The heat is on AJ Sports Surrey Championship clubs, rising temperatures coinciding with the campaign being a third of the way through. Richard Spiller picks through the highlights
Esher v Sunbury
Frontrunners Esher had their lead cut to a mere four points by a first defeat of the season.
Resurgent Sunbury are on their heels, winning by 124 runs at New Road after amassing 349-5dec from 56 overs. Rajan Soni’s 85 from 96 balls set the tone, enjoying an opening stand worth 90 with Sam Burgess (52) and then adding 117 for the second wicket with Surrey’s Nico Reifer (64). Both departed on 217 but Esher took more punishment in the heat from Middlesex’s Martin Andersson as he crashed an unbeaten 73 from 51, Colby Dyer’s 36 adding to the fun.
Giving the hosts plenty of time to chase that score, Sunbury saw Justin Broad make 75 – taking him to 300 runs already this summer – but Esher crumbled against Surrey off-spinner Amar Virdi, who worked his way through their order in claiming 7-63 from 24.5 overs. It was his second-best haul in the Premier Division, just failing to beat the 7-55 he took against the same opposition four years ago, and maintained a profitable summer in all formats. Matthew Arnold’s 3-52 cleaned up the rest as the home side were dismissed for 225.
It was Sunbury’s third win, a surge in performance after finishing one place – albeit a massive 79 points – off the relegation zone last year. Since winning the title in 2015 and 2016 and finishing runners-up the following year, their form has been inconsistent. They were second again in 2021, an improvement of six places on the previous summer, and in what is looking the most open contest for some time have emerged among the early contenders.
East Molesey v Wimbledon
A week after East Molesey had their tail had to block the way to a draw with Sunbury, there was no escape against the defending champions.
Moles skipper Nick Stevens found his decision to bat first blowing up in his face when they slid to 21-3 and although Cole Campbell (31) and Oliver Haley (48) fashioned a revival, last man Frank Knight’s 16 was the only other score in double-figures as they were bowled out for 127.
Chief beneficiaries were Ollie Pike and Jack Boyle, claiming three wickets each.
Opener Ben Coddington (34) and Kiwi Boyle (63) all but finished the job in a second wicket worth 98 before a minor flurry of wickets reduced the final margin to five wickets, Wimbledon rising to fourth place, six points and one place in front of East Molesey.
Weybridge v Ashtead
Ashtead set a new record team score – but still ended up on the wrong side of a draw at Weybridge.
Their 444-8dec from 63.5 overs overtook the highest in any division, Kingstonian’s 436-8 against Old Emanuel in 2015, having already gone past the previous Premier peak of 419-5 set by Avorians at Guildford in 2004.
A shortage of runs had dogged Ashtead over the first month of the season, relying on Dominic Sibley’s century at Wimbledon a week earlier for their only win.
This time it was another international, West Indies strokemaker Kieran Powell, who led the way by blazing 151 from 126 balls. That was backed up by Harri Aravinthan (93), Conor Young (71) and Ragu Aravinthan’s 63. Steven Reeves’s marathon spell of 26.5 overs in the heat yielded 5-178. Given 56 overs back, Weybridge lost skipper Nathan Tilley early on but fellow opener Haydir Ali’s 57 set the tone for Ben Curran (101) and Australian Test bat Will Pucovski (111no) to add 146 for the third wicket.
Although victory was out of reach, a winning draw – for higher scoring rate – was possible if the hosts reached 380, Pucovski being aided by brisk contributions from Craig Meschede (44), Reeves (35) and Jack Cunningham (23) in guiding Weybridge to 395-6. The match is thought to be a record aggregate for the Surrey Championship and bowlers will be hoping that remains so for a long time to come. Neither of the two highest Premier scores have earned their respective clubs victory. Could there be moral to that?
Cranleigh v Guildford
The battle of the two promoted sides went Guildford’s way, claiming a 128-run victory at Cranleigh Common.
Jono Merlo’s 101 dominated the visitors’ 260-7 from their maximum 66 overs, the Australian building on Freddie Geffen’s early 48 and dominating a vital alliance worth 108 for the fifth wicket with Jason Soames (37) against spin duo Yousef Majid – the Surrey left-arm spinner claiming 3-66 from 20 overs – and Jack Scriven (2-38).
A first victory of the season looked a major challenge for Cranes even before they slipped to 21-3, Merlo striking twice. An attack depleted by injuries meant extra responsibility for left-arm spinner Birts, who was grateful for a double strike from seamer Ben Shaw before gutting the lower order to finish with 5-36 from 16.4 overs to finish off the hosts for 132.
It was Cranleigh’s fourth defeat in six games, leaving them bottom by an alarming 21 points, while Guildford’s third success of the season has lifted them to an unlikely third. It capped an excellent week for the Woodbridge Road club, having seen Shoaib Bashir – who first played for them aged 11 – making his T20 and County Championship debuts for Somerset. The 19-year-old off-spinner, also a graduate of the Surrey Academy, joins an illustrious list of Guildford players who have risen to first-class level and beyond which includes the Bicknell brothers, Ashley Giles, Rikki Clarke, Jade Dernbach, Ollie Pope and Will Jacks.
Guildford’s Ben Garrett stumps Cranleigh’s Ollie Sheen off Guildford captain Olly Birts. Photo credit: Martin Williamson
Reigate Priory v Normandy
Andy Delmont’s first league century for four years saved Reigate from a second defeat in eight days, thwarting Normandy.
Having made 258 all out after choosing to bat first, the visitors seemed certain of victory when they reduced Priory to 138-9.
But Delmont – who originally arrived as the club’s overseas player in 2012 and is now one of the club’s most familiar faces, passing 5,000 Premier Division runs last year – came to the rescue. James Crosthwaite’s 29 had been the only other score of note and it was left to last man Michael Munday to stay with Delmont. The opener’s 103no, coming off 140 balls, was augmented by Munday’s 10no from 41 to leave the hosts with a losing draw at 183-9 as they batted out 55 overs. Spinners Viggy Venkateswaran (4-62) and Chris Jones (3-52) had done most of the damage.
Earlier, Olly Batchelor emerged from a fallow run to crack 90, Oskar Kolk (55) and Harry Nielsen (53) enjoying partnerships with the opener before the innings faded against Angus Dahl (5-62).
Best of the rest
Unbeaten Valley End continue to make the pace at the top of Division One.
Since having their first two games abandoned because of the weather, they have strung together four wins with the latest on a long trip to Dulwich. Their hero was Josh Dodd, who rescued them from 93-5, cracking 84 from 82 runs so that they reached 277 all out from 63.3 overs.
Then South African all-rounder Dodd showed his quality with the ball in claiming 6-54 from 13.5 overs, bowling out the hosts for 200. Ed Young’s 2-55 included top-scorer Ollie Steele (44).
Two wins in a row have projected Banstead into second spot, the latest when they hosted Chipstead, Coulsdon & Walcountians and beat them by a rather un-neighourly 152 runs. Patrick Rowe’s 126 was the centrepiece of their 305-7dec from 60 overs, CCW leaning on Angelo Jayasinghe’s 73 before they were bowled out for 153 as Paul Byrne and Tyler Meyer took three wickets each.
There wasn’t much chance of suffering heatstroke at Chessington, who bowled out Hampton Wick Royal for 88 in 20 overs and then knocked off the runs in 10.1 to win the Division Three clash by nine wickets.
