A dominant 158 run partnership between David Callcut and Thomas Clark was the back bone for Newdigate 2s put on a batting performance that has been lacking so far this season and beat Warlingham by 71 runs at home!

Electing to bat first on a fresh track the home team got off to a cautious start against the new ball bowlers keeping them at bay. However, an ill judged single accounted for the wicket of David Wrightson to add more misery to his season so far that has been below his normal standards. This brought in the returning Thomas Clark to the crease who from the outset looked to be positive whilst taking on the bowlers and the short leg side boundary. He and David Callcut then started to then accumulate runs and proceeded to set up an excellent platform at a healthy run rate and pushed the home team to 90 runs at the 20 over mark.

Clark was first to his fifty with a glorious flick off his pads to the cheer of his teammates. Callcut soon followed and brought up his second fifty for the 2s this season too. After another brief drinks break Clark decided to put the foot on the paddle and took on the bowler from the bottom end hitting him for 26 in the first five balls which took his score to 97 and a well deserved first league century in sight. Sadly, it was not to be as the bowler had his man clean bowled in the 6th ball to curtail an excellent innings that had set his team up for a formidable score.

The last fifteen overs of the Newdigate innings yielded another 120 runs as the home team batters took full advantage of the set platform with Cameos from Skipper Ruky Wickremasinghe (42), Naveen (14) and Crook (15). Amongst all of this Callcut too finished on 75 excellent runs to cap off another excelling innings which took his overall club tally to over 700 this season. Newdigate finishing on 263/6 off the allocated 45 overs.

With the asking rate near 6rpo the visiting batters came out and quickly started to punish any bad balls to move the score to 37 inside the three overs. The home skipper made a bowling change and brought on James Westwood who responded straightaway by clean bowling Sahni for 15. Sean Roast then had Ahmed caught behind for 15 to out the breaks on the run rate that looked like it was getting out of hand very quickly.

From there onwards the bowlers settled in and kept things under control to steady the nerves for the home side. Chris Halvitigaladon and Ben Crook then joined the attack and soon started to make inroads from Crooks end whist the pressure was built from the far end. Crook went onto bag another five wicket haul (5/24) for the season and put his team on the brink of the victory by the time he had completed his bowling spell.

Warlingham Skipper Swayam Patel was still at the crease and had batted very patiently as wickets fell around him but once he fell for a well made 46 it was just a mater of time before the innings came to a halt. The last wicket pair of Madazir and Seroz however frustrated the home side by adding a further 50 runs whilst entertaining the victors, but Roast came back into the attack and cut short their fun by having Seroz caught by Westwood to the cheer of the onlooking home crowd that had gathered to support the team.

Overall, a very satisfying victory for Newdigate who outplayed Warlingham in all departments. Newdigate travel to South Nutfield next week who had already won the league with 5 matches to go. It's going to be tough challenge for Newdigate but could there be an upset on the cards? We hope so anyway.