas finish off the game, as Horley reached 129-3 in the 30th over, with Thomas 54 not out.

This was the fifth win in a row for Horley 2nds and they are away again next Saturday, at Byfleet.

Horley 3rd XI suffered their third loss on the bounce in Sussex League Division 11 West (North), losing by 101 runs at Steyning.

Horley won the toss and opted to bowl first and measured bowling from Sam Terry (1-21), Darren Croft (0-33) and Aidan Spalding (1-32) gave good support to league debutant Max Heise, who bowled sharply for his three wickets for 51 off eight overs. The Steyning batsmen all got starts with Simon Grant top scoring with 55 in their good total of 246 from 40 overs.

Horley’s chase was stunted with two early wickets but Rob Rigby (22) and Dirk Douglas (27) steadied the ship with a good partnership. Once they departed in quick succession wickets fell at regular intervals after the drinks break and Horley were all out for 145. Simon Grant was the pick of the Steyning bowlers with 4-30.

The unavailability of some first teamers this week meant players were promoted from the seconds, then the thirds lost players to fill those gaps, with some changes coming late in the week. Some aspects of Horley’s performance were an improvement from the last couple of weeks and Horley will look to get back to winning ways when they travel to Broadbridge Heath next weekend.

Horley Hackers are through to the second knockout round of the Sussex Slam T20 Cup after beating Three Bridges Titans by 40 runs.

Horley elected to bat first and made 160-7 in 20 overs, with several batters making decent contributions. Skipper Jordan Robins hit 29 from 18 balls, blasting two sixes and four fours before he was stumped. Adam Stephenson came in at eight and made 21, while Matt Gainsford at seven scored 32 not out from 21 balls (three fours and a six). He and Rob Woodward put on a valuable 44 runs for the last wicket in 4.4 overs, with Woodward ending up on 18 not out.

Horley made early inroads into the Titans’ batting line-up in the reply, with opening bowlers Alex Field and Woodward taking two wickets each to reduce the visitors to 38-4. Field bowled opener Simon Clarke and had William Burch caught by Regan Derham, while both Woodward’s wickets were caught by Nathan Baily.

Three Bridges skipper Liam Barratt was their most destructive batter, hitting five fours and two sixes in a 42-ball innings of 53 before retiring. One of his sixes was lost on the clubhouse roof.

Matthew Hague made 22 down the order and was not out at the end, but no one else reached double figures, as Stephenson and Charlie Robins took a wicket each – the latter well stumped by George Hyde – and Ben Davies took 2-20 in four overs, both clean bowled.

Three Bridges ended up on 120-8, making it a comfortable win for Horley and they will play Ifield at home in the next round.