Unbeaten century for Singh as Horley win

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Horley 1st XI achieved a comprehensive victory at Roehampton with captain for the day CP Singh starring with an unbeaten century. He was ably assisted by Ben Stewart (62) and Luke Smith (35 not out) and the win moves Horley up to third place in the Surrey Division Four East table as the halfway stage of the season approaches.

The home team unsurprisingly elected to bat on a hot day at the Heath ground, but were in trouble as early as the second over when Ollie Holman, on his first-team debut, trapped Archie Beckley lbw for a duck.

Ben Davies had Adil Malik caught behind by Ant Puttick in the third over and in the seventh he comprehensively bowled Sid Tumuluri – who had scored 24 of the first 26 runs – with one that nipped back and smacked into the leg stump.

A partnership of 67 between Billy Muhammad and Jack Holland was ended with the score on 93 when Singh took a smart low catch off the bowling of Irfaan Baksh to dismiss Muhammad for 43. A further stand of 47 between Holland and Michael Hern was ended when the score was 140, when Hern (34) was brilliantly caught on the long-on boundary by Henrick Cook off the bowling of Aidan Spalding (1-41).

At 149 the sixth wicket fell when Udith Molanguri caught Louis Langham-Walsh (28) off the bowling of Stewart (1-24). Holland, who had made an extremely useful 44, was then caught behind by substitute keeper Smith off a deceptive slower ball by Tom Jowett (2-28).

From 180-7, Roehampton edged their way to 200, only for Maitra (17) to fall lbw to Jowett. The tail was cleaned up by Davies (4-36), as Stian Grove (10) was magnificently caught on the long-on boundary by Singh and George Howard-Smith was bowled middle stump two balls later.

A total of 207 didn’t seem enough for Roehampton to defend and so it proved.

Horley’s innings started off sub-optimally when Molanguri was bowled by Howard-Smith after facing only two balls. That brought Singh in to join Stewart and it soon became clear that they were both timing the ball very well.

The 50 came up in only 9.2 overs and the100 with a beautifully timed second successive four by Singh a couple of balls into the 19th over, the first of the two fours having taken him to his half-century at the end of the 18th.

Stewart’s 50 arrived soon afterwards, with the score on 114 and both players looked set to knock the runs off. Sadly, a misunderstanding led to Stewart being run out for a splendid 62 (eight fours, two sixes) with the score on 140.

Smith joined Singh and the two were untroubled in getting the required runs. In the 40th over Singh raised his bat for his superb century and after another four from Smith (35 not out), Singh fittingly thumped the third ball of the 43rd over to the boundary for the winning runs.

Next Saturday, Horley are at home to Streatham and Marlborough, who are fifth in the table.

League leaders Horley 2nd XI maintained their winning in Division Eight East with a 49-run win over Headley Old Freemans 1st XI at Horley Row.

Visiting captain Barney Cowie won the toss and elected to field on a green wicket, following the morning’s rain. Opening up for Horley were the in-form Matt Ware and returning George Hyde, and from the first over, runs started to flow with both batters reaching double figures in little time.

Robbie Hendry removed Ware for 13, bowled with an excellent out-swinging delivery. This was the first of four victims for the seamer, who displayed patience and accuracy to dismantle Horley’s top order.

Richard Waddington was the second man to go, lbw for 4 off Hendry, with Ryan Bunn following for a duck bowled by the same bowler. Headley’s first change bowler James Long then removed Hyde for 16, with a leg-side ball kicked onto his stumps.

Horley were threatening to post a sub-par score on a good wicket and the next man in and out was Guy Derham, caught off his leading edge off Hendry for 14. Hendry finished with figures of 9-2-33-4.

A period of fight was then demonstrated by Horley’s middle order, as Kieran Childs and Shrey Vaid showed the stubbornness required for the situation, before an excellent slip catch from Long off captain Cowie removed Vaid for 7. Captain Webber was next man in and was unable to get going, eventually chipping the ball to Cowie for 4 off new bowler Elliot Fox.

Ryan Smith then joined Childs, who had been going about his work serenely, as wickets tumbled at the other end. Smith made 10 before being adjudged lbw off Daniel Greayer-Smith, then Childs was the ninth wicket, bowled by Cowie playing an ill-advised sweep shot, for a well-made 28.

Horley’s tenth wicket proved somewhat trickier for Headley to pick up as brothers Hofmann (Oscar and Will) showed why they are certainly not 10 and 11 bats. Oscar played the aggressor, with brother Will happy to support from the other end and they amassed more than 30 runs, invaluable in a low-scoring game. Will Hofmann was finally caught down the leg side off the returning Charlie Woods to leave his brother 24 not out and Horley all out for 145.

With a small total to defend, Horley required urgency from the off. It took until the second over for this approach to pay dividends, when Will Hofmann superbly ran out opener Toby Richardson for 6 from backward point with a direct hit.

What followed was an extremely tight and challenging opening bowling partnership from Smith and Webber. The latter got his first by removing Headley’s other opener Scott Minihane, bowled for 2 with a big in-swinging delivery.

The second wicket brought captain Cowie to the crease to join number three Andy Brooks. Looking the most assured of the Headley batters, these two played with patience as Webber and Derham probed for a wicket.

It was Horley who eventually won out from this period of play, as Webber removed Brooks caught behind by Hyde for 11, and the very next over Derham had new batter Tom Longhurst bowled for a duck with a ball clipping the top of leg stump.

The following over, captain Webber took the big wicket of the opposite captain, bowled with a ball that seamed away onto off stump, for 13. This left Headley 44-5 at 15 overs, and in the second over after drinks, Webber struck again, removing Greayer-Smith for 7, caught behind again by Hyde.

The Horley skipper finished with excellent figures of 9-2-22-4, and was replaced by Oscar Hofmann, who instantly got had Luc Hutter caught behind for 6.

At 63-8, Headley looked to consolidate during a period of tight bowling from Oscar Hofmann and the returning Smith. It took until the return of Derham for the final wickets to fall, as he first had Fox caught behind for Hyde’s fourth catch of the day, then Hendry was removed for a resilient 14, caught by Will Hofmann for Derham’s third.

Headley were nine down for 95 at the final drinks break (30 overs) and made just one more prior to Long being bowled by Derham for 12 to end on 96 all out. Derham’s figures for the day were 6.2-1-27-4.

On a good wicket, the game saw the bowlers dominate the batters, with superb bowling efforts on both sides.

Next week, table-toppers Horley travel to second-place Kenley, although without captain Webber, who is sidelined in anticipation of the birth of his first child.

Horley 3rd XI suffered a disappointing 37-run defeat to Eastergate in Sussex Division Ten West after a dreadful batting collapse.

They were 58-3 chasing 112 but were bowled out for just 75. The Copthorne pitch was at its worst, deteriorating as the match went on and offering unplayable variable bounce in the latter stages, but Eastergate bowled well and Horley could have batted better.

Eastergate won the toss and elected to bat but Horley made a strong start with both Dan Sired and Alex Field opening with maidens.

Sired (9-4-26-2) then struck twice off the last two balls of the fifth over, having Thom Radford caught at slip by Justin Moutinho, diving to his right, before Dan Farmer leapt up at deep mid-off and just about gathered the ball down into his midriff to catch Steve Grant first ball.

The new batting partnership decided the priority was to simply stay in. Four consecutive maidens followed, and after ten overs Eastergate were only 12-2.

The next breakthrough came in the 12th over when Field was rewarded for his hard work by having Aaron Bateman caught behind by Rayan Patel.

In the 18th over Field (9-4-16-3) finished his spell in style with two almost identical wickets in two balls, as Harry Blunden and Chris Bradshaw both gloved lifting deliveries to Patel.

Horley skipper Rob Rigby (4-31) brought himself on at first change from the pavilion end and ripped through the lower order, taking a wicket in each of his first four overs, with catches taken by Andrew Burbage, Patel and Farmer, while Harry Comins was bowled.

That left Eastergate at 90-9 after 25 overs and they hung on to bring up the 100 in the 30th over, before Moutinho finally broke the last-wicket stand in the 32nd, with Burbage taking the catch to dismiss top-scorer Mark Bentley for 26.

Conditions were overcast and humid by the time Horley started their reply. Burbage was dropped at short cover off the first ball he faced but hit the next for four, before James Simner was out in the second over, caught behind by Adam Foster off Louis Wladon (2-32).

Farmer edged one to Foster off Fergus Geraets in the third over and Sired lifted a catch to Blunden off the last ball of the fourth.

Burbage and Nick Chadwick then steadied the ship and took the score on from 12-3 to 51-3 at drinks at 15 overs, with Burbage hitting a six and a four just before the break.

However, in the 17th over Chadwick was adjudged lbw when he was sure he had hit the ball, and at the end of that over Burbage was bowled by Grant (2-19) for 49 (50 balls, eight fours, one six). He was to be the only Horley player to reach double figures.

Field and Rigby tried to rebuild but Comins (4-3 from two overs) dismissed both in the 20th over, caught by Foster and Bateman respectively. Horley were 73-7 and with three of the last four batters from the under-15s team, they lacked the experience to deal with the situation. Eoin Spalding had to duck under one delivery and Moutinho – the only senior player left – was hit on the chest by another as Eastergate took the last three wickets before the end of the 23rd over to bowl Horley out for 75.

Horley remain second in the table but third-placed Serendib have narrowed the gap and have a game in hand. Horley are away to fouth-placed Ram next Saturday and need to win to stay ahead of them.