Rivals are ready to meet their Meaker
Normandy ............ 266-3 Esher ........................ 198
STUART MEAKER’S century set up Normandy to crush Esher as Viggy Venkateswaran’s eight-wickket haul finished them off.
The leaders won by 68 runs at Hunt’s Hill Road, which plunged John Mason’s side into further trouble in the relegation zone following their 13-point deduction earlier this month.
Getting anywhere near their 267 target – albeit with 68 overs to score them – would have been a might effort but Esher were looking good at 118-0 thanks to Jamie Abbott (66) and Charan Gill (60).
Venkateswaran removed though both inside nine runs though plus captain John Mason for 24, Surrey paceman Meaker struck another huge blow in bowling Sohail Ahmed for 21. He returned later to castle Nick Winder while the leftarm spinner finished off the rest to finish with 8-43 in 18.4 overs.
Earlier Chris Jones’s 57 set a platform for Meaker – making 102no from 140 balls – and Nathan Sowter (77no in 74) to add an unbroken 122 before the declaration 266-3dec from 60 overs.
Meaker had some luck along the way, being dropped three times, with left-arm spinner Dan Taylor one of the sufferers as a chance to mid-on went begging.
“I can confidently say that my mother would have caught that one,” he said, echoing Geoffrey Boycott.
But he added: “Fair play to Stuart and Nathan Sowter batted beautifully. It was a great pitch and he looked like he scored them without even trying really.”
Normandy skipper Howard Grice was delighted to see Venkateswaran back in top form, explaining: “He’s not been quite the force he was last year but he had a really long bowl in training last week and looked much more confident for it.
“We set a bit of a generous target but there was a chance of storms around and didn’t want to get caught out by them. And with the attack we had someone would have had to play brilliantly and we’d have had to bowl poorly.”
Esher remain five points from safety as they prepare to face Old Whitgiftians.