The 2017 1st XI season kicks off with two home games this weekend – the first, a friendly, against Kent Premier League Side Sevenoaks Vine and the second a first round game in the ECB 45-over National Club Championship against East Molesey on Sunday.
The Sevenoaks Vine friendly is tentatively scheduled for a noon start and in recent years has varied between a 40-over, a 45-over or a 50-over game.
In the 2014 friendly the Cowdrey twins won the game for the Vine with Julius taking 2-32 with his left-arm spin and Fabian scoring the winning runs in a not out innings of 38 in just 13 balls. Now, of course, Julian is a reality TV star in Made in Chelsea and a so-called rock star while Fabien has just quit county cricket with Kent to join Julius as his lyricist, having written many of the lyrics of Julian’s debut album Shout Out To Me. Tom Lister made 82 in that 2014 game for the Priory out of a total of 214-6.
Lister, so far, has resisted any calls to the stage to concentrate on conditioning and coaching and this season is working in the Surrey age-group cricket set-up.
In the 2015 friendly against Sevenoaks, Cowdrey-less, the Vine nonetheless had an easy win over the Llamas at Park Lane as the Priory were bundled out for only 125, chasing Sevenoaks’s total of 216-7.
But last year honour was restored when Chris Murtagh top scored for the Priory with 94 out of a total of 242. Sevenoaks, in between the showers, came close with a not out century from Nick Sale but Steve Hirst’s wobblies bamboozled the Kent side with 4-24 as he led Reigate to a tight away victory by 9 runs.
This Sunday’s game against East Molesey is a serious, competitive game in a tournament that Reigate has never done very well in. However skipper Luke Beaven promises a strong first-team turnout in a game starting at 1 p.m.
If you look at the form records of these two teams you might imagine the bookies would place the odds on a Priory win. But East Molesey has done well at the Reigate ground before and typically the side bats above itself against the Llamas with batsmen such as Sam Burge, who scored 641 runs in 2016 league cricket, Dominic Reed and Simon Barrett reserving their best performances for games against the Llamas.
Last season East Molesey’s Barbados spinner Dane Currency topped the league averages for wickets taken with Reigate’s Beaven, both spinners taking 44 wickets in the season, although Beaven had the better bowling average.
The winners of this game will play away against the winners of Horsham against Ashtead.
If club members check their diaries they’ll want to note another friendly on April 29, also at home, against Bexley CC who finished fourth in the Kent Premier 1st XI league last year.
The season proper then starts on May 6th home to Ashtead with the next two fixtures possibly having a big impact on how the Surrey Championship Premier 1st XI league tables will end as it’s Weybridge away on May 13th and Sunbury at home on May 20th.
So starting this weekend this new 2017 season is quickly going to accelerate into some seriously competitive cricket.