Adult League Season ends on a high

2021 ends with 3 league titles and a cluster of other high placed finishes that suggests that our 150th year in 2022 could be a good one.

Huge congratulations to the Women’s 1st XI whose first place in the Womens Cricket Southern League Championship sees them promoted to the Premiership, the top division possible, where they will fly the flag as the only Surrey club in the top two divisions.

Also to the Spencer Sharks – our Saturday team that plays in the Surrey Cricket League, taking their 1st Division and also being promoted to the Premiership of that competition.

And finally, to the 3rd XI who won the Surrey Championship 3rd XI Premiership, thrashing Wimbledon by 225 runs on the final day to keep clear of Sunbury.

Elsewhere the Saturday 1st team had the frustration of seeing their two closest rivals gain promotion in their matches against Spencer over the final two weekends of the season. First Malden Wanderers got across the line from bonus points accrued during their innings of 253/6, the lion’s share of which cam from 126* scored by South African (and Western Province captain!) Zac Elkin. Despite Spencer overhauling the total with an over to spare, it was the opposition celebrating. As it also was on the final day as Sutton joined Malden in the Premiership, their total of 249/4 powered by a quickfire 109 from 79 balls from ex-Kent professional Fabian Cowdrey. This too was enough to see them confirmed as runner-up with Spencer finishing 3rd, despite our innings subsiding to 193 all out, 18 year-old George Roberts stranded on 92 not out, 8 runs short of what would have been a debut 1st XI century. However with club captain Gus Grant, key batter Lloyd Paternott and opening bowler Michael Edwards all side-lined for most of the season with injury, the squad looks strong for 2022.

The 2nd XI also finished strongly, beating Dulwich by 120 runs at Fieldview to also finish 3rd in their Premiership, losing out narrowly to Reigate and East Molesey. Another former junior, Cameron Ponsonby scored 59* in the teams total of 202 whilst U15 player Max Hunt then took 5 wickets for 17 runs, including a hat-trick, to skittle Dulwich for just 82.

Also finishing in 3rd place were the 4th XI. Disrupted by the normal rotating cast of players due to injuries and unavailability in other teams, the team continued to play a large number of junior players and captain Hussain Jafri deserves credit for this.

Finally, the Women’s 2nd XI, finished 6th in the   Surrey Womens Cricket League Division 1 and maybe relegated depending on a potential winter restructure. It was a challenging season, chiefly because the team were playing against 1st XI’s from other clubs, some of whom included County players! Nevertheless, as the success of the Surrey Slam team (from whom these players are excluded) shows the strength in depth.

Junior season round-up to follow next week.