PIRBRIGHT are the only side to win both their opening I’Anson Division?Two fixtures. Hindhead and promoted Shalford are the only teams to lose both.

Relegated Pirbright elected to field first against Hindhead and the bowlers immediately found a line and length to make scoring difficult. Matt Jeffs shared a gritty partnership with Ben Thorne, but the only other batsman to reach double figures was number 11 James Shrubb. The visitors were all out for 94, with Rupert Howe, Aman Khan and skipper Ian Milton recording good figures.

Hindhead bowled tightly at openers Awais Khan and James Thompson. Harry Stokes broke the stand at 58, but Robbie Jones hit a quickfire 28 to finish the game in the 16th over, leaving the solid Thompson 42 not out.

Frensham II were confident enough to bat first at Badshot Lea, but Matt Bent bowled superbly with the new ball and took wickets regularly. Nick Green hit a quick 21, but it needed the calm head of Richard Chuter and some strong hitting by Harvey Herrington (32) to lift the total to 118. Bent returned 5-18 off 13 overs and new man Raziq Khan also bowled tidily.

Badshot Lea opener Hassan Raza was severe on anything off length and raced to his 50 before falling to Dave Stone. This prompted a mini collapse, with four wickets falling for 14 runs, but then Chris Minassian was joined by Jamil whose hard-hitting 29 put the game to bed.

Fernhurst had much the better of a draw in the all-Sussex meeting with Harting. Put in on a dry but slow pitch, Fernhurst built an unassailable total. Openers Mike Allen (67) and Mark Charman (49) posted a 100 partnership and after good follow-up knocks from Paddy Cowell (46) and Steve Tytler (48 not out), Fernhurst declared on 260-8 off 45 overs.

Harting never challenged the total against an accurate seam attack, but Fernhurst met a stumbling block in the very tall Simon Kyte. James Bristow (3-6) livened things up a bit, but Kyte’s dogged 34 not out steered Harting to 113-7.

Elstead only had four players at the scheduled start time and there was a 30-minute delay before they elected to bat first at The Bourne. Wickets fell regularly to the accurate Mark Budd (5-40), but Sam Egan held firm and began to open his shoulders against the change-bowlers. The visitors batted on past the halfway mark and Egan achieved a well-crafted maiden century in the 48th over, Elstead finishing on 218-9.

The Bourne batted steadily in reply and were well placed at the drinks break, having lost only two wickets. Skipper Rob Croucher reached a fine half-century, but the introduction of left-arm spinner Faz led to a rash of wickets and Bourne had little option but to play for the draw. This was achieved with relative ease, ending on 134-8 from their 42 overs. Faz finished with 6-19 from ten overs.

Shalford’s shaky start to life in Division Two continued with a 67-run defeat at Lurgashall. Put in to bat, Lurgashall owed much to Oli Rose who top-scored with 55. The home side were 133-3 at one stage, but then Bryan Winson (4-8), Dave Rose and Mark Callcut got amongst the wickets and Lurgashall stumbled to 152 all out in the 40th over.

It proved easily enough to beat Shalford. Ollie Pearce (4-42) and Aaron Evans had them in all sorts of trouble at 18-6 and they lurched to 37-9 before Dave Rowe and Satyarajesh Ravipati staged a defiant last-wicket stand. Rowe was finally caught for 44 and Shalford were out for 85.

In the local battle of the second teams, Grayshott II ran out easy winners over Headley II, the match lasting only 26 overs. Grayshott opted to bowl first and after an early breakthrough by Dylan Hood, Alex Marden struck twice, dismissing the stubborn Richard Jackson for 15. Headley were 30-3 when the two youngsters finished their opening spells and the visitors then capitulated to Dom Ford and Andy Lang who, remarkably, cleaned up the rest of the order with only one more run being scored. Ford took 3-0 and Lang 4-0, leaving Headley all out for a sorry 31 in 19.4 overs.

Grayshott openers Will Kriehn and Nick Ryall, two more youngsters, knocked off the runs in just 6.1 overs.