Wimbledon cemented to the top of the table

Wimbledon have strengthened their position at the top of the Ryman Surrey Championship Premier Division after winning their top of the table clash with Sunbury by 74 runs this weekend.

Elsewhere, there were victories for Ashtead, Sutton, Weybridge and Banstead as the league reverted back to a fifty over format and Cheam slipped back to the bottom of what has become a very congested pile.

It was a big weekend for individual performances with headline performances from Zac Elkin and John Vaughan-Davies, Neal Parlane, Henry Turner, Muhammad Jaffer as well as a match winning 144 from Surrey’s Arun Harinath for Sutton.

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Cheam CC (233 all out) lost to Ashtead CC (236/1) by nine wickets

After winning the toss and batting, Cheam were grateful to opener David Houpapa who held together their top order with 59 after his fellow opener Bradley Scriven (20) was trapped LBW by Matthew Friedlander.

The loss of Scriven saw a batch of wickets fall with Chris Salmons, Danny Miller and Paul Harrison all failing in one over from Ashtead skipper John Vaughan Davies and then Houpapa being caught behind off Marlon Cornelius to leave them 111/5 and Robert Hendry then bowled by Cornelius to put the hosts back to 119/6.

A valuable 79 run partnership with Pemberton Greenish Academy member Michael Burgess (32) and Paul Cohen (66) then developed, with Cohen finding enough support from the tail to add a further 35 runs once Burgess was LBW to Jarred Pitout as Cheam were dismissed for 233 from 47.2 overs.

The hosts made an early breakthrough when last weekend’s double centurion Dominic Sibley was caught and bowled by Miller for two but that was the end of their success as a brilliant partnership between Zac Elkin (98*) and captain John Vaughan-Davies (110*) - pictured - came together for an unbroken stand of 229 as Ashtead walked to a nine wicket victory with a full 38 balls remaining.

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Reigate Priory CC (261/4) lost to Sutton CC (259/4) by six wickets

After Reigate captain Chris Murtagh won the toss and batted, Sutton saw early success when openers Fraser McDonald (22) and Matthew Bennett (3) were both caught behind off the bowling of Greg Betz to leave them 29/2.

However, that was the start of 190 run partnership between Murtagh (86) and Neal Parlane (126*) that lifted the hosts to 219 when the skipper was dismissed. Chris Morgan then came and went without troubling the scorers but Neil Saker (13*) stayed with Parlane as Reigate ended on a very defendable total of 261/4 from their fifty overs.

The Sutton innings followed a similar pattern with both Matthew Cawood (5) and Josh Allen (1) falling early on to Aaron Pope to leave them 14/2.

Whilst the Reigate innings was dominated by two men though, the Sutton response was just one man’s domain. Surrey’s Arun Harinath, opening the innings alongside Cawood, played peerlessly to score an unbeaten 140 with fourteen fours and six maximums. He had support at various times from Gary Outram (28), Krishna Dwarka (24) and eventually David Sampson (43*) as the visitors secured victory from 48.3 overs.

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Wimbledon CC (267/9) beat Sunbury CC (193 all out) by 74 runs

The highly anticipated return match between the two sides who have dominated the league all season ended in a damp squib for Sunbury as they lost to Wimbledon by 74 runs at the Wimbledon Club.

Winning the toss and batting, Wimbledon lost Graham Grace (5) early before Neil Turk (23) and Martin Kain (50) moved the score up to 63. The dangerous Gerry Penford went for just four but Sebastian Franke-Matthecka (38) teamed with Kain for another small partnership before Kain went to Irishman Paul Stirling.

The rest of the innings was a story of small, solid partnerships with Steven Hobson (33), Hiran Marambe (21), Darren Hooey (26) and Augustus Kennedy (26) all playing well as the leaders completed their fifty overs on 267/9.

With a relatively large target to chase, Sunbury got off the worst possible start as Franke-Matthecka ran through their immensely powerful top three of John Maunders (21), Paul Stirling (0) and Adam London (0). Neil Turk also chipped in, removing another danger man Oliver Roland-Jones (1) to leave them reeling on 27/4.

Only Andrew Balbirnie (93) was able to play the big innings required to salvage the chase and when first Stuart Poynter (16) and then Gavin Spencer (32) were unable to stay with him, the game was up.

Balbirnie was eventually the penultimate man to go and when Adam Stanier was caught by Marambe off Hooey, the visitors were dismissed for 193 from 43.1 overs.

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Weybridge CC (157 all out) beat Normandy CC (127 all out) by 30 runs

A low scoring game at Weybridge saw an excellent bowling performance from Henry Turner deliver the win to the home side by 30 runs.

After losing the toss and behind asked to bat, Weybridge lost consistent wickets with Jordan McKinley (20) the only member of the Weybridge top seven able to score higher than the teens.

When captain Jimmy Ormond went with the score 96/8, it looked like curtains for Weybridge but Phillip Mann (43), fresh from playing for Surrey Second XI during the week, helped the tail wag excellently and received solid support from first Andrew Sartor (11) and then Henry Turner (12) as the home side were eventually dismissed for 157.

Possibly dispirited by the Weybridge tail wagging, Normandy ran into a similar problem of being unable to find a man to base their innings around.

Both Ian Prowse (28) and Anand Ashok (27) looked like possible candidates but both were bowled by Turner when looking well set to anchor a winning chase.

Even so, when Ashok went the score was 114/6 and with only 43 runs needed and plenty of overs in the bank it was still an even game. However, three more from Turner and one from Mann quickly turned the game in the home side’s favour with Normandy eventually capitulating for 127, Turner taking a superb 6/27 from just 7.5 overs.

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Banstead CC (290/3) beat Guildford CC (157 all out) by 133 runs

Guildford won the toss at Banstead and put the home side into bat, striking early when Surrey’s Matthew Spriegel went to Tom Collins for just one.

Spriegel’s Surrey colleague Rory Burns (46) then played well to recover the innings to 102/2 but it was the superb performance of number three Muhammad Jaffer (144* from 123 balls) that defined the Banstead innings.

After Burns was dismissed by Chris Coombs, Jaffer formed another partnership with Jak Martin (29) and then batted with Sam Woodward (50*) as he took the sword to the Guildford attack and helped his side to a very intimidating total of 290/3.

In response, Guildford lost Thomas Tremewan (0) to the first ball of the innings and although fellow opener and PG Surrey Academy member Harry Stephens (35) got off to a better start, Guildford lost regular wickets with Surrey’s Tom Jewell (18) and Robert H. Jones (19) both being dismissed after making a start.

Regular wickets continued to go down and although Matthew Teale (22) and Tom Collins (30) allowed them to put up a slightly stronger total than what it might have been, they eventually went down for 157 off 43.4 overs.