REIGATE Priory lost to Sevenoaks Vine on Saturday in a pre-season 40-over friendly as the Cowdrey twins, Sevenoaks batsman Lorne Burns and Tonbridge schoolboy Zak Crawley conspired to send the Llamas home winless.
Reigate won the toss and opened with two batsmen new to the club – Tom Lister, coach for the first team, who comes from Sheffield Collegiate, home cricket club to both Michael Vaughan and Joe Root, as well as Ali Raja, who joins the Priory from Old Whitgiftians.
This new pair put on 52 for the first wicket before Raja was run out for 40 in the 15th over. Michael Burgess, another newcomer who also plays for Loughborough MCCU, joined Lister for a partnership of 39 before being bowled by Julius Cowdrey, a left-arm spinner bowling in tandem with twin brother Fabian Cowdrey, also a left-arm spinner.
Lister, by now on 31, was joined by Henry Tye, last year's surprise batting star. Tye, who spent the winter in Australia playing cricket, could not get going before he too was bowled by Julius Cowdrey for 20, leaving the Priory at 125-3 in the 28th over.
Lister was now on 44 off 59 balls and beginning to get into his stride after a slow start. While Irving came and went, Lister found a partner in skipper Neil Saker as the pair put on 65 runs in eight overs. Lister was then caught off Sale for 82 off 84 balls at 193-5, an impressive debut.
In the remaining three overs, Saker and Steve Hirst pushed the score up to 214-6 with Saker scoring a run a ball 34 not out.
With a very short boundary on the Holly Bush Lane side of the ground, 214 seemed a below par score and the Sevenoaks openers – Nick Sale from Queensland and Lorne Burns who has played for Kent 2nd XI – tried to prove this point from the start. They raced to 33 off the first four overs before Saker and Toby Briggs put a brake on proceedings as Sale and Burns put on only 14 runs in the next four overs. But the opening pair were hard to dislodge and by the time Sale was caught by Lister off Hirst the score was 79-1 in the 15th over.
This brought 16-year-old schoolboy Zak Crawley to the wicket, a Cowdrey sports scholar at Tonbridge school and a young man who played one game for Kent second team last season as a 15-year-old. Crawley and Burns, seemingly effortlessly, pushed the score to 157 off 30 overs before Burns was caught by Briggs off Chris Wigley's left-arm spin.
This brought Mike Barber to the wicket and when he fell for just nine runs off Wigley's third over, Sevenoaks at 176-3 needed 39 to win off just over six overs. But in came Fabian Cowdrey to the crease, who is a contracted Kent player on the cusp of breaking into the county team.
While 21-year-old Julius Cowdrey is trying to make his name in the music world as a singer-songwriter, twin Fabian is carrying on the tradition of grandfather Lord Colin, father Chris and uncle Graham as a cricketer. He took two balls to get his eye in and then walloped 38 off the next 11 balls he faced with four fours and three sixes thereby bringing a decisive end to proceedings.
Crawley ended up with a not out 57 off 74 balls as Sevenoaks won comfortably with three overs to spare.
