East Horsley 165 all out

South Nutfield 64 all out

HAVING elected to field first in the searing Horsley sunshine South Nutfield would have pleased with their performance in the field in this Surrey Downs Division 1 fixture.

Wickets fell at regular intervals throughout the innings with a delightful 41 by East Horsley wicketkeeper J Launder being the highlight for the home side.

Fine spells from Jason Gentles, 2-21, and Stuart Smith, 4-42, kept a potentially dangerous East Horsley line-up down to a modest score and gave South Nutfield 53 overs in which to chase the target.

With a number of players missing, including openers Chris Walker and Andy Gilbert, South Nutfield were always going to be up against it with the bat, but no one could have foreseen the debacle to come.

At 25 for no loss the away team looked in good nick, but the loss of first wicket precipitated what can only be described as shambling collapse by the SNCC middle order.

As stumps and bails were scattered around the East Horsley outfield, batsmen seemed fixated on attempting to dominate the bowlers with no regard to the scoreboard or number of overs remaining.

A final score of 64 and a damning statistic of eight batsmen bowled out tells you all you need to know about the away team's innings.

East Horsley's opening pair of Van der Westhuyzen and Van Niekeria finished with figures of 5-31, and 4-21 respectively from fine spells of bowling and showed the difference that has emerged since the Surrey Downs league split into four divisions.

South Nutfield continue their campaign next weekend at home to Claygate and East Horsley visit reigning Division 1 champions Brockham Green.

12:00pm Monday 12th May 2008

Print

Email this