Five wickets from Reigate paceman Neil Saker and a century opening partnership between Chris Murtagh and Andy Delmont saw the Priory roll over Normandy by nine wickets with 51 overs to spare at the Hunts Hill Road ground on Saturday. The win puts the Llamas in second place in the league table with 111 points, as Sutton lost to Guildford, while Sunbury, still unbeaten after six games, remains top with 128 points.

Almost as important as the wickets he took was the correct call skipper Saker made on the coin toss before the game started. This allowed the Priory to bowl first on a green-looking wicket with a slow outfield, a legacy of thunderstorms overnight.

After an hour and a bit Normandy was 65-5, Saker having taken four of these wickets. But then the clouds started to disperse, the sun came out and the wicket lost some of its pace and movement. Normandy batsmen 6, 7 and 8 showed some resistance that allowed their side to reach an eventual 144 all out off 38.5 overs.

During the lunch interval the sun dried out the pitch further, and when Murtagh and Delmont began their first big partnership together of the season, batting had become much easier.

From the start of the game it looked obvious Saker was relishing the pitch. He seemed to be bowling a yard faster than normal and it took only four balls for him to get an LBW decision against opening bat Oliver Batchelor. Batchelor, 17, who’s a graduate of the Surrey Academy programme and now a Surrey 2nd XI player, scored a not out hundred in Normandy’s first game of the season. But he had no answer to Reigate’s fast bowler on a mission.

In Saker’s second over he moved the ball twice in consecutive balls through Normandy captain Howard Grice’s defence. Grice, who scored 87 in May in Normandy’s win over the Priory in the ECB National Club Championship, looked at sea and in Saker’s next over, his third, Grice fell LBW at a score of 18-2.

After last week’s seven wicket haul this looked to be a wicket where Hodson would thrive. But the medium-pacer could not find his line and length in his first spell of five overs, which yielded 30 runs for no wickets.

Saker, meanwhile, continued his destruction. Next to go was Ian Prowse, team-mate of Priory’s wicket-keeper Michael Burgess in the Loughborough UCCE side. The Normandy number 4 managed a couple of boundaries off Saker but in his sixth over the Priory skipper tempted Prowse to drive, and the resultant nick was well caught behind by Burgess.

Australian Nathan Sowter lasted 10 balls before Saker sent his middle stump flying. When Richard Stevens, who replaced Hodson, bowled opener Ben Frost for 29, Normandy was reeling at 65-5, after 16 overs.

Jayanth Ganapathy, a Singapore international, now joined Chris Jones, who like Batchelor is only 17 years old, a graduate of the Surrey Academy and also a Surrey 2nd XI player. The pair put on the largest partnership of the Normandy innings of 30 runs. Jones was lucky to survive two big appeals for caught behind but this fortune ran out shortly before lunch when Stevens bowled him for 25 off 28 balls at 95-6.

Ganapathy went on to make 22, before he became Saker’s fifth wicket, caught by Stevens in the covers. Chris Hampton top scored with 31 while numbers 9, 10 and 11 managed but three runs between them in seven overs as Normandy finished at 144 all out off 38.5 overs.

In a three over second spell, Hodson took a wicket first ball, caught behind, while Beaven wrapped up the last two wickets to fall, both caught.

Saker finished with 5-63 in 14 overs, Hodson took 1-31, Stevens 2-25 and Beaven 2-21.

When Reigate went in to bat opener Andy Delmont was in need of some runs. After his prolific season last year when he racked up 675 runs in league cricket at an average of 52, Delmont this year hasn’t yet been able to fire, scoring only 33 runs in five times at the wicket.

The South Australian needed some luck. And he got it on the third ball he faced when he slashed at opening bowler Dan Miles. The ball flew chest high straight to Grice at first slip. The Normandy skipper clutched at the ball but only managed to deflect it for two runs. And suddenly, as if a switch had been turned on, Delmont started to bat like he did last year.

With Murtagh starting this game with a batting average of 63.75 from his five games, Reigate supporters were treated to a feast of batting. Murtagh is compact at the crease with elegant strokes and sumptuous drives while Delmont is powerful, hitting the ball hard. They did hit boundaries, five 4’s apiece (with Delmont hitting an additional six) in this 106-run partnership, but they also ran quickly between the wickets, singles, two’s and three’s. Thus they kept the scoreboard ticking along at the rate of 5.1 runs an over for the 50-run partnership and 4.55 overall for the 100-run partnership.

They did have some luck. At 26-0, Murtagh, then on 14, nicked the ball and there was a loud click as the ball shaved the wicket. The Normandy fielders celebrated but the bails had not fallen off and Murtagh and Delmont ran three.

The 50 partnership came within 10 overs off the opening Normandy pair of Miles and Prowse. The spinners came on but were unable to stem the flow of runs.

Sowter, like Reigate’s Jake Lehmann, has a mother born in England, so he can play as an exempt overseas player. He’s a leg break bowler with a flipper and a googly, the latter ball bringing two loud but unsuccessful appeals for LBW. Recently Sowter has played for the Middlesex County side in four Twenty20 games. Last week he got 6-19 for Middlesex 2nds against Glamorgan 2nds.

The second spinner was Vignesh Venkateswaran, a left-arm orthodox spinner, like Beaven. ‘Viggy’, as he is called, bowled tidily and gave up 32 runs in an eventual nine over spell. Sowter bowled six overs and went for 0-34.

When Sowter came off Murtagh and Delmont had just posted the 100 partnership, after 22 overs. Murtagh had been the dominant partner until he reached the mid-30s, when Delmont tucked into Sowter and started to boost his scoring rate. Of the century partnership Delmont scored 56 runs off 69 balls and Murtagh 43 off 61 balls.

Sowter was replaced by Jones, an offspinner, who third ball had Delmont caught at mid-on for 61 at 108-1.

Jones, the Surrey 2nd XI player, comes from a cricketing family. His grandfather Robert Jones, who scored the Priory innings for Normandy, scored over 10,000 runs for the club. His father David was Normandy’s first XI captain and now captains the 2nd XI. His younger sister Hannah is in the England under-19 squad.

And while Jones did get the only wicket to fall, he paid the price by bringing Lehmann to the crease. Six overs later, Lehmann was to hit Jones for 10 runs in three balls to bring the game to an early close at 147-1 off 29.4 overs, with 51 overs to spare.

Jones finished with 1-21 off 3.4 overs while Lehmann finished on 26 not out off 20 balls. Murtagh ended on 58 not out off 85 balls. Reigate’s final run rate was just under five at an average 4.96 runs per over. This was sweet revenge over Normandy who had beaten the Priory in May in the ECB National Club Championship.