A swashbuckling 153 not out in 105 balls by Richie Oliver saw the Priory beat Waltham CC by the emphatic margin of 10 wickets on Sunday in the second round of the Conference Cup for the Bertie Joel Trophy.
Oliver, who hit six 6s and 20 4s in his innings was partnered by Luke Haughton (67 not out in 88 balls) in an unbroken first wicket partnership of 235 from 31.5 overs, a run rate of 7.38 an over.
“He played out of his skin,” said skipper Luke Beaven. “He really excelled himself.”
Waltham CC does not play in any league. The invention of its captain, Iftikhar Mehmood, Waltham is principally a Sunday XI made up of Pakistani cricketers from various Home County teams, most with first class cricket experience.
The home side got off to a fast start themselves putting on 100 for the loss of only one wicket and reaching 180 for the loss of only three wickets, with Matt Hutcheon taking two of these wickets to fall in consecutive balls and Andy Delmont taking the remaining wicket.
Skipper Beaven was becoming worried that Waltham was going to rack up a big score in the 300s in the 45-over game. So Beaven brought himself on to bowl and brought back opening bowler Delmont, and gained immediate results.
Tanweer Sikander the number five Waltham batsman was stumped by Rory Haughton off Beaven for 46 and number three batsman Kasif Ali was leg before to Delmont for 61 transforming the score from 181-3 to 185-5.
Thereafter the wickets fell regularly. Waltham managed fewer than 50 runs for the remaining five wickets, and finished on a total of 232 all out from 44.0 overs.
Beaven turned in the most economical bowling as well as taking three wickets, going for 3-22 in his 9 overs. Hutcheon took 3-45 in his 8 overs. Delmont took 2-34 in 9 overs.
To some, Sikander is a familiar name. For the last five years the 31-year-old batsman has topped the averages at Blackheath CC in the Kent Premier league. In those five years he has scored over 2,500 runs at an average of 39.4.
In 2014, when Reigate Priory won the Conference Cup (then known as the Club Cricket Conference Cup), Waltham took the Llamas down to the wire in a third round game and Sikander was looking to be Man of the Match.
With two overs to go, Waltham needed only 6 runs for victory with one wicket left. Beaven, skipper on that day as well, bowled five balls at Sikander, then on 91 not out. Sikander looked to hit boundaries, he looked to steal a single to face a new bowler in the last over, but Beaven – cool as you like – beat the bat every single ball.. With the last ball of the over, Sikander went up the wicket, was beaten by the ball and bowled for 91. Reigate won the round and went on to win the Cup, a cup previously won in 2013 by Waltham itself.
For all of this history the players reported eating a wonderful Biryani lunch in between the innings and fired by such fare, and making use of a short boundary at the Loughton ground, Oliver and Luke Houghton went to work.
Waltham tried no fewer than nine bowlers using every combination of spin imaginable but wickets came there none and Reigate went through to a magnificent win.
In Round 3 of this competition, on Sunday July 8th, the Priory will host Bexley CC, exactly 52 weeks (July 9th 2017) after Bexley beat Reigate at their ground in the same competition by five wickets with three overs to spare.