It was a cold grey day with unexpected drizzle before the toss, but the weather and mood soon improved for the Stags as they took a comfortable win beating Sunbury by 7 wickets in the first of the long format games.

Sunbury won the toss and elected to bat, no doubt hoping to amass a high total and put the pressure on the hosts. However Ashtead struck early with the wicket of Sam Burgess caught behind in the first over. Progress for Sunbury was slow going against the tight bowling attack of Simon Keene and Sean Hunt and with Nico Reifer caught by Ragu Aravinthan, a second wicket for Simon Keene, the visitors found themselves on 22-2 after 9 overs.

With the entry of Kelly Smuts and later Colby Dyer, Sunbury finally managed to find the boundary and build some moderate partnerships, first between Rajan Soni and Smuts and then between Smuts and Dyer. Two wickets for Tom Homes (catches by Sam Homes and Nick Kimber) and one for Sam Homes (caught by Ben Geddes) and Sunbury found themselves on 97-5 after 25 overs.

Re-enter Simon Keene and Sean Hunt into the attack but it wasn’t until the 41st over that Colby Dyer finally fell, lbw to Keene for 50 with the score on 146-7. It didn’t take long for Hunt and Keene to clear up the tail and the visitors were all out for 175 in 49.5 overs.

With a star-studded batting line up and 70 overs to get the runs, it should have been an easy run chase for Ashtead. However they got off to a bad start with Ragu Aravinthan caught behind off the fourth ball. 50 runs were amassed before Dom Sibley was caught by Kristan Baumgartner for 14.

The spectators were then treated to a batting display by Ben Geddes and Mark Stoneman as they amassed a partnership of 123, including 20 fours and 2 sixes. The Stags had almost reached the target when Geddes finally holed out on 90 off 83 balls, caught by Kevin Smith off the hard working bowling of George O’Connor. Only 3 runs needed. Enter Simon Keene to smash his first ball to the boundary and the Stags had won in 28.5 overs with seven wickets and over 40 overs to spare. Captain Mark Stoneman finished on 58 not out.

The result puts Ashtead 4th in the league table with the top six teams all within a few points of each other. Next week sees Ashtead visit Sutton, currently second in the table and 5 points ahead of the Stags, so that looks to be a hard fought match.

You can follow Ashtead CC’s 1st XI matches live on our website (www.ashtead.play-cricket.com) or at our YouTube channel (Ashtead Cricket Club Live). We look forward to next week! Join us then.