2009 SUMMER EDITION NEWSLETTER 2019 NO 6 - JULY 5 The Drinks are on the Club Chairman after Sweltering Saturday sees historic Five Wins for the Moles For the first time, 5 Molesey senior teams with more than a smattering of younger players squeaked through to 1st X1 Jake Kings and Jonnny Fawcett walk off winners in a nail- bring the club a clean sweep. The success brought mixed biter against Banstead blessings for the Chairman last weekend, as club tradition dictates that the drinks are on him. If all 5 teams turn up, it could be an expensive step into the history books! Club Night This Saturday so come down and celebrate a fantastic month! Mexican themed food served from 6.30pm and awards soon after! Everyone welcome!! WHAT A MAN! More history making this week, as Darius Burge became the first player to represent 1st X1, 2nd X1, 3rd X1, 4th X1 and 5th X1. Oh yes and now he can also be seen umpiring. Is there no stopping him!? HE CAN ALSO BE SPOTTED UMPIRING FOR THE JUNIOR TEAMS! 1st XI - June Clean Sweep For The Moles As the Summer calendar reaches Glastonbury and Wimbledon, The Moles continued their bid to serve up the headline act in the ECB Surrey Premier League title race, strengthening their position in second place. Consecutive, and contrasting, wins over Ashtead and Banstead kept up the heat on title rivals Reigate Priory, with the Llamas now wary that their challengers will prove a mountain, rather than a Molehill, to overcome. The visit of Ashtead to Graburn Way resulted in a comfortable win for the home side. Despite a strong start by the Ashtead openers, the Moles attack soon got to grip with the middle order, and were led by Jonathan Fawcett’s 5-54, as The Stags subsided to a below-par 162ao. Sahan Arachchige anchored the reply with a patient 46, as the hosts eased to a five wicket victory. The 1st XI knew they would have to be on top form to emerge victorious on their visit to a strong Banstead outfit. The Rams won a crucial toss, and elected to bat first on a flat wicket in blistering heat. The Moles stuck to their task well, in conditions that really tested the grit and resolve of skipper Dominic Reed’s side. Sahan Arachchige demonstrated his all-round skills, with a fine spell of 4-41 to keep his side in the game, after a 154 run 5th wicket partnership left The Rams on 256-4. The hosts made a sporting declaration of 280-8 from 62 overs, affording The Moles 58 overs to chase their score. Matt Tigg led the reply, with a simply wonderful innings of 85, containing splendid strokes all around the wicket. He was supported by several cameos, including a solid 46 from opener Tom Phillippe, in a real team effort from the visiting side. With the game finely poised, a flurry of late wickets left The Moles needing 9 to win with last wicket pair Kings and Fawcett at the crease. A scrambled single saw The Moles to victory, sparking jubilant scenes amongst the visiting players and followers alike. Third placed Wimbledon are the visitors this Saturday to Graburn Way, in a crunch game, as Reed’s men look to march on. Type to enter text2nd XI - Back to Winning Ways Your Scoobies correspondent hereby apologises for his absence in recent newsletters. He saw no need to dampen the positivity emanating from the Moles’ four other teams with stories of less than ideal start to our league campaign! Saturday, however, saw a welcome return to form with a convincing win at Fortress Graburn Way against visiting Ashtead. The day started with a heart-in-mouth moment for skipper Burge when the coin landed on the wrong side at the toss. Thoughts of side-eyes aplenty flashed in front of his eyes at the prospect of telling his teammates that his failings had resulted in them having to field first in 32-degree heat. “We’ll have a bowl!” said the opposition skipper. That weight instantly lifted off Burge’s shoulders as he quickly shook hands and 2nd X1 watch 1st X1 winning runs did via facetime! a runner to minimise any chances of a change of heart. The batters then proceeded to pile on the runs and ensure that Ashtead’s skipper quickly became the object of significant loathing from his men. The runs were shared around nicely with contributions from Malkin (31), Campbell (26), Lawford (41), Smith (28) and Miller (25 with bombs) giving Burge the option of declaring early. He ignored the cries from the baying hordes led by Knight to “LEAVE THEM IN THE DIRT FOR 55 OVERS!” and declared at 251-8 off 48 overs. 52 overs to roll them. Never an easy task but Beck (5-3-2-2), Knight (10-1-25-1) and Rizvi (7-1-29-1) started excellently with the new ball. Burge then had the luxury of turning to his tweakers once already through their top order. Miller (7.5-2-8-2) and Smith (10-1-55-4) were both at their best and made light work of Ashtead’s middle and lower order giving the boys a much-needed win. Here’s hoping this starts a run in the middle of the season. Thanks to EMCC Sponsors: Type to enter text Nail-biter for the 3rd XI Nails were truly bitten at Beddington for the League 1 3rd XI clash on Saturday. The Moles managed to stay strong though and scraped home by 1 wicket, despite a hat trick from Beddington to get us 9 down. Neil ‘Nelly’ Campbell and regular rearguard activist Olly Mills held firm to get us over the line. Despite having to field first on a hot afternoon, opening bowlers Toby Porter and Jack Crowther set about the task with gusto and had the hosts struggling at 17-3, including a spectacular grab by Dom Millard behind the stumps. Max Tomlinson joined in and frustrated the Beddington batsman and got his reward straight after drinks with a sharp, low catch in the slips by Captain Wakely. The challenge on an inconsistent pitch seemed to be greater with the pace off and Max was joined in the attack by Neil Campbell who also helped himself to a couple of wickets. It was the Captain’s decision to bring back Jack Crowther that ensured the Moles were only chasing a modest total as he cleared the last 3 wickets in the tale in just 8 balls, Jack finishing with 4 for 15. The message from the Captain for the half hour of the Molesey innings before tea was to lose no wickets. Unfortunately Jez Downer went third ball and Theo Talbot soon after. But Tiam Ashfar and Max Tomlinson steadied the ship so that we went into tea at 30 for 2. They put on a further 15 after tea before Max was tempted down the track by one of the 4 spinners in the Beddington attack and got stumped. Tiam finally went for a stoic 32 and this brought Neil Campbell to the crease to bat with Dan Wakely. Dan succumbed with the score at 77, and things were starting to get nervy which was not helped when Toby Porter chose to shoulder arms (beautifully) to a straight one and got bowled. Rod Porter staunchly repelled the invaders with Neil and took the score to 96 before the start of the hat-trick which would see us 9 down and still 11 runs short of victory. But there was no problem – we still had Olly Mills to come who had batted us to victory against Streatham only a couple of weeks before. He saw out a maiden to the hat trick bowler allowing Neil to attack the other end and see us home without further loss. A win by the narrowest of margins which maintained our second position in the league. 4th XI - Top of the Table As we reach the halfway stage of the season, the 4th XI sit on top of division 4 West having recorded 7 wins out of 8 games played to date. On the 22nd of June we visited Woking & Horsell. Having won the toss we elected to bat on what proved to be a slow wicket. Jezz and Kieron Downer lead the way and put on a 50 partnership before the loss of our first wicket. Runs were proving hard to come by before Rangana De Silver and Rod Porter started to dismantle the bowling attack, moving the score quickly onto 144, Rangana 53. Further contributions from the team saw the score move to 202 off our 40 overs. After the break our bowlers found wickets equally hard to come by and the opposition were looking strong with their openers remaining stubbornly at the crease putting on 80 runs before Kieron Downer made the breakthrough, taking the first of his three wickets. Wickets then soon tumbled, Rod Porter 3 for 18 and James Kotze, making his senior debut, with a respectable two wickets conceding just five runs, meant W&H were 63 short of our total when the last wicket fell. On the 29th of June the 4s ‘mean machine’ returned to Imber Court to take on Ashtead on what was the hottest Saturday of the summer so far. Losing the toss the opposition forced us Into the field and we were soon made to run around in the heat with the opening four batsmen all putting on over 35 runs each.