FERNHURST took the chance to close the gap on Brook at the top of the I’Anson Division Two, but they didn’t have to work too hard for their victory over a nine-man Thursley side.

The visitors still had a powerful top five, but Bruce Baxendale and Ryan Lewis removed Steve Fuller, Derek Agge and Keith Tilson cheaply. Thursley never recovered and James Crowder took the last three wickets to leave them all out for 56 in 17 overs.

Fernhurst couldn’t afford to hang about and although Alex Elkins took two wickets and Leon Fourie was run out, a flurry of boundaries from Mark Charman, James Johnson and Baxendale secured the 18 points after 12 overs.

Harting recorded a much-needed win in a rain-disrupted game, reduced to 68 overs, against Badshot Lea. In the challenging conditions, it was a low-scoring, but ultimately close game, Harting winning by three wickets after dismissing the visitors for 85.

Olly Simpson did the early damage and then Simon Kyte ran through the later batting with a destructive 5-4 in four overs. Ben Gray made 18, while Extras top-scored comfortably on 23.

Badshot Lea had batted 33 overs and it took Harting 32 overs to get the runs, while losing seven wickets. An opening partnership between Kyte and Jordan Bates proved important as wickets began to fall to Raziq Khan and Jennings. Steve Baldwin (20 not out) had to bat well to make sure of the win.

It was third against bottom at Hindhead and Joe Harrison (25) and David Babb made good progress against Elstead’s strong bowling attack. Both were dismissed by the excellent Attaul Moisin, who proceeded to destroy the middle order. Pradeep Gore batted sensibly for his 40, but when he too fell to the returning Moisin, Hindhead were all out for just 99. Moisin returned superb figures of 10.1-5-23-6.

Stuart Woods and Lance Thorne bowled good opening spells in reply, but Hindhead had far too few runs to defend and Elstead cruised to their target. Opener Sam Egan dominated with a fine 54 and Elstead won with six overs and six wickets to spare.