Alleyn hold Horley to a draw

AN UNUSUALLY HIGH NUMBER OF THE OPPOSITION WERE RUN OUT

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HORLEY Cricket Club's first team and Alleyn played out a thrilling tie at Horley Row, taking ten points apiece from this Surrey Championship Division Four East match.

Horley skipper Regan Derham elected to bat on a day that promised to be a scorcher, but their innings didn’t get off to a great start with Matthew Riley claiming the big scalp of last weekend's top scorer Ben Remfry in the first over.

Alleyn wouldn’t have to wait long for their next as CP Singh popped one up to short extra cover off the bowling of Jonathan Walmsley, reducing Horley to 19-2 after four overs.

Skipper Derham joined Sam Remfry at the crease and both looked comfortable against Alleyn’s seam bowlers, which prompted the visitors to turn to their first spinner of the day, Jack Thompson, and although the Horley pair were playing him well at first, he claimed the scalp of Remfry for 47 at the end of the 17th, just as the 50 partnership had come up.

Ben Davies (30) joined Derham at 69-3 and with the track not having any demons in it, Horley needed to start ticking the score over. The pair did just that, against both spin and seam, but then disaster struck for Davies. The returning Walmsley will admit it wasn’t his best ball of the day, but Davies could only tickle one behind off a ball heading down the leg side.

At 147-4 in the 32nd over, Alleyn went on the attack, with their left-arm spin duo of Thompson and Matthew Ogden accounting for three wickets in the next seven overs. With the score 177-7, Derham was playing a real captain’s knock, trying to drag his team up to at least 200. Joe Barnes picked up two wickets, one the prize scalp of Derham for 86. Will Taylor made a valiant 21 not out to drag Horley up to 219-9 by the time 50 overs had been bowled.

Alleyn’s reply got off to a sounder start than Horley’s, with Will Deasy the main scoring threat early on, as he tried to recreate last year's 132.