The 1st XI travelled to Chertsey, who will play one division above them in the Surrey Championship this season, and when Horley were put in, Sam Remfry and Ben Remfry opened. They looked comfortable on a slightly green wicket, keeping the scoreboard ticking along nicely, with Ben being the aggressor just like the weekend before. Ravi Patel was first to make a breakthrough for Chertsey, clean bowling Ben Remfry for 54, with his quicker ball as the batter attempted a reverse sweep.
Luke Smith walked out to the crease at 82-1 after 12 overs and played a more aggressive role than we’re used to seeing from the promising youngster, with a huge six over the sightscreen surprising his onlooking teammates. After scoring at a run a ball, Smith fell prey to Paul Hardwick for 30, snicking one through to the keeper, who took a smart catch standing up.
Ben Davies joined Sam Remfry in the 19th over with 119 runs on the board. They piled on the runs against a very spin-heavy attack. Unfortunately, the 100 partnership wasn’t meant to be as just after reaching his 50, Davies found long on as he went for one too many shots, falling to Eric Osner in the 36th over.
After a strong first half of the innings from Horley, Chertsey started to find their way back into the game, with Sam Remfry (65) falling just two overs later to Aidan Cassin, as 207-2 quickly became 213-4. Horley still had plenty of batting to rely on, however, with a mix of good bowling and a pitch that wasn’t all that easy to start an innings on, Cassin found another in his next over to stunt Horley’s push for a big total.
Jon Barnett (12) was the only batsman below six to reach double figures, and when he fell to Ben Hanger, the Horley innings finished with a whimper rather than the bang they would’ve wanted, as they worked their way up to 266-9 from 45 overs.
In reply, Chertsey sent out Elliot Bloomfield (17) and Paul Hardwick (22), hoping to get off to a good start. Will Taylor (3-49) and Guy Derham (1-45) were the men tasked with wrestling the momentum back into Horley’s favour, and although Derham had a wicketless first spell, Taylor found two in two balls at the end of the seventh over to reduce Chertsey to 34-2.
Hardwick was riding his luck a little but still finding boundaries to keep the scoreboard ticking over, until his luck ran out, becoming Taylor’s third victim as he edged one back onto his stumps, leaving the hosts at 51-3 after nine.
Max Toogood (11) and Raunak Patil (41) were leading the rebuild for Chertsey, but with enough pressure built and a change of bowling, Davies (1-51) claimed a caught and bowled in the 18th over. At 72-4, Horley felt well and truly in control. Osner (73) bided his time but eventually found his groove, and with a good supporting role from Patil, got his side back in contention. Regan Derham was chopping and changing his bowlers in the hope of breaking a partnership that was starting to blossom and Barnett (1-33) was the man for the job, trapping Patil lbw to end the 69-run partnership in the 33rd over.
Unfortunately, it didn’t get any easier for Horley, as Finlay Lloyd (63 not out) took the attack to them, pushing the score up to just past 200 before his partner Osner fell to the returning Guy Derham in the 39th over, which almost guaranteed a grand slam finish, with Chertsey needing 63 from six overs to win the match.
Lloyd was joined by Ben Hanger (17 not out), who made it very clear that his job was to give as much strike to Lloyd as possible. The pair managed to get the equation down to 13 from the last over and even though the first ball found the boundary, Taylor held his nerve, to make sure Horley didn’t lose, however with both sides ending up on 266, the match ended in a tie.
Horley travel to a familiar opponent in the form of Egham CC next weekend, for their final friendly before the league season starts.
Oscar Hofmann took 5-7 and Danish Mehmood and Richard Waddington both passed the 50 mark with the bat as Horley 2nd XI beat South Nutfield 2nds by a massive 244 runs.
This pre-season friendly turned into a mismatch as the hosts were under strength and Horley were too good in all departments.
Mehmood set the pace early on, hitting 78 off just 46 balls, striking seven sixes and five fours. His big-hitting started with the first ball he faced, which he thrashed back past the bowler for six, and he cleared the same fence once again in the first over.
He reached 50 off 25 balls and his excellent knock ended when he was bowled by Joseph Mills off the first ball of the 19th over, after a 91-run partnership with number three Aidan Spalding, who then enjoyed a 52-run partnership with Richard Waddington before falling for 39.
Waddington played a terrific innings, making 85 from 69 balls. He carved out 13 fours and punched a six off his back foot, before he was bowled by Yash Singh at the start of the 40th over.
By then, Horley were 260-4 and they added another 50 to finish on 310, with Matt Reid being dropped three times on his way to 38 and Dan Sired ending up 27 not out.
South Nutfield were expecting to struggle in reply and Oscar Hofmann bowled both their openers in his first two overs, both times off the second ball. Skipper Chris Webber had a sharp chance dropped at slip off his bowling in the fourth over and Hofmann struck again in the fifth and seventh overs to reduce the hosts to 12-4.
Webber took the fifth wicket, bowled, in the tenth over then brought Alex Field and Will Hofmann into the attack, with the latter bowling Billy Saunders off the first ball of his second over, and Field following suit to bowl Singh at the start of the 17th.
A terrific one-handed slip catch by Oscar Hofmann off his brother Will’s bowling accounted for the eighth wicket, in the 18th over, and the siblings took one more wicket each, both bowled, as South Nutfield were all out for 66 after 25.2 overs. Will Hofmann finished with 3-16.
Horley 3rd XI had their one and only pre-season friendly, before starting their league campaign next Saturday, and an unbeaten 50 from under-15s player Henrick Cook helped them beat South London by 97 runs.
Skipper Dirk Douglas elected to bat and Cook and Anthony James formed an effective opening partnership, with James speeding to 31 from just 20 balls (seven fours) before he was out with the score on 46.
Cook struck eight fours and reached his 50 off 67 balls, then retired, and Jonathan Priyaraj also retired, on 26. Douglas and Naveed Sherwani chipped in with 32 and an unbeaten 34 and Naomi Hamilton was 14 not out when Horley’s innings closed on 220-5 after 40 overs.
Ryan Smith and Tom Jowett opened the Horley bowling and cleared up the first four wickets between them before Hamilton picked up a wicket to reduce South London to 56-5. Catches were held by Ant James, Sebastian Cook, Douglas and Priyaraj.
Partnerships of 22 and 40 for the sixth and seventh wickets took the visitors up to 118 but Smith took two more wickets to finish with figures of 4-22 from 5.5 overs, and Sherwani and Seb Cook took one each to dismiss South London for 123 in the 26th over, giving Horley a comfortable win.