Horley Cricket Club round-up: Taylor and Baily help firsts return to winning ways

Newdigate elected to field first and Horley made a comfortable start, before Regan Derham (14) and Ant Puttick (27) both fell in the space of three overs to Lewis Davies (3-60). He claimed another and Allan Cooper (2-53) chipped in, dismissing the recently impressive Ben Stewart, so Horley were in a familiar spot, 61-4 after 19 overs.

With a good partnership badly needed, Baily and Ben Davies obliged, picking up steady runs without taking too much risk. They put on 52 for the fifth wicket but a change of bowling saw the end of Davies for 21, bowled by Scott Dunkerley (3-26).

Baily continued to score freely and passed the half-century but Dunkerley was keeping it tight and picked up another two wickets, reducing Horley to 153-7 with eight overs left.

Cooper claimed the big scalp of Baily for 68 with his first ball back, but Adam Stephenson and Guy Derham paired up for the last seven overs, putting on a crucial unbeaten 56-run partnership for the ninth wicket, with Derham making 32 not out and Stephenson 20 not out. Horley skipper Charlie Robins declared with one ball to go, giving Newdigate 46 overs to chase down Horley’s total of 209-8.

Newdigate struggled to find any early momentum thanks to Taylor (5-46) and Ben Davies (1-46) and were 47-3, with the bulk of those runs coming from opener Alex Kurobasa (27). Taylor had him caught behind by Puttick, which brought Newdigate skipper Lewis Davies to the crease. He looked to attack when he could but wickets were falling at the other end, with Taylor claiming his fourth and fifth and Robins picking up one.

At 92-7, Lewis Davies was joined by Sean Roast, who shared a 36-run partnership with his skipper before falling to Matthew Gainsford (1-8) in the 37th over. Stephenson (2-10) claimed the last two wickets in the 38th and 40th overs as Newdigate were bowled out for 138. Lewis Davies was 57 not out.

Horley 1st XI, who are third in the table, travel away to eighth-placed Woodmansterne next Saturday.

Horley 2nd XI moved up to fourth spot in the Surrey County League 2nd XI Division One thanks to a 65-run win at Teddington Town, with half-centuries from Richard Waddington and Matt Ware proving crucial.

Horley were put in on a soft wicket and a slow outfield meant runs didn’t come easily. They were 64-3 at the end of the 22nd over but a partnership of 47 for the fourth wicket helped move things along before George Hyde was bowled for 25 from 20 balls by one which kept very low.

Ware, playing his first match of the season, then joined Waddington at the crease and the two put on 82 for the fifth wicket in the hottest part of the day. Waddington was caught for 63 in the 42nd over and Luke Smith (15 runs from 10 balls) came in to close out the innings with Ware, who got to 50 off the final ball (six fours). The long grass on the outfield had made boundaries hard to come by but Horley scored 70 runs from the last 10 overs to take their total to 214-5 from 45 overs.

Conditions were much cloudier and cooler for Teddington’s reply and Horley took three early wickets to reduce them to 12-3, with keeper Harry Grimwood taking a skied catch off Smith and Chris Cosham claiming the other two, one caught very well at gully by Andrew Thomas and one bowled.

Number three batsman Akram Hilmy provided the backbone of the innings with his 54, but only two other players reached double figures as Horley bowled Teddington out for 149 in 37.5 overs.

Trevor Stevens and Alex Field took the fourth and fifth wickets, caught by Thomas and Khurrum Jalil respectively and Richard Waddington ran out the next victim to reduce Teddington to 92-6.

They recovered for a short while, then collapsed from 134-7 to 149 all out, with Thomas bowling one victim, Daniel Sired having Hilmy caught behind by Grimwood then getting the next man stumped two balls later, and Smith finished off the match, bowling the final victim.

Horley 2nds are home to bottom-of-the-table Wandgas on Saturday so hope to keep their promotion challenge going.

Kilnwood Vale’s Rob Legg scored a maiden, unbeaten century against Horley 3rd XI to send the visitors crashing to their first defeat of the season in the Sussex League Division 11 West (North).

On a damp and cloudy Saturday, Horley won the toss, which in hindsight may have been a good one to lose, and invited Vale to bat first.

Another tight opening spell from Sam Terry (0-53 from eight overs) caused problems for KVCC, but edges evaded slips or went to ground. He also had a very good lbw shout turned down which would have sent the hard-hitting Legg back to the dugout early on, but with no such luck, this turned out to be ‘one of those days’.

Aidan Spalding claimed one of the two wickets to fall, caught by Darren Croft, and Nick Chadwick took a catch off Jorell Wildman for the other one. Croft bowled very well for Horley, conceding only 30 off his six overs. Dirk Douglas also kept very well on his return to the side, saving countless legside byes and encouraging the team.

Having scored his century, Legg – a former Three Bridges player – accelerated and finished up on 183 not out, helping KVCC to a huge 352-2 from 40 overs, despite the shout that ‘we have them exactly where we want them’ when they were on 300-1!

While the Horley run chase did not start as planned, the promising colts Bailey Warren and Spalding scored 39 each while wickets fell around them. A few dropped catches in the field also spared further blushes from Horley who would finish up on 143 all out with 10 overs to spare, without taking the maximum batting points. Yazir Farook (3-39) bowled well for KVCC.

Horley will be encouraged by the grit in the team, with so many bowlers not shying away from the challenge of bowling to the set batsmen during the death overs. They will look to overcome this setback next weekend at home against Roffey 4s.