Surrey Championship

Division Two

Leatherhead & Cobham 188

Old Whitgiftians 171

LEATHERHEAD & Cobham outplayed Old Whitgiftians' illustrious line-up boasting Saqlain Mushtaq, Mohammed Akram and David Ward to secure a 17 run victory.

Having won the toss and choosing to bat first, Cush and Dyson faced up to the opening attack of Akram and Lewis.

Leatherhead were soon in trouble as Cush (6) was caught and bowled by Lewis. Dyson (12) again showed great maturity before he was caught behind off the bowling of Kenton.

French was playing beautifully, but the rest of the middle order did not fire as Brewer (16), Laidman (1) Roberts (17) and Matt Baker (14) all found ways of getting out.

Saqlain was unsurprisingly causing problems and when he had French (48) caught behind, LCCC were in trouble at 117-6.

The lower order had to ensure that they batted the overs to give themselves something to bowl at. They did so with skipper George McCullough (28 not out) coaxing the tail to a defendable 188 from their 50 overs.

Saqlain finished with figures 3-43 and the LCCC batters can be pleased with how they played him.

Leatherhead made an early inroad when Wouretz had Winson caught by Roberts for three. The danger man was former Surrey star Ward who played majestically, dispatching anything loose to the boundary. However, Wouretz produced a cracker to clean bowl the Old Whits star for 39.

Andy Baker bowled very tightly and deservedly picked up his first first XI wickets, bowling Morrison and then having the dangerous Lewis caught behind.

At 102-5 LCCC could sense victory with Old Whits struggling to play the spin of Dyson and Roberts.

Dyson accounted for Woodrow and then dismissed Mohammed Akram with an unplayable ball that spun and bounced, catching the batsman's glove and caught by McCullough at slip.

The dangerous Goward was still in though and was hitting some big shots. It was Roberts who dismissed Goward with a quicker ball that clean bowled him.

Roberts then dismissed Saqlain and Coughlan both caught at slip by McCullough.

The last wicket partnership of Chatwal and Kenton weren't going to give in easily and the Old Whits middle order could learn from their level headed approach. Unfortunately in attempting to up the run rate, Kenton tried to hit Brewer out of the park and was well caught by Cush in the deep.

LCCC won by 17 runs, their second victory over Old Whits this season. Unfortunately McCullough's side were unable to secure the bonus point needed to maintain their outside hopes of promotion, but the young team can still be very proud of their debut season in division two.