Club Cricket Conference Inter-League Competitions
The Conference Cup Round Two
Reigate Priory 289-3
Ickenham 141
Reigate Priory beat Ickenham by 148 runs in a round two fixture of the Conference Cup on Sunday.
Priory advance to a round three fixture scheduled at home against Waltham for Sunday, July 6.
Ickenham is a suburban area in the London Borough of Hillingdon just off the A40, east of the M25.
They play in the first XI Division Three of the Middlesex County League. This is the bottom division for first XI teams in the Middlesex County League and Ickenham is bottom of this division, with one point in the season so far. In other words there was a gulf between the standing of the Ickenham 1st XI and that of the Llama 1st XI. And it showed.
The Priory's innings of 289-5 in the 45-over-a-side game was built around a fourth wicket partnership of 132 between Chris Murtagh and Will Irving. This large score was helped by short boundaries on all four sides of the ground. Balls, like small missiles, whizzed by parked cars, struck nearby housing and got lost in back gardens.
Murtagh made 115 in 131 balls with 14 fours and 2 sixes. He played himself in slowly as is his custom. But once his eye was set, the runs flowed - his last 80 runs coming from only 48 balls.
Irving, dropped when he was 15, went on to score 5 fours and 6 sixes in an innings of 72 from 55 balls. Batting at number six, Simon King put on 59 runs with Murtagh and ended with a score of 31 not out off 20 balls.
The Priory side was effectively an 'A' side with some six members of the 1st XI squad, boosted with some second teamers as well as some younger players. And it was the 'youngsters' who soon had Ickenham in trouble when they batted. Three wickets from Ollie Hartley and one from Ben Donovan saw the home side crumble to 36-4 in the face of this youthful but lively opening attack.
When Steven Hirst picked up a wicket at 46-5 in the twelfth over, the game looked all but over. However, the opposition's number four batsman, by name Baljit Singh, held up the inevitable by skilful use of his weight and an unusual scoop and swivel shot, which, when it connected, sent the ball flying for four or six somewhere on the leg side of the field. He made 50 off 51 balls of which 46 came in boundaries (seven 4's and three 6's) before being bowled by King's slower ball.
King bowled eight overs, four maidens and took 1-21 in the second half of the innings, his figures being spoiled somewhat by a couple of 6's from Singh. Jai Patel bowled tidily in a seven over spell of spin bowling for 28 runs. Then there was the rare sight of leg spin from Murtagh who bowled six overs for 22 runs and one wicket – a stumping – when Ickenham's young 17-year-old keeper rushed down the wicket in an attempt to smite the ball for glory, only for the leg spin to deceive and the reliable David Ramsden to complete the stumping dismissal.
Ickenham were all out for 141, thereby losing the game by 148 runs.
