Surrey Championship Premier Division
Leatherhead 216-8
Banstead 40
Leatherhead won by 176 runs
A WOEFUL batting display against Leatherhead on Saturday severely dented Banstead's hope of avoiding relegation.
After a good display with the ball, only a lower order 14 from Aman Shinwari took the Rams' total out of the twenties.
A sorry defeat in a game described by skipper Dan Newton as a "must-win", Banstead now drop to bottom of the Premier Division, while Leatherhead climb to sixth.
The Rams won the toss and elected to bowl, Tanners opener Sonny Cott going for 19, caught by Richard Bedbrook off the bowling Freddie van den Bergh, the first of four wickets for the Surrey youngster.
The Rams did well to stop their hosts finding a settled partnership with van den Bergh taking the wickets of Michael Wakefield, caught by Dan Gale, and Aneesh Kapil, clean bowled, for ten apiece.
Opener Mike Nicol was proving more difficult to remove with Shaun Udal scoring 24 runs alongside him before Nicol finally went for 76, bowled by Gale.
Leatherhead skipper Matt Joblin was trapped lbw by van den Bergh (4-81) with the hosts eventually finishing on a respectable, but not unbeatable, 216-8 from the 64 overs.
With both side needing the points to help their cause against the drop, it was expected Banstead's run chase would take the game well past 7pm, however people arriving at Fetcham Grove at 6pm were disappointed by the lack of cricketing action as the visitors crumbled.
Hamza Taaj went for one, caught by Jamie Brooks off the bowling of Andrew Baker (4-17) and at 9-1 Banstead were soon living life precariously with the umpire turning down a number of Leatherhead appeals.
But once the Rams' wickets started falling, it was like dominoes, with the scoreboard often two wickets behind as the scorer struggled to keep pace with the steady stream of depressed looking batsmen heading into the changing rooms.
Gregory Dann went for seven, Uwe Birkenstock was bowled for one, while 17-year-old Richard Lock, the hero against Guildford last week, was run out for two.
The Rams needed someone to come in and save them, but needless to say this did not happen. Earlier, the home side had seen several appeals turned down, but now all the decision were going their way as Josh Lawrence was trapped lbw for two, van den Bergh went in the same fashion for a duck, followed by another lbw, this time Craig Short, again for a duck, with the runs stuck on a miserable 19.
Next back in the changing rooms was Richard Bedbrook, who also scored zero but mixed it by being caught by Kapil off the bowling of Jonathan Tribe (3-17).
At 19-8, you would have forgiven the remaining batsmen if they had just gone home, but Shinwari (14) and Satbir Mann (7) batted gamely, adding more runs between them than the rest of the team had together.
With Gale also out for zero, the Rams finished on the disappointing 40 all out.
