Surrey Championship Premier Division
Sutton 217
Reigate Priory 218-7
Reigate Priory won by three wickets
IT NOW looks to be a two-horse race for the Premier Division title after a superb run-chase earned Reigate Priory a three wicket win over Sutton, leaving the south Londoners 46 points adrift of their table-topping hosts.
After winning the toss, and, as usual, favouring to bowl first, the Llamas got off to a good start. Robbie Williams continued were he left off last Saturday by taking the first wicket, Garth Davson for 11, caught by Michael Burgess.
And the wickets continued at a steady pace with Surrey's Arun Harinath trapped lbw by Neil Saker for eight, Krishna Dwarka bowled by Steven Hirst for 11, Luke Smith bowled by Luke Beaven for nine and Trent Cooper, again bowled by Beaven (4-63), for five.
Sutton were wobbling at 51-5 and it looked like another Saturday when the Llamas would be enjoying a beer in the sunshine before 4pm.
However, Sutton were not giving up their title hopes so easily. After lunch, the south Londoners came out with renewed vigour and had nearly trebled their runs by the time the next wicket fell at 145-6, thanks to a half century from Harry Allen and 33 runs from Daniel Edwards.
Some good lower order contributions from Russell Coombe (35), Mathew Cawood (24) and David Mitchell (12) helped the visitors up to 217 all out.
Chasing 217 did not look an impossible task for the table topping Llamas, despite no Jason Roy, Richie Oliver or Craig Cachopa in the batting line up. But it was looking a little more difficult after Fraser MacDonald (8), Chris Murtagh (3) and Henry Tye (2) all failed to reach double figures.
However, a well-rested Andy Delmont, back from his holiday, added a not-too-shabby 38 before being caught by Russell Coombe off the bowling of Warren Barnes to leave the home side at 85-4.
Michael Burgess added another 27 runs but the Llamas needed a big score from somewhere if they were to secure a valuable win over their title rivals, and that came from Ali Raja, who joined the club this summer from Old Whitgiftians. Raja notched an unbeaten 86, including 11 fours and three sixes, as, with the help of 26 runs from Beaven, took the Llamas over the line for a three wicket win at 218-7.
