Stags put up a fight

On a blustery day punctuated with showers Cheam won the toss and decided to put Ashtead in to bat. Openers Fred Davies and Gary Martin at first struggled to score, as opening bowlers Leigh Harrison and Jordan Thomas kept the run rate pinned down to 2 an over for the first 15 overs. However, despite several brief interruptions for rain, Davies and Martin persevered and, with some nicely placed shots around the ground, together put on a partnership of 137 before Martin was caught by Aaron Phillips off the bowling of Thomas for 63 in the 40th over. Davies (66) followed soon after, the first of 5 wickets for spinner Paul Cohen.

Stewart Cameron (67* off 66 balls) then took up the attack, partnered firstly by Michael Sanderson (12) and then John Vaughan-Davies (16) and together they took the score to 217-4 by the 60th over before Vaughan-Davies was caught. The next 4 wickets tumbled over the remaining 4 overs, but the Stags battled on to end their innings with a 6 from Tom Deighton and finish on 254-8.

Ashtead hoped the target would be enough, but from the start Cheam had a quick chase in mind, lest further rain or bad light curtail play. The early wickets of Bradley Scriven (16), caught Vaughan-Davies off the bowling of Connor Young, and Daniel Phillips (32), bowled Stuart Cope, kept the Stags hoping for a positive result. However Cheam’s keeper Michael Burgess had other ideas and despite the best endeavours of Ashtead’s bowlers he blasted his way to 111 (off 122 balls) before finally being caught by Tom Homes off Cope in the 50th over.

With the score on 238, Cheam could see the finish line and there was nothing the Ashtead bowlers could do to stem the flow. Ken Brown (39*) and Cohen (6*) hit the winning runs with 7 balls to spare and left the battling Stags disappointed again.