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Sutton Take Revenge Over 2014 defeat.

Sutton Take Revenge Over 2014 defeat.

Toby Briggs23 Jun 2015 - 16:34
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https://www.reigatepriorycc.co

After 2014's memorable victory over Sutton, the tables were turned last Saturday.

Sutton Game
A chanceless 104 from Sutton’s Harry Allen and a devasting first six overs from Sutton paceman Aman Shinwari, when he snatched the top three wickets in the Priory batting order, put Sutton on the road to a 134 run victory over Reigate Priory Saturday in a rain-interrupted game at Park Lane.
Sutton made 270 in 64.4 overs with opener Luke Smith making 47 in addition to Allen’s century while Reigate’s best partnership of 29 runs came from the last wicket pairing of Luke Beaven and Will Hodson as the Llamas slid to an all-out score of 145 runs in 44.2 overs.
The win puts Sutton in second place in the Premier Division with 115 points, one point ahead of the Priory on 114 points. Both sides have won five out of seven games so far this season. However another win for Sunbury, over Valley End, keeps them top of the table with seven wins out of seven and 152 points.
On a day when rain was forecast Priory skipper Neil Saker decided to bowl first on winning the toss. But despite some cloud cover neither Saker nor Hodson could make early inroads into Sutton’s batting lineup.
South African Garth Davson, Sutton’s captain, who currently is on trial with Somerset where former Sutton player Johann Myburgh now plays, was the first to go at a total of 33 when he was well caught by Richie Oliver off Saker’s bowling for 19. But that brought Allen to the crease, who made a half century in this fixture last year.
Allen and opener Luke Smith put on 51 runs together before Smith fell leg before to Richard Stevens’s third ball of the game for 47 shortly before lunch at 84-2. Lunch was taken 10 minutes early at 91-2 off 27 overs when persistent drizzle turned into something heavier.
However Allen and another South African, Gary Outram, who came into this innings with an average of over 70 so far this season, were untroubled as they put on 43 together before Hodson worked his way through Outram’s defence for a caught behind at 127-3.
So far Sutton had been scoring at a relatively sedate pace of 3.3 an over. However the arrival of Rob Edmond, on debut for Sutton, changed this as he and Allen were to put on 80 together at a rate of 7.3 runs an over. Edmond, a former captain of Hull University, played several years for Solihull Blossomfield CC before his work necessitated a move to Wokingham CC in the Thames Valley league and now to Sutton. He hit seven 4’s in his score of 35 off 37 balls before he was bowled by Beaven as he became entangled in a sweep and the ball made its way onto the stumps. Allen, meanwhile, had moved past his 50 (in 78 balls) and at 207-4, when Edmond left, was looking at his hundred with 78 not out.
Wickets now fell fairly steadily as the spinners Beaven and Simon King worked their way through the lower order. But Sutton maintained a good run rate to end up on 279 all out at a rate of 4.31.
Allen made his hundred off 125 balls with ten 4’s and one 6, before uncharacteristically trying his first reverse sweep of the game which he plopped straight into the waiting hands of Oliver.
Beaven took 3-62 in 15.4 overs and King 3-65 in 11 overs.
When Reigate started their reply just before 5 o’clock, disaster struck. Oliver, who has been out of touch recently at Worcestershire, and is struggling to rediscover the form that got him into the county side last year, was out first ball. Aman Shinwari in his follow through took a tumbling caught and bowled as Oliver’s defensive prod popped up half way down the pitch.
And in Shinwari’s third over the Afghani fast bowler struck again. Sutton’s skipper Davson had placed two short mid-offs for the left hander Jake Lehmann and Lehmann duly obliged, lobbing the ball into the hands of Trent Cooper, the taller of the two fieldsmen.
Tea at 29-2 after nine overs did not change the Sutton approach. Within eight balls Shinwari took his third wicket, Delmont caught behind for 15 at 29-3. Ali Raja, last year’s hero from this fixture, and Michael Burgess looked as if they were forming a good partnership together, particularly after Raja survived a contentious appeal for a caught behind. But at a score of 53, Raja was given out this time, caught behind off David Mitchell, the other opening bowler for Sutton.
Burgess stayed at one end but saw the procession of Llama wickets continue as first Fraser Macdonald was bowled by Mitchell for nought and then Simon King was stumped off Davson for 7.
When Burgess was caught at slip by Davson off the bowling of left-arm spinner Matt Cawood for a well-fought 41, all hopes for Reigate had gone with the score now at 105-7.
Even the rain couldn’t save Reigate. There were frequent rain breaks but these lasted no more than 10-15 minutes each just to get rid of the heavier showers, as the cricket continued on a sodden pitch.
Luke Beaven, who’s had a poor season with the bat so far, found his touch and seemed unperturbed in an eventual top score of 42 not out.
There was excitement in the last half an hour as Sutton had trouble breaking the last wicket partnership between Beaven and Hodson. Davson crowded Hodson with up to nine close wicket fielders. But Hodson batted with aplomb and gave as good as he got on the sledging front.
This pair batted together for nine overs in Reigate’s biggest partnership of the game but with just two more overs to go before Reigate could claim an undeserved draw, the return of opening bowler Shinwari ended the proceedings when Hodson was adjudged leg before at a final total of 145.
Shinwari was the pick of Sutton’s bowlers with 4-43.
Next Saturday the Priory plays Valley End at Valley End and will look to resurrect its winning ways.
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