DAVE Thomas produced a vintage spell of seam bowling as Churt beat Purley to rise to second place in the Surrey Championship Division Three.

Given the new ball, Thomas destroyed the visitors by taking 7-21 in 14 overs. Purley were handily placed at 41-1, with Chris Cooper and Ajay Chikki going well, but Thomas took a return catch to break the stand and proceeded to wreak havoc as Purley were bowled out for 109.

Churt took their time after losing Arran Higgins early. Dom Saint and Toby Finneran put on 49 and then Eric Osner came in to play another good innings. He top-scored with 40 and Churt won by six wickets in the 36th over.

Scott Boxall scored a fine century as Haslemere won a high-scoring Division Four game at Byfleet.

It was a good day all round for Boxall who had earlier taken five wickets to check the home side when they were on course for a 250-plus total. Matt Hockin and George Mickley made half-centuries and Byfleet reached a healthy 231 all out in 54 overs.

At 33-2, Haslemere needed something special and Boxall and Chris Spooner provided it with a superb stand of 195. Boxall was finally out for a match-winning 103 and Spooner finished 79 not out.

Farnham II lost narrowly to Sunbury II (2nd XI Premier). The visitors stuttered to 97-6, with only Ciaran Rooney (41) getting set. Matt Crew and Tom Blackburn then shared a stand of 70 and some late fireworks from Chris Terry helped Farnham to a respectable 208 all out.

Sunbury were on the brink of defeat at 181-9. However, skipper Curt Higgins and Shirsh Bedi showed the application that had been missing and Sunbury squeezed with four balls to spare.