Great effort from the 2s but Dorking fight back to clinch title

Surrey Championship Division 4 – 2nd XI competition
Dorking 2nd XI 171 for 9 (50 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon 2nd XI 139 all out (44.5 overs)
Dorking 2nd XI won by 32 runs

Dorking’s 2nd XI showed their champion credentials, fighting back from a poor start to clinch the Division 4 title at the Stoke Rec.

Stoke skipper Andy Page won the toss and set his bowlers to work in overcast conditions. Ring-rusty Donovan Hall took the wicket of visiting captain Chisman, well caught by Dan Gluckman; but the board was ticking prompting an early change.

Adrian Mills and Ralph Coleman applied the brakes, bowling their ten over allocations through for the concession of just seventeen and ten runs respectively. The pair traded wickets; Coleman getting Homewood to chip to Gluckman; Graham trying a blow for freedom only to pick out Jase Earl; then Quinn was bowled for a duck. Mills snared Chadwick, who drove loosely to Keith Watson, and Brewster to cut to Alistair McMillan. Dorking were 40 for 6.

However the prolific Horton stood firm, demonstrating why he was the Division’s leading run-scorer by some distance. He found partners determined to show the same fight as him; Kinsey, (16), Lane, (8), and Gregg, (22), helped add partnerships of 52, 23 and 49.

The change bowlers all did well, the luckless Jase Earl and the accurate Nick Lo, who sustained a calf strain early in his ten over spell but carried on; the pick. Hall, (2-32), took a good return catch in his second burst, and there were wickets for Page and Gluckman; but Horton stood firm, carrying his bat for 74 and hitting the last ball of the innings for four to close it on 171 for 9.

The Stoke reply began well. Lo, with Earl as his runner, and McMillan added 63 for the first wicket in a little under 17 overs. McMillan, (who passed 12000 career runs for Stoke during his knock), was adjudged leg before for 27, and this started a run of wickets where Gluckman went hard at his second ball only to pick out the cover fielder, then Lo, (40 with four fours and two sixes), holed out in the deep. 71 for 3.

Watson and Malcolm Dickson added a further 23 runs before the former was caught at the wicket, but Greg Routley’s counter-attack seemed to be paying dividends.

However a decisive passage of play after drinks saw Stoke on the back foot. Slow left-armer Quinn took the first of what would be four wickets for him when Dickson was caught trying clear the infield; Routley, (16), Earl and Hall were caught at slip to leave Page with just the tail and another 50 runs to find.

He hit Quinn for two fours before getting a good ball that turned and took the edge; and Coleman and Mills were unable to take the game to the final overs where a sixth, unused, bowler might have provided more scoring opportunities.

Wickets were shared by Quinn, (4-28), Gregg, (2-22), Chadwick, (2-38), and young left-armer Smith who closed the match with a second wicket at a personal cost of just 12 runs.

Next week Stoke travel to winless Warlingham, looking for a win to put pressure on those chasing them.

Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11769263