Title treble for Horley cricketers

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On a Saturday afternoon like no other, all three Horley men’s teams ended up as league champions.

The 2nd XI beat leaders Roehampton to snatch their title and the 3rd XI – who finished their matches last week – hung on to top spot in their league as title-rivals Steyning lost their game in hand at Southwater and so failed to overtake them.

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With the 1st XI having clinched the Surrey Championship Division Five two weeks ago, celebrations of this historic league hat-trick for Horley went on into the wee small hours.

The 1st XI were on the losing side in their last match, at home against mid-table Kingstonian. The start was delayed due to wet conditions on the square so the match was curtailed to 40 overs a side. However, Kingstonian’s painfully slow over-rate in the first innings meant only 26.5 overs were possible in the reply before bad light stopped play and the visitors were awarded the win on a DLS calculation.

Horley's trio of title-winning captains (l to r) Jon Barnett, Kieran Childs and Charlie Robins.Horley's trio of title-winning captains (l to r) Jon Barnett, Kieran Childs and Charlie Robins.
Horley's trio of title-winning captains (l to r) Jon Barnett, Kieran Childs and Charlie Robins.

Horley were put in and after Regan Derham was out for 16 in the third over, just after hitting three consecutive fours, CP Singh came out to bat for the final time in his first year as Horley’s overseas player. He signed off with his third century of the season.

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He was dropped four times by a Kingstonian side who produced a few comedy moments in the field, as he hit three sixes and 12 fours in a 97-ball innings of 114. Amay Pandey finally managed to catch him, off Jai Kedia, so Singh finished the season with 1057 runs for Horley, 939 of which came in league games. Everyone at Horley Row hopes he will be back next year.

Skipper Charlie Robins made 24, batting higher up the order than usual at six, Ant Puttick scored 23 and Will Taylor was 25 not out and Adam Stephenson 19 not out as Horley finished on 284-7.

Taylor and usual wicket keeper Ant Puttick opened the bowling, with Matt Puttick taking over the gloves from his brother until drinks. Kingstonian got off to a flier, despite losing a wicket to Taylor in the first over. They were 80-1 after eight overs with Kedia taking a great liking to the Horley attack, hitting six fours off one Puttick over.

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He raced to 122 off 72 balls (20 fours, two sixes) before he was caught by Guy Derham off Stephenson. His second-wicket partnership with Kamil Tarya had yielded 175, of which only 39 had come off Tarya’s bat.

Robins picked up two wickets, caught by Ben Remfry and Stephenson, but the light was fading and the umpire finally called a halt after 26.5 overs with Tarya on 50 not out and Kingstonian’s total 208-4.

While the 1st XI match was going on, the players and spectators were keeping an eye on a live stream of the 2nd XI’s winner-takes-all Surrey County League 2nd XI Premier Division match at Roehampton.

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It was the second season in a row that Horley 2s had entered the final day with all to play for. After winning last year’s promotion ‘play off’ against Staines and Laleham, they arrived at Roehampton knowing that a win for either side would crown them champions.

Having lost the toss and been asked to bat first on a wet, soft wicket, Horley got off to a blistering start with Ryan Bunn once again showing off his destructive hitting before being caught for 41 off 26 balls (three sixes and five fours) with the score on 77 in the tenth over. Toby Davie was also motoring at the other end, hitting some delightful shots and was then joined at the crease by a watchful Ben Stewart.

The pair put on 115 for the second wicket with Davie unfortunately missing out on a ton after being bowled for 91. It was the fourth time in the past five innings Davie had ended up in the 80s or 90s. Stewart was also soon out, bowled for 52, but with a strong foundation having been set by the top three, the remaining batters all pushed the score along quickly, scoring at over a run a ball. Captain Jon Barnett hit 25 from 19 balls and Horley finished on 249-7 from their 45 overs, setting Roehampton a target of 250 to win the title.

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The hosts were soon in trouble at 30-2 with Dan Sired having Jamie Scott caught by Stewart and Chris Webber getting the big wicket of their leading run-scorer, HM Rubel, caught behind by Davie for just eight.

Irfaan Baksh then entered the fray as the first bowling change and proceeded to bamboozle the opposition with a devastating spell, finishing with figures of 6-22 from his nine overs. His first two wickets came from his first two balls, caught by Barnett and Davie, and Sired and Matt Gainsford also held catches for him, while the Roehampton skipper fell lbw.

With Roehampton finding themselves on 77-8 in the 25th over, the game was effectively over as a contest. The remaining wickets were picked up by Will Hofmann (1-12) and Barnett (1-0) and with the opposition bowled out for 104 in just 30 overs, Horley returned to Horley Row unbeaten for the season and as division champions. A truly remarkable season.

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Meanwhile, everyone at Horley Row had also been following (online) Steyning 3rd XI’s Sussex Division 11 West (North) clash with Southwater 3rds. A win for Steyning, or a loss with 12 bonus points, would have seen them overtake Horley 3rd XI to claim the title and the single automatic promotion spot.

However, Steyning made 136-7 from their 40 overs and couldn’t stop Southwater from powering to that target from 28.4 overs and for the loss of seven wickets. It was nailbiting stuff for Horley as they worked out the bonus point calculations and willed Southwater not to lose any more wickets, but the nerves turned to delight as Horley won the title by two points and earned promotion at the third time of asking.

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