HASLEMERE recorded a comprehensive win at Battersea Ironsides and leapfrogged their opponents into fourth place in the Surrey Championship Division Five.

Battersea asked the visitors to bat first and bowled very tight lines. Leigh Thayre was trapped in front by Harvey Nash with only three runs on the board, while Chris Spooner was dropped off his first ball. That proved costly as the opener went on to make an excellent 50.

Sam Williams and Alex Hooker fell in rapid succession to the pacy Will Marks before Simon Eastment joined Spooner in a solid partnership of 61, allowing a nervous-looking Haslemere to relax into the game.

The pair batted with great patience, waiting for the occasional bad ball to put away, which they did very efficiently.

But Haslemere are making a habit of losing wickets in flurries and it happed again as Eastment, Spooner and Scott Boxall all departed with only two runs added.

Haslemere were staring down the barrel at 109-6, but Chris Sturt and Keaghan Cronin steadied the ship, the latter scoring a rapid 26 to restore some impetus. Sturt and Pete Dudley added 26 in an unbroken stand and strong running got Haslemere up to 169-7. It looked a defendable total, with the bowlers Haslemere had at their disposal, and so it proved.

Ollie Ellis and Billy Boxall took the new ball and, assisted by superb fielding, the pair blew away Battersea’s top order. They were reeling at 13-3 and then Williams produced a moment of magic at short-midwicket to run out Andrew Henry as the Londoners lurched to 21-4 and then 26-5.

Ellis, generating genuine pace, clean-bowled all three of his victims, while Boxall swung the ball both ways and never allowed the batsmen to settle. Eastment brought his ‘golden arm’ into the attack and immediately hit the stumps.

Haslemere caught everything and strangled the batsmen until, at 53-9, keeper Mick Payne (31) and number 11 Dan McLaglen launched a late onslaught on the spinners. They got Battersea up to a more respectable 92 before Cronin claimed the last wicket in the 30th over. Haslemere won by 77 runs