Ashtead triumph over Farnham

A cool breezy day and an ominous grey sky as Ashtead 2nds hosted Farnham at Woodfield Lane. The toss was won by the visitors who chose to bat, which likely suited the home team pretty well. Two early wickets for Jake Martin and Farnham were on 34-2 after 7 overs. Jason Vaughan-Davies bowled a couple of tidy overs before pulling up short with a calf strain in the middle of his third over, the 12th, and limped off to find the ice. Another over and the heavens opened and all withdrew to the pavilion to watch the rain. The half hour stoppage gave time for Rob Wint to be called up as a sub for Jason when the teams took to the pitch again, with sons Connor and Marcus then bowling the next 20 overs. Both bowled sparingly, but Marcus took 2 wickets and a run out on his watch, including Ollie Godden for 30 and Toby Ward run out by Josh Pickering for 44. Farnham were on 129-5 off 31 overs.

Gary Martin had one of his infrequent spells of bowling, being rewarded with 2-32 and Andrew Plant looked after the other end with 3-28, including Farnham’s leading scorer Alec Goldsworthy caught by sub Rob Wint for 55. Farnham’s batting expired on 203 after 47.1 overs, a respectable target and significantly more than Ashtead had managed the week before.

Tea was had and the sun came out at last as Ashtead came in to bat with an air of optimism, but Farnham’s opening bowlers Marc Lewis and George Osborne kept the run rate down and took the early wicket of Pickering, caught behind for 4. Gary Martin and Tom Dunn then stuck in and a 74 run partnership ensued before Dunn was caught by Russell Golding off Jamie Strachan for 33 with Gary having just made his 50 in the 24th over and the score was 94-2. A couple of quick wickets followed and it was 106-4 when Jake Martin joined Gary for a short but useful partnership of 34 before being caught by Strachan off Ian Thorpe for 22, by which time Gary had reached 66. A worrying moment was had when Gary went down with cramp and the Ashtead supporters feared another injury would curtail their batting attack.

The Farnham team spotted their chance to try to take advantage of his hobbling between wickets, but Ashtead’s 2nds have plenty of stamina, as proved also by the injured Jason Vaughan-Davies, being determined to bat. He limped to the wicket in the 34th over to take over from Jake, with Jake acting as a runner. Initially the runs were added steadily in ones and slowly Ashtead’s score crept up to 157 after 38 overs, still 47 needed to win. A four and a six from Jason in the next over and a single to keep the strike and another four in the next and after 40 overs Ashtead had scored 176. Then followed the over from hell for Farnham’s second bowler George Osborne with Jason taking his bowling apart: dot, 4, no ball 4, 4, 4, 6, no ball, 6. 30 runs off the last over, with no need of the runner, and Ashtead had won. Gary carried his bat on 80 and Jason finished on 45.

We look forward to an equally exciting game next week.