WITLEY were hopelessly outclassed as Puttenham recorded a win that sent them to the top of the I’Anson Division One.

There was nothing wrong with Witley’s bowling as they contained the powerful home side to 162-8 in 43 overs, at which point Aks Ilyas decided he had enough runs on the board.

At 60-4, after some fine bowling by skipper Kurt Lyall (4-51) and Charlie Hunt, Ilyas might have been worried, but Dan Harrison batted positively for 48 and Puttenham’s depth in strength showed as they eased to a defendable total.

Witley’s batsmen were no match for the wiles of Ilyas and Saeed Ahmed, backed up by Samad Ayoubi and James Crouch. It was all over in 16.3 overs – Witley shot out for 28, with Ilyas recording figures of 7-3-9-4.

Nigel Martyn showed his enduring ability to get the most out of a helpful wicket, taking 7-27 as Headley fell well short of Tilford’s 146-6 in the full 48 overs.

Headley chose to field first and made a promising start as accurate opening spells by Matt Hall and Andy Coutts restricted the visitors to just 24 runs off the first 15 overs before Matt Clarke came on to bowl Huw Town-Jones.

Tilford steadily built a competitive total, however, thanks to a disciplined innings by Nathan Sprittles who shared a 50 stand with Guy Wilson, and the 100 came up in the 37th over.

Hall then bowled Sprittles for a 122-ball 58, containing just three boundaries. Four more wickets fell in the chase for late runs, Hall finishing with 2-31 in 14 overs and Coutts 1-28 in 13.

Headley appeared to have victory in their sights as openers Harry Clarke and Stuart Smith took 29 off nine overs before the early introduction of Martyn and Geoff Coombe swung the game decisively in Tilford’s favour.

Bowling a nagging line and length, Martyn, in particular, was able to extract unusual lift on a drying wicket and this proved too much for the home batsmen. Skipper Andy Clarke and tailender Graham Badland put up some resistance, but Headley were dismissed in the 29th over for a disappointing 75. Martyn, who trapped four batsmen in front, finished with outstanding figures of 10.4-4-28-7 and Coombe returned 11-3-28-3 on a great day for the veteran pair.

Frensham dropped to fifth in the tightly packed top half of the table after losing to Blackheath. Put in at Hollowdene, Frensham failed to cope with the Blackheath seamers who made the most of helpful conditions, especially Dallas McDermott who took 4-26 in his ten overs.

Six batsmen reached double figures, but only James Wood (35) went past 20. Unorthodox spinner Will Melhuish also bowled well and Frensham were dismissed for 121 – an unusually low score for this ground.

Blackheath did not encounter the same difficulties. Nick Cobbold got Rob Parrott cheaply, but a fast 50 from Josh Milton paved the way for Will and Peter Melhuish to see the visitors home with an unbroken stand. It took the champions just 20 overs to knock off the runs.

Grayswood needed a large total to overcome a Dogmersfield side playing their usual ‘total cricket’. Anand Gurung and Imran Abbas had the home side in a spot of bother at 56-3, but once again Andy Major had a major impact on the game. He raced to 50 from only 36 balls and 94 from 64, being dropped several times in the process.

Dave Handley played a supporting role in a stand of 115 and then accelerated to a half-century of his own and the declaration at 230-6 left Dogmersfield 51 overs.

The visitors were soon 13-2 and after a lively stand of 53 between Ashok Gurung and Asif Mustafa, Dogmersfield slumped to 91-7 against an array of bowlers, Cameron Kent being the most effective.

Malik, though, dented some figures by hitting five sixes in a 20-ball 39 and the tailenders also tucked into the less experienced bowlers. However, seven overs still remained when Dogmersfield were dismissed for 185.

Chiddingfold also made an early declaration, racing to 213-3 in 37 overs, and Wrecclesham, after a bright start, suffered another alarming batting collapse.

The visitors’ attack held few fears for Chiddingfold’s top order. Dean Spencer and Matt Wright put on 118 for the first wicket and Wright, who hit five sixes, went on to share stands of 36 and 33 with Paul Ward and Matt Barnett before being trapped in front by Joe Boniface for 87. Barnett’s 38 not out included four sixes.

Wrecclesham looked up for the challenge at first, with Matt Parkinson (31), Bate and Darren Bridger all going past 20. But once they had gone, Nick Ayling bowling well to dismiss the openers, Paul Ward, Nick Harman and Chris Powell had easy pickings and Wrecclesham subsided to 111 all out.