Wimbledon CC are Champions!

Champions Wimbledon ended the season on a down note as they were beaten by relegated Cheam in the final round of matches in this year’s Ryman Surrey Championship Premier Division.

The other relegated side, Ashtead, were also successful in the last top flight match, beating Guildford at home. There were also victories for Normandy over Banstead and second placed Sunbury over Sutton.

Weybridge suffered a heavy loss to Reigate Priory and will be thankful for their early season form after a thirteen point deduction for administrative failings plunged them to eighth, one place and just seven points above the relegation positions.

Next year’s campaign should feature Camberley and Malden Wanderers in place of Cheam and Ashtead, after they filled the top two slots in Division One. Champions Camberley – featuring former Hampshire, Middlesex and England spinner Shaun Udal – were only defeated once all summer and ended on a brilliant 170 points.

Wimbledon were also victorious in the Second XI Premier Division, comfortably finishing ahead of Normandy. In the Third XI Premier Division however they narrowly missed out, with Reigate Priory taking the spoils by just six points.

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Ashtead CC (270/5) beat Guildford CC (266/8) by five wickets

There was a pulsating end to a disappointing campaign for Ashtead as a good all round performance saw them end the season on a high at the expense of mid table Guildford.

Batting first at the home side’s instruction, Pemberton Greenish Academy opener Harry Stephens got Guildford off to a good start despite losing both Thomas Tremewan (8) and Andy Hollingsworth (0). He found a partner in Julian Hare (30) though and the two moved the score up to 95 before Stephens went to Tom Deighton.

Robert H. Jones (82*) was the next man and played a fantastic knock, anchoring the innings as he received support from Tom Collins (27) and Matthew Teale (31) as Guildford made it to 266/8 from their fifty overs.

In response, Ashtead opened with Surrey and Ireland batsman Gary Wilson (36) who, after the early loss of Zac Elkin (4), put on a partnership of 83 with captain John Vaughan-Davies (62).

Wilson went, LBW, to Andy Hollingsworth but Vaughan-Davies carried on, partnered by Stewart Cameron (97*), who played a very similar role to that of Jones in the Guilford innings.

Cameron survived the loss of his skipper to partner with first Josh Pickering (36) and then Tom Deighton (15) as Ashtead smoothly moved through the gears. Striking ten fours and four maximums, Cameron fell three short of his century as his club ended a poor season with a flourish, winning with four balls remaining.

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Cheam (174/7) beat Wimbledon (172 all out) by three wickets

Champions Wimbledon won the toss and batted against relegated Cheam, losing Raymond de Passos (6) and Neil Turk (1) early on.

Martin Kain (54) salvaged their start though, partnering with Gerry Penford (24) and Sebastian Franke-Matthecka (27) to move them up to 118/4.

Once Franke-Matthecka had gone though, there was no solidity from the Wimbledon lower order, with only Darren Hooey (16) making double figures as they slid to 172 all out from just 35.3 overs. Pick of the bowling for Cheam was Mark Burns, who took 4/18 as the architect of the bottom order collapse.

Buoyed by restricting their high flying visitors to a chaseable target, Cheam would have been disappointed to lose both David Houpapa (1) and Steve Clark (1) early on.

Similarly to Wimbledon though, their start was salvaged by the other opener, in this instance, PG Academy teenager Bradley Scriven , whose 29 saw him partner with Dan Johnson (33) to move the score up to 72.

Needing another hundred to complete a memorable victory, Cheam lost Johnson but found first Chris Salmons (15) and then Paul Harrison (36) and Paul Cohen (40*) who put on fifty as Cheam got the runs off one more ball than Wimbledon, winning by three wickets.

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Normandy CC (197/2) beat Banstead CC (193 all out) by eight wickets

Batting first at the Lower Ground, Banstead got off to a poor start when Surrey opener Rory Burns went for a duck and was followed quickly by Sam Woodward, also without scoring.

James Pearce (5) was next to go, leaving the home side 12/3 but PG Academy coach Richard Bedbrook (68), played brilliantly to put down an anchor that an innings could be built around. Captain Jak Martin (27) was his original support, with further runs coming from Daniel Sutton (25) and then new Surrey signing Freddie van den Bergh (31*), who played very sensibly once Bedbrook was eighth man out with the score on 176.

Banstead ended on 193 from 40.3 overs, giving Normandy a good chance of victory. This was increased when, after Anand Ashok (7) was bowled by Bedbrook, Ahillen Beadle (91*) formed big partnerships with first Howard Grice (42) and then Ian Prowse (44*) as Normandy cruised to a final day victory with a giant 11.2 overs remaining.

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Sunbury CC (246 all out) beat Sutton CC (171 all out) by 75 runs

Sunbury batted first and were another side to lose openers early on, with Stuart Poynter (9) and John Maunders (4) going early before Adam London (45) and Oliver Roland-Jones (66) recovered the situation with a good partnership of 117.

By the time they were both dismissed, the score had moved to 174/4 but further innings from Andrew Balbirnie (31), Trevor Keen (15), Matthew Nichols (12), Justin Granger (12) and Vishal Manro (13) helped the score keep moving as they reached a defendable 246 from 48.1 overs.

In response, Sutton lost Will Muse before a run had been scored but Surrey’s Arun Harinath (68) and Josh Allen (34) put on 81 before a middle order collapse ensued as David Mitchell (5), James Woodroof (6) and Russell Coombe (1) all fell with Harinath at the other end.

The Surrey man was next to go, run out by Gavin Spencer, but skipper Gary Outram (17), Ian Jack (10) and Greg Betz (12) helped bring some more respectability to the total before Sutton were all out for 171, losing by 75 runs.

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Weybridge CC (189 all out) lost to Reigate Priory CC (290/5) by 101 runs

Outgoing champions Reigate Priory ended the season on a high as they beat a Weybridge team that had just had thirteen points deducted for administrative errors.

Batting first, Reigate got off to a solid start with Michael Foster (68) and Fraser Macdonald (17) putting on 72 for the first wicket. A good top order performance was extended as runs came from Neal Parlane (72) and Simon Ecclestone (55) as Reigate played very well throughout their fifty overs to end on 290/5.

Replying, the Weybridge innings was a story of two individual innings with wicket keeper Joel Pope (52) starting the innings like a train before the middle order fell away in his wake.

After the loss of Pope, wickets fell regularly with only Phillip Mann (52) showing any solidity. Although five batsmen reached double figures, only Mann and Pope were able to breach 20 as the hosts ended on a defeat as they slipped to 189 all out.