Surrey Championship Premier Division
Reigate Priory 301-6
Spencer 252
Priory won by 49 runs
A Michael Burgess undefeated hundred, his first of the season, together with a ten-over spell of three wickets for 45 runs from debutant Harry McInley led the Priory to a 49-run win over Spencer 1st XI at Park Lane on Saturday.
Burgess has been in sparkling form of late with his two previous innings of 68 in 63 balls against Banstead and 74 not out in 72 balls against Valley End also being in winning games. This innings of 141 not out in just 124 balls capped a troika of three consecutive innings totalling 283 runs for once out, and was the main contribution to Reigate's final score of 301-6.
Burgess had two principal partners in his innings – Andy Delmont, the Australian professional, who put on 113 with Burgess in just under 20 overs and then Luke Beaven the spinner, who was batting at number eight. Beaven and Burgess put on 97 in an unbeaten stand in just under 11 overs. This stand at nine runs an over saw Reigate post a score over 300 for the first time this season.
Having won the Surrey Championship title last week, Reigate skipper Neil Saker decided to blood three younger players – Will Fry, who batted at number six, Harry McInley, who was to bowl his 10 overs straight through at first change for his three wickets, and Sam Hall, a 14-year-old wicketkeeper. Hall was recently back from Kibworth Cricket Club in Leicestershire where the Surrey Under 15 team he plays for won the Under-15s County Cup by beating Middlesex Under-15s by 137 runs.
Spencer won the toss and put Reigate in to bat. Richie Oliver, was back in Reigate having just scored his maiden century (179) for Worcestershire against Gloucestershire. Possibly his ears were still reddened from the fulsome praise of one national newspaper who said he had batted "without equal on day three to further confirm his standing as one of the most highly-rated latecomers to the first-class game".
He certainly set off in this game, as he sometimes does, as if he plans to win the game all on his own and in record time.
Against Spencer's strong opening attack of former England pace bowler Alex Tudor and Surrey paceman George Edwards, Oliver had four boundaries to his name by the end of the third over. Unfortunately by the end of that over he also was back in the pavilion, having been bowled by Tudor for 17 in 13 balls.
The crowd were ruing not seeing what could have been an exciting Oliver extravaganza while the Spencer team, no doubt, breathed a huge sigh of relief.
From 22-1 after three overs, Reigate advanced to 38 in the seventh over when Chris Murtagh was caught behind also off Tudor, his former Surrey teammate. Delmont, 10 not out at this stage, was joined by Burgess, and the pair set about their 100 partnership.
Delmont was circumspect by comparison hitting five 4's in his 51 and taking 71 balls to do so. Not so Burgess. He reached his 50 in only 37 balls (with eight 4's). A tallish man, Burgess seems to relish the spinners in particular, using his feet in coming up the pitch to dispatch the ball wherever he sees fit. After Delmont's loss at 151-3 in the 26th over, when Burgess was 65 not out, Henry Tye (16) and Fry (2) came and went before Hall gamely scored his 10 off 10 balls before being caught and bowled by occasional spinner Hugo Darby.
This brought in Beaven to join Burgess with 11 overs to go. Burgess by this point was 88 not out and far from tiring he continued to put the Spencer bowlers to the sword. He reached his 100 in 104 balls and then scored a further 41 runs in just 20 balls, while Beaven scored 43 not out from 34 balls.
A 302-run ask for victory in 50 overs would be a tough assignment for any team in the league, let alone one languishing in the third-from-bottom slot and getting worried about the possibility of relegation.
When Saker and Hodson both struck in their respective first overs, Spencer's cause looked hopeless at 8-2, with two dangerous batsmen gone. Saker had Hugo Darby leg before for 1. When the Llamas played at Spencer's ground earlier this season Darby, who has played this summer for Durham MCCU as well as Oxfordshire, top-scored with 54. Hodson, who pulled off a magnificent caught and bowled low down, got rid of Adam Rouse, who until a week ago was filling in for Gloucestershire as wicket-keeper while others recovered from injury.
Krishna Sivakumaran joined Chris Baumann and the pair worked their way out of trouble putting on 61 together in 11 overs. At 69-3 Baumann was caught behind by Hall off McInley for 24, two of those debutants getting their name on the score sheet once again.
Baker, Spencer's captain, is always a potential danger at bat but he was bowled by McInley for 18 and while Sivakumaran had been put down in the covers from a relatively simple chance, no one seemed overly concerned with Spencer at 94-4, except for Hodson, the bowler.
However Sivakumaran and new partner Edwards put on 65 in 10 overs. Sivakumuran grew up in Zimbabwe, despite a Sri Lankan heritage. He was captain at Dulwich College when England fast-medium bowler Chris Jordan was playing there. He ended up making 71 in 78 balls, beating his previous high score for the season of 48, which also was against Reigate. When he was out, caught by Saker off McInley, at 159-5, George Edwards soon followed, being caught, also by Saker, off Hodson for 23.
Beaven, the left-arm spinner bowled both Tudor and Alex Rackow and at 172-8, after 35 overs, the game seemed all over bar the shouting.
Peter Walters and Jonathan Speller had other ideas, however, and started to frustrate the Reigate bowling attack with a 78-run partnership at a run a ball.
Each batsman had a 'life' from a dropped catch and some bowling analyses were spoiled. Once Reigate had given the maximum 10 overs to their four main bowlers (Saker, Hodson, McInley and Beaven) Saker had to look to his part time bowlers Delmont (left-arm spin) and Oliver (right arm medium) to get him home.
It was Oliver who broke the partnership in a heart-breaking way for the batsman by diverting the ball onto the stumps in his follow through and running out Walters for 52 off 48 balls at 250-9.
In the next over, the 48th, Delmont bowled Grant and Spencer was all out for 252. This was Delmont's first outing as a bowler for the season and his 1-37 improved an average that before Spencer was standing at 73.0 per wicket, from bowling in previous seasons.
Next Saturday the Priory plays Guildford at home.
