With two overs to go, Reigate’s Luke Beaven bowled Normandy’s number 10 batsman George Harris, thereby ending a stubborn 10th wicket partnership lasting over 15 overs that had threatened Reigate’s fourth win of the season, but which now puts the Llamas on top of the Surrey Championship table.
The two principal architects of this win, by 54 runs, were spinner Michael Munday, who took 5-45, and Richie Oliver, whose 109 was the mainstay of a Reigate innings of 212 from 65 overs.
To understand the Reigate innings it helps to know that aside from Oliver’s 109, Angus Dahl, the Surrey 2nd XI all-rounder, made 40, extras totalled 31 and the remaining nine Priory batsmen managed only 32 runs between them.
Oliver and Ben Shoare had started brightly enough in an opening partnership of 23, after Reigate were put in to bat. Shoare made 12 to Oliver’s 4 before being caught at 23-1.
Normandy skipper and opening bowler Neal Prowse then started making inroads into the Reigate innings by bowling Andy Delmont for 4 (at 40-2), having Sam Hall caught in the slips for 0 (40-3) and then having Chris Murtagh caught for 4 (48-4).
Oliver during this blitz had advanced to 19 from 41 balls. He had been dropped, when on 8, by the wicket-keeper, also off Prowse’s bowling, and given several wafts to fielders close by did not look like a batsman destined for a long stay at the crease.
But suddenly these gremlins departed, the former Worcestershire County batsman celebrated with a brace of 6’s off Normandy spinner Chris Jones and thereafter played the sort of innings he’s known for, one with delicate timing and placement, sumptuous off drives and scoring at a fast pace.
He and Angus Dahl, batting at number 6, put on 145 runs together in 36.1 overs for the 5th wicket at four runs an over, forming the principal partnership of the innings, indeed, the only partnership greater than the 23 runs for the first wicket.
Dahl was the junior partner scoring 40 runs in 110 balls, to Oliver’s 85 runs in 107 balls. But Dahl’s tenacity in keeping his wicket intact meant the Priory could top the 200 mark.
Dahl left at 193-5 and with what turned out to be a further 15 overs left in the innings, Reigate looked set for a score of around 240-250. However the remaining batsmen could score only 19 runs in these overs, losing the last five wickets in the process for a final total of 212.
Normandy came into this game missing a number of team members who had helped the side win the Championship in 2017. Nathan Sowter was missing, playing for Middlesex. Oliver Batchelor and Will Pereira were still at University and others were missing through injury or other commitments, such as Jayanth Ganapathy, Oscar Kolk and Will Harris.
But absences bring new names into the side. The Normandy team opened up with Tim Ward, a 20-year-old cricketer from Parramatta District CC in the New South Wales Premier league, who last summer scored close to 600 runs for Shrewsbury CC in the Birmingham Premier league. While Freddy Austin, the wicket-keeper and Ward’s first wicket partner, was soon out leg before to Will Hodson at 24-1, Ward was looking increasingly dangerous, scoring 35 in 34 balls with seven 4’s. However the Australian took the bait of a bump ball from Stevens, hooked towards the square leg boundary, where lurked fellow countryman Andy Delmont, who sprinted in and took a superb low catch, down by his ankles, to leave Normandy at 45-2.
Stevens had Jones leg before at 55-3 when on walked Neal Prowse who in both home and away games last season had proved to be a thorn in Reigate’s side.
With opening bowler Delmont and Hodson now rested, Luke Beaven took up residence from the pavilion end in what was to be a 17-over spell. While he conceded only four runs in his first five overs, the Priory were hunting for more wickets.
And the breakthrough came when Munday came on for his second over in the 27th over of the innings and immediately had Charlie Young well caught by Murtagh at 88-4.
Next over, Munday bowled Andrew Hemingway for 3 at 93-5. Two Munday overs later he had two leg before wicket decisions given in two balls to leave Normandy struggling on 99-7.
Watching all this, of course, was Prowse, doggedly holding up the other end. Now he and James Harris, younger brother of Will Harris and twin to number 10 batsman George Harris, batted together for five overs before James Harris fell leg before to Beaven for 3 at 112-8.
Soon after, Prowse himself was winkled out by Munday for a well-fought 34 from 87 balls. He was to be the sixth leg before wicket victim in the innings as well as Munday’s fifth wicket at 118-9.
Just as the game looked to be in its final stages, George Harris and number 11 batsman Alex Grimshaw dug in for over 15 overs – 92 balls - as the pair withstood anything Murtagh could put their way – the wiles of Reigate’s spinners or the pace and aggression of Stevens.
Fielders crowded the batsmen. From one Munday ball there were loud appeals for leg before, a catch behind the stumps as well as a stumping as keeper Sam Hall tried everything to force a positive decision.
With a last throw of the dice Murtagh switched his spinners around and with Beaven bowling now from the far end with two overs maximum left in the game, the final wicket fell – George Harris bowled for 36 from 76 balls in a last wicket partnership of 40 runs. Normandy were all out for 158.
Munday’s figures of 5-23, when Prowse was out, got dented a bit with final figures of 5-45 in 18 overs. Beaven took 2-22 in 20.1 overs.
Ironically it was another tail-end partnership for the 8th wicket that saw Wimbledon stave off any chance of a Weybridge win on Saturday that left Reigate in top spot in the league with 88 points and Weybridge now in second place with 75 points.
This coming Saturday, Reigate host Sutton at home in the league, starting at 11 a.m., looking to continue their winning ways.