Horley's slim hopes of promotion over after defeat, 2nd XI face winner-takes-all promotion match next week

In the reverse fixture earlier in the season, Horley had come off better, defeating Trinity on their home turf, but that result was not repeated – although the visitors did stumble to 50-5 during their reply. Horley’s defeat was somewhat of their own making with some untimely and unwise shots that gave the initiative to the visitors.

Horley were put in and Regan Derham was the first to go in the third over, wafting outside off and nicking off to wicket keeper Robbie Warburton off the bowling of Jayce Morgan. In the fourth over Richard Waddington was clean bowled by Ben Ives.

Ant Puttick (20) then formed a partnership with Ben Davies, but with the score on 55, after 15 runs had come from one over, Puttick was caught behind off Ives off the last ball of the over. Aryan Patel (10) then joined Davies but was out caught when trying to smack the ball over the advancing Stewart Sales, off Dinesh Poobalasingham.

Davies (38) fell immediately after, caught by Marlowe Cadiz off Khial Muhammad, making the score 87-5. Jon Barnett and Luke Smith managed to take it up to 103, then Horley collapsed to 120 all out from 34.4 overs.

Barnett (13), after surviving a dropped catch, was caught by Sales off Zeeshan Khan, and Sam Bracken, Smith, Will Taylor and finally captain Charlie Robins all went for three or less, leaving Adam Stephenson stranded on 13 not out after having just hit a well-timed six.

In reply, the visitors reached 10 before Khial Muhammad was caught behind by Puttick off Taylor. Morgan was bowled by Robins with the score on 16, then Sam Williams was clean bowled by the pick of Horley’s bowlers, Davies who then bowled Sales for a duck with the score on 41.

Bilal Khan (19) was Davies’ next victim, again bowled at 51-5 but Zeeshan Khan and Warburton pushed the score on to 81 before Warburton was caught from a skier by Robins off Barnett.

The impressive Zeeshan Khan (44 not out) and Poobalasingham (14 not out) then put together a match-winning partnership of 42 that Horley could not break.

Horley are fourth in the table on 189 points with one match remaining, 26 points behind Ashford in second and 55 points behind Trinity. They travel to Ashford for the last match of the league season, next Saturday.

HORLEY 2ND XI

Horley 2nd XI face a winner-takes-all promotion match against Staines & Laleham next Saturday, after a five-wicket loss at Teddington Town in their penultimate Surrey County League 2nd XI Division One match.

Horley were put in and got off to a shaky start as they slumped to 13-3. Ben Stewart and Matt Ware then started a rebuild before they were both out with the score on 63.

Andrew Reid and Andrew Thomas then put on 60 for the sixth wicket, before Reid was bowled – one of five victims for Mohseen Noori. A good cameo from Chris Cosham brought Horley up to 156 all out after 43.5 overs, with skipper Thomas top-scoring on 41.

The total was a few short of what Horley would have liked and Teddington’s target was revised to 124 from 30 overs after some rain.

Tight opening spells from Stewart and Cosham (2-17) were ideal but Noori, batting at five, took advantage of the short straight boundaries, hitting his way to 48 not out, which was enough to get Teddington over the line at 127-5 from 26.3 overs.

Roehampton are top of the Division One table with 246 points, Horley are second on 227 and Staines and Laleham are third on 216. With 20 points for a win, and a maximum of eight bonus points available to the losing side, Horley know they need to beat Staines at Horley Row on Saturday to gain promotion. next week in a winner takes all promotion game.

HORLEY 3RD XI

Horley 3rd XI saw their chances of promotion from Sussex Division 11 West (North) get all-but washed away in a heavy rainstorm, which forced their match at West Chiltington and Thakeham to be abandoned without a ball being bowled. Having been in the top two all season, Horley have slipped to third in the table as rivals Warnham were miraculously able to get their match played, even though it was taking place just six miles away from Horley’s washout.

With one round of matches to go, Horley are third in the table on 293 points, Warnham are second on 296 and Crawley are top on 334. Horley entertain Crawley next Saturday (although they will not be ‘home’, as such, because their Copthorne ground is unavailable so the match is being staged at Staplefield). Warnham play bottom-of-the-table Rudgwick, so unless they slip up unexpectedly, a Horley win v Crawley is unlikely to result in promotion.

HORLEY SUNDAY XI

Horley’s Dan Sired scored his maiden century, hitting 102 not out from 80 balls for the Sunday 1st XI in a friendly match at Cowdrey CC in Kent.

Sired, who plays for the under-15s and the Saturday 2nd XI, opened the batting and hit 19 fours and one six before retiring after bringing up his century with one of those boundaries.

The bulk of his innings came in a second-wicket partnership of 162 with Dirk Douglas, who reached 50 for the first time and was out for 75.

Horley made 276-4 from 35 overs, with Luke Smith and Alex Field on 29 and 23 not out respectively.

Cowdrey were bowled out for 174 from 34.2 overs, with Smith taking three wickets, Oscar Hofmann two and one each for Oscar Davies, Aidan Spalding, Kieran Childs, Dave Dyer and skipper Field.