Banstead soundly defeat champions and streak comes to an end

All good things come to an end, and so it proved with the champions’ winning streak, as a below-par Ashtead succumbed to a 134 run defeat at the hands of Banstead, in their last game at Woodfield Lane until the 1st XI return to the Premiership for 2016.

Banstead won the toss, and unsurprisingly, elected to bat, on a hard surface that looked an absolute road for the early going. And so it proved to be, as the seamers could make no headway in the first PowerPlay. Tom Lancefield and Daniel Newton played two very different innings, with boundaries flying to all parts from Lancefield, and Newton taking a more sedate, but no less effective route.

The introduction of spin after 14 overs did little to stem the flow, first from Tom Deighton and then from Tom Homes. Further bowling changes saw John Vaughan-Davies and Dom Sibley came into the fray, and by the second drinks break, after 34 overs, the visitors had accumulated 182-0 in 34 overs.

Finally, the return of Jordan Thomas saw the end of the road for Lancefield, caught by Colin Pitt for 105. This precipitated a dramatic collapse as the rest of the Banstead line-up sought to use the final overs to pile on the runs. Wickets came firstly from Tom Deighton, and then from Dom Sibley, who finally removed Newton for 103.

With a final 3 overs that saw 6 wickets fall, including three from Tom Homes in the final over of the innings, Banstead finished on 264-9 in their 50 overs.

The Ashtead innings started with a flourish, as Michael Sanderson and Tom Deighton started well. With a couple of boundaries each, the scoreboard raced to 36-0 after 7 overs. Then the wickets started to fall. Within 10 balls, 3 wickets had had fallen, and the whole of the top order had been ripped out of the attack. Sanderson, Deighton and Vaughan-Davies all fell during this period.

The rest of the innings was characterised by short partnerships, as no-one seemed to be able to stay with Dom Sibley for long. When Josh Lawrence, the Banstead opening bowler, had completed his 10 over stint, he had figures of 3-39 and Ashtead were 74-5 after 19.

The introduction of spin, with young hot-shot Tyler Meyer, further becalmed the innings, and when he finally claimed the wicket of Sibley, for a very long and hard-fought 45, the end was nigh. Sure enough, just 2 and a half overs later, the final wicket fell to leave the Stags bowled out for 130.

Next week sees Ashtead travel to Chipstead for the penultimate match of the 2015 season. Chipstead aren’t yet safe in Division 1, but would need results to go against them. They lost by 5 wickets to a resurgent Spencer last week. Join us then.