Triple win for Horley

A hard-fought Surrey Division Four East contest at Horley Row saw the 1st XI overcome Old Whitgiftians by three wickets and with more than five overs to spare.

The visitors opted to bat and Will Taylor (1-25) started off as he had finished last week, bowling a beauty of a delivery that Daniel Murrell couldn’t cope with and he was bowled all ends up. Ben Davies then bowled Will Dakin and 20-2 became 22-3 in the tenth over with a brilliant diving catch by Taylor at short cover to dismiss Ricky Kantharia for Davies’ second wicket.

No further wickets fell before drinks at 25 overs and the score had advanced to 70-3. As so often happens after a break, a wicket did fall, Aidan Spalding taking a great caught and bowled to send Vishal Khetia (20) back to the pavilion for his first wicket for the first XI.

Irfaan Baksh then had key player Shaz Rana caught behind by Regan Derham for 39 and that was 75-5.

Myran Patel fell caught behind for Spalding’s second wicket and his third came bowling Kris Patel as he finished with figures of 3-32 from ten overs.

Old Whits were 110-7 after 35 overs, then Reece Etwaroo (12) and Nikhil Patel (48) put on a stand of 43, with some enterprising stroke play but Etwaroo became Derham’s third victim, the catch coming off Davies (3-31).

Nikhil Patel fell to a great catch on the boundary into the reliable hands of Ben Remfry off Baksh and Kayan Patel was run out by Spalding/Derham from the last ball of the innings which closed at 185 all out from 50 overs.

Horley’s reply started off sub optimally when Remfry was bowled in the second over by Kantharia (3-32). Aryan Patel (4) was next out caught behind by Dakin off Kris Patel (2-34) with the score on 21. Derham together with CP Singh put on a decent partnership of 42 before Singh skied one and was caught for 34 by Murrell off Rana (2-31).

Derham was next to fall, also for 34, bowled by Kantharia (again just after the drinks interval). Luke Smith (17) then mishit the ball and was caught at midwicket by Vinay Patel off Krish Patel.

Davies(13) came to the crease and hit a nice couple of fours but was adjudged lbw to Kantharia. The visitors – needing a win to get out of relegation trouble – were exultant at that wicket and, with the score now 114-6, Horley had a lot of work to do, but they were not done yet.

Ben Stewart was at the crease and was joined by Spalding and the two teenagers put on 36 before Spalding (12) fell caught Khetia bowled Rana with the score on 150-7.

Taylor was next man in and in amongst his 21 not out were three cracking fours. Stewart hit five fours in his excellent 37 not out and the two saw the game to its conclusion, batting sensibly and taking ones and twos to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

After some nervy moments, it was fitting that it was Stewart who thwacked the ball to the boundary to seal victory.

Horley are fifth with three games to go, and 26 points off the promotion places. Next weekend they play sixth-placed Alleyn, still hoping some of the teams above them will slip up.

Horley 2nd XI won a low-scoring Surrey Division Eight East match at Sutton Challengers 2nd XI by ten runs, managing to defend a meagre total of 81.

Horley elected to bat first on what turned out to be a minefield of a pitch, with the ball rearing up off a length and occasionally rolling along the floor.

Henrick Cook was dropped twice in first six overs before Toby Davie was out in the seventh, caught by Syed Tirmizi in a wicket maiden from Ashish Jaiswal.

Lakit Kasat did most of the damage for the home side, taking 5-26 and his first victim was Cook, whom he bowled for 13 in the eighth over, before bowling Khyan Patel and Jordan Robins in a double wicket maiden in the tenth.

Jon Barnett fell to a good low catch by keeper Mandar Bhagwat off Kasat and when Guy Derham was run out without facing a ball Horley were reeling at 33-6.

Dean Martin was caught by Kasat off Vinod Rajendran for 8 and Kasat completed his five-fer from the last ball of his spell, bowling Ollie Millard.

Coming together at 46-8 after 18 overs, Adam Stephenson and Alex Field took their time and put on a priceless 35 for the ninth wicket. Field made 15 off 42 balls, hitting two fours before he was lbw to Yasin Vadasaria in the 34th over. The innings ended two balls later at 81 all out when Justin Moutinho was bowled by a ball which moved a long way, leaving Stephenson on 21 not out (64 balls, three fours).

With the pitch so unpredictable, the result was not a given and Stephenson and Barnett took three wickets each to take the game away from Challengers.

Horley bagged their first wicket in the fourth over, Stephenson running back at slip to catch Vadasaria off Robins for 1.

Derham struck next over, trapping Bhagwat lbw for a duck and Sutton were 9-3 after six overs when Davie caught Tirmizi off Robins for 3.

Sutton staged a brief revival before Field held an excellent running catch to dismiss Rohit Bhardwaj for 12 off Derham and make the score 24-4.

With the opening bowlers Derham and Robins finishing their spells on 2-23 (nine overs) and 2-16 (seven overs) respectively, Stephenson and Barnett bowled out the rest of the innings. Stephenson started with three consecutive maidens, and Moutinho took a fantastic sharp catch at midwicket to dismiss Jaiswal off the last ball of the 20th over for 13.

Six balls later Stephenson caught Vamsi Salla off Barnett for 8.

It was 58-7 after Moutinho held a good gully catch off Barnett from the last ball of the 23rd over then 60-8 after 24 overs with Robins secured a towering catch off Stephenson.

Barnett bowled Porwal off the first ball of the 25th over and although he couldn't complete the hat-trick Horley were on the brink of victory at 60-9.

Sutton limped on to 71 before Stephenson bowled Anil Gorremuchu and the hosts were all out in 30 overs with Stephenson finishing on 3-13 from eight overs and Barnett 3-6 from six.

Horley are fourth in the table and entertain second-placed Banstead next Saturday.

Horley 3rd XI made it three wins on the bounce in Sussex Division Ten West, beating Horsham Trinity by five wickets.

Horley won the toss and decided to bowl on what looked like a tricky wicket. Trinity found this out early as the Horley opening bowlers piled the pressure on and Ryan Smith made the early breakthrough, having skipper John Kimberly caught behind by Dirk Douglas for 7.

Smith struck again twice shortly afterwards, taking the wicket of William Lawson, bowled for 3 runs, then having Benedict Ford (7) caught by Tom Jowett.

At 21-3 Horley looked on top and wanted to further punish the Trinity batsmen, but there was a bit of a fightback before Horley found the next wicket, with Toby Tavener caught by Jowett off Daniel Sired’s bowling for 12 runs.

Ben Watson followed soon after, getting caught by Kieran Childs from the bowling of Liam Adams for 18. With Horsham Trinity only on 59-5 they desperately needed a partnership but Horley found another wicket from Sired with Ryan Bunn catching Harris Kitchingman, out for 2.

Horsham then showed signs of life, ticking along and putting runs on the board, before Lewis Fiddaman (9) was next to get dismissed with Sired (3-18) taking his third wicket to a Rob Rigby catch.

The wickets kept coming for Horley, Danny Patel bowling Pete Garratt for 15, Smith bowling Tim Street for 11 and Patel dismissing Keith Greenwood for 11, caught by Bunn.

Smith finished his nine-over spell with figures of 4-19 as Trinity were all out for 119 after 35.2 overs.

Rigby played some lovely shots at the start of Horley’s reply and found the boundary twice but played one big shot too many and was dismissed, caught by Garrett from the bowling of Greenwood for 10. Bunn was next to depart, lbw to Greenwood and Horley were under pressure early on 18-2.

Jowett was next to the crease for Horley and looked in good form, scoring 13 before getting caught by Garrett with Greenwood bowling. Matt Ware was joined at the crease by Childs and the pair batted brilliantly together and created a great partnership in very testing batting conditions. Childs hit three boundaries before he was bowled by Watson for 24 and Watson struck again quickly, taking Sired for 0 with a catch taken by Lewis Fiddaman.

Liam Adams was next in for Horley with the score on 87-5 and he and Ware batted out the remaining runs to secure a Horley victory in just 26.5 overs, Ware finishing on 37 not out (four fours) and Adams on 25 not out (three fours).

Horley 3rd XI remain in third place in the Sussex Division Ten West table, 14 points behind second-place Crawley. Horley have two games left and all the other promotion contenders have three. Horley are away to eighth-placed Goring next week.