Horley Cricket Club enjoy double celebrations after brilliant Bank Holiday weekend

The 1st XI are celebrated promotion into the Surrey Championship with a game to spare after guaranteeing they will finish second in this year’s Surrey County League Premier Division with a 38-run win over Woodmansterne.

Horley skipper Charlie Robins is delighted with the achievement. His team were promoted into the County League Premier Division at the end of the 2019 season and Robins said: “Hard work and persistence has finally paid off after three tough years in this division. The squad has really come together this season as one team and we have got what we deserved.

“When taking the captaincy in 2017 I had the goal of getting the club into the Championship and can now say I have achieved that.”

The crucial win over Woodmansterne was set up by a masterful and measured century from Horley opener Regan Derham after they had been put in at Horley Row. He used all his class to score more than half the runs of the Horley total.

The 100 was up before the first wicket went down, then Ant Puttick (36) played straight back to the bowler and was well caught by Adnan Shan.

Derham was on 60 at that point and kept the scoreboard ticking as wickets fell regularly at the other end.

Having negotiated the nervous nineties, Derham reached his 100 immediately before Horley’s fifth wicket fell and he batted on to reach 121 from 108 balls, including four sixes and 12 fours, before he was finally out in the 38th over.

With batters three to eight having failed to reach double figures, tailenders Adam Stephenson (11) and Guy Derham (14) put on 20 for the ninth wicket before Stephenson was caught behind and when Guy Derham was out, Horley’s innings concluded on 226 all out from 43.5 overs.

Woodmansterne were looking to accumulate batting bonus points as they are among a group of clubs flirting with relegation down the table. So, their scoring rate was never quick enough, as they aimed more for 180 (which would give them maximum batting points) rather than the win. They were 23-2 after ten overs, 70-3 after 20 and 106-3 after 30, before an acceleration to 165-6 off 40 overs. They reached 180 with a massive six by Joe Hyatt in the 44th over.

Robins took 2-19 from nine overs, Ben Davies 2-36, and Will Taylor, Stephenson and Matt Gainsford picked up one each, while Guy Derham got a fine runout.

Woodmansterne ended up on 188-8 from their 45 overs and the final ball signalled the start of celebrations for Horley which went long into the night.

Horley Hackers are the Sussex Slam T20 champions, beating St Andrew’s (Burgess Hill) Bears in the final by 29 runs.

An original entry list of 116 teams was whittled down to four for Finals Day at Horsham. Horley outclassed Findon Horses in their semi-final, winning by six wickets with more than seven overs to spare.

Rob Woodward took 3-13 from four overs as Findon were restricted to 120-8 from their 20 overs and the Hackers made very short work of the chase, reaching 121-4 in 12.2 overs. Nathan Baily top-scored, blasting four sixes in his 28 from 17 balls, Ben Davies made 21, Regan Derham 19 and Adam Stephenson 18.

The Bears beat Robertsbridge in the other semi-final and in the final, Horley elected to bat, wanting to post a big score. At only 19-3 after five overs due to some good swing bowling, that hope seemed forlorn, but Davies and Regan Derham rebuilt the innings, working the ball around the ground and running superbly to put on 103 runs together.

The 50 came up from the first ball of the ninth over and by the end of the tenth they were 73-3, helped by a Derham four and six. They took 17 off the 13th over, including three consecutive fours for Davies, who retired on 50 in the 14th.

Derham retired on the same score in the 17th over, with Horley 136-4, and 23 from Puttick plus 12 from Gainsford took Horley to an excellent 179-5.

Baily grabbed an early wicket in the reply, caught by captain Jordan Robins, and Woodward then bowled the other opener, but the Bears scored 53 for the third wicket to stay in contention.

Charlie Robins came on in the 13th over and bowled Edwin Dale (16) with his first ball, then repeated the trick in the 17th over, bowling Freddie Nehls after Scott Lonsdale had retired for 52. Between those wickets, Guy Derham had thrown in smartly for a runout and with three overs left, the Bears needed 47.

With victory in sight, Davies and Robins kept it tight in the next two overs, and Woodward rocketed the ball in from cow corner for a runout. The Bears needed 32 from the last over and Davies rubbed salt into the wound allowing them just two runs, and Horley were champions.

Horley 2nd XI travelled to Wandgas for the penultimate league game of the year and picked up their 13th win.

Wandgas won the toss and elected to bat first. Rob Woodward bowled an excellent opening spell, taking 4-20 from nine overs, helping reduce Wandgas to 62-7.

Wandgas limped on and finished on 118 all out after 41.2 overs, with Luke Smith, Trevor Stevens, Kieran Childs, Andrew Thomas and Matthew Reid all taking a wicket each.

Horley made tough work of the reply, losing wickets regularly along the way. At 76-6 they looked like they were struggling to chase down the low total. However, Thomas (23 not out) and Smith (15 not out) solidified the innings and got Horley over the line with a seventh-wicket partnership of 43 to win by four wickets.

With one game to go, the promotion and relegation issues in Surrey County League 2nd XI Division One are all decided. Horley have finished third, just one win short of second and so miss out on promotion.

Horley 3rd XI's penultimate Sussex League Division 11 West game of the season saw them playing away to second in the league Roffey 4th XI and they suffered a big, 182-run defeat.

Stand-in captain Dirk Douglas won the toss and elected to bowl on what looked to be a relatively good wicket.

Opening bowler Max Heise sought respect from the opposition straight from the first ball after bowling an unplayable ball which saw the off-stump tumble for a golden duck.

Roffey hunkered down and played defensively to the good balls and took advantage of the bad ones. As pressure built for Roffey with some economical bowling from Darren Croft, Naveed Sherwani and Rob Rigby, they were starting to take unnecessary chances, seeing three of the batsmen run out by the gun arm of Douglas.

Roffey rebuilt again and were untroubled during the latter part of their innings, and they reached 251-8 from their 40 overs. Heise and Sherwani took two wickets each with Croft picking up the other.

Horley's reply got off to a good start with opener Dave Hyde taking full advantage of some loose bowling, scoring nine from the first over.

However, things took a turn for the worse as Horley were unable to put together any stand-out partnerships, with wickets being taken at regular intervals. With just three batsmen getting into double figures and Sherwani top-scoring with 19 and some fine bowling from the Roffey opening pair, Horley were all out for 69.

Although this game was won by the better side on the day, Horley will go again next week in the final game of the season against Steyning 3rd XI.