Ashtead's dream comes true

Surrey Championship

Division One

Normandy 175

Ashtead 177-6

A real nail-biter on Saturday saw Ashtead climb into the Premier League.

They recovered from 59-6 to overcome Normandy's 175 by four wickets.

An unbeaten partnership of 118 by John Vaughan Davies and Colin Pitt saw them home after the Stags had looked as they had blown their chances.

Pitt was only called up from the twos on Friday night as cover for Marlon Cornelius, whose wife had gone into labour.

Earlier in the day, after Normandy had elected to bat, the Ashtead bowlers had spread the wickets around.

Strong opening spells from John Vaughan-Davies (2-45) and James Cameron (1-38) had put the home side on the back foot, leaving the score at 55-1 after 12.

Then the focus turned to the spin bowlers. Both Tom Deighton (3-15) and Josh Pickering (3-38) started well and were very economical early on. But it was Deighton who continued to strike at the Normandy batsmen.

First there was a stumping, allowing wicket keeper Chris Collins to show off his excellent reactions, and then two further lbw's to leave the home side at 90-4.

Deighton continued to bowl very well in his final overs, and finished his 10 overs in an excellent manner.

Meanwhile, changes at the other end saw the fifth Ashtead bowler, Chris Douglas (1-36), come on to bowl.

This proved to be a very good decision for the Stags, as he took another wicket almost immediately, bending the off stump over and putting Normandy under pressure at 101-5.

Further changes saw the return of Vaughan-Davies, Pickering and Cameron and all of these took wickets across the board, including a wonderful caught and bowled by Pickering and further catches by James Cameron and Pitt.

During the Normandy innings, several batsmen were of note. James Clutterbuck started the innings with a flourish, including some powerful strokes, before being caught in a stunning effort from Neil Farnsworth for 15

Esais Meyer also produced some excellent shots for his 38, before being trapped in front by Deighton, and Michael Scott, the captain, scored an important 22 before being caught and bowled by Pickering. Rick Mansell and Paul King provided a late flourish for the home side, scoring 26 and 19 apiece.

After the change-over, it seemed as though the Stags were faltering when the wickets began to tumble. The Normandy opening attack seemed to cause great trouble for the Ashtead top and middle order.

First to fall was Andy Roberts, outdone by an excellent ball that was flicked up to Meyer in the ring of close fielders. Next was Gary Martin, a huge scalp for the home side, who went in much the same way, caught by Paul King this time.

Further wickets fell when Chris Douglas was outdone by a great ball from Mansell, then Powell caught by Mansell off another excellent delivery, and furthermore, the wicket of Neil Farnsworth was lost after another great catch from Mansell.

When the wicket of James Cameron fell in the 22nd over, lbw off Paul King for 17, the score was 59-6 and Ashtead were coming under huge pressure of being bowled out for under a hundred - an unfortunate end to the season for the away team.

However, this is where Vaughan-Davies and Pitt stepped in, scoring slowly at first, but then increasing the pace once they had some confidence at the wicket.

In particular, it was the incredible running of both batsmen that won the game for the Stags.

Both batsmen eventually made 50 runs, and the applause for this was well-deserved.

Finally the winning runs were scored, and with an over and a half to spare. Ashtead had achieved their dream. A euphoric end to the year for the Stags.