Llamas through to Round 2 of the National Club Championship

Reigate Priory beat Billingshurst by a comfortable 101 run margin Sunday at Park Lane in the first round of the Royal London National Club Cricket 45-over championship to set up a round two game May 29 against borough brethren Banstead CC.
Reigate Priory, who are sponsored by Brookworth Homes, had a vintage Chris Murtagh innings of 93 runs to thank for holding together an innings that finally totalled 239, two balls shy of the full complement of 45 overs.
Simon King batting at number eight scored an impressive 51, his first half century for the Llamas since July 2010 when he top scored with 55 in an innings of 202-8 in a losing draw against Sunbury.
Initially Billingshurst kept up with the required run rate of 5.3 runs per over to win and were 50-1 in the 11th over. But a wicket by Hodson and the introduction of Reigate’s four-man spin attack slowly strangled any ideas of glory for the Sussex Premier Division side as they fell for 138 off 39.2 overs.
A slimline Oli Hairs opened up the Priory innings with Ben Shoare. But Hairs lasted only four balls for four runs and Shoare 21 balls for his 12 runs.
Murtagh put on 36 runs together with Henry Tye (who made 10) but his real partnerships were made with wicketkeeper Ali Raja, who made 23 off 40 balls in a partnership of 61, and Simon King, who had scored 33 runs in a partnership of 70 before Murtagh departed.
This was vintage Murtagh. The former Surrey batsman likes to set up his stall with quick scoring in the early overs, when there are fielding restrictions in power play overs, with fast running between the wickets. He scored 32 runs in the first 22 balls he faced and another 22 runs in the next 24 balls. At a score of 54 runs off 46 balls he had also hit seven 4’s.
Then the boundaries dried up – but not the running between wickets as Murtagh scored 28 singles in the last 39 runs he scored. His shot placing was a joy to behold, delicate cuts going either side of the fielder, but rarely straight to him. When he mistimed a shot to be caught seven runs short of a deserving century, he had scored 93 runs off 100 balls at 206-7.
King then helped the tail end extend the score to 239 in the remaining six overs.
Not content with this resurrection of his batting, King then showed off his controlled spin bowling which was a major factor in preventing Billingshurst from seriously competing in the match.
King’s nine overs went for only 19 runs and yielded two wickets. King bowled Mike Boroughs, the number three batsman who top scored with 22, at 67-3 and then bowled Shane West for 1 at 69-4.
When the former Surrey bowler was operating in tandem with skipper Luke Beaven these two top-notch spinners bowled 12 overs between them for 26 runs stranding Billingshurst at 91-4 after 29 overs and now needing a target run rate of 9.33 runs per over to win.
Beaven then brought on his other two spinners, left-arm spinner Jake Rowe and offbreak bowler Ben Shoare.
Rowe took a wicket with his third ball and in his third over took two wickets in two balls when Sri Lankan Chameera Dondeenu was caught behind for 18 and David Dunn was bowled for a golden duck.
Rowe must have wondered whether this was Taunton St. Andrews all over again as last August he accounted for Taunton’s numbers eight, nine and 11 in a hat trick. But this Sunday there was no repeat performance.
Rowe took 3-21 off five overs and Shoare 1-21 off four overs.
The Billingshurst last wicket pair put on 29 runs together in an effort to gain some respectability for the Sussex side. But once number nine bat Ben Williams started showing off his reverse sweeps and a version of the Dilshan scoop, it was time to bring dignity back to the proceedings. This Beaven did by taking the ball himself and with his second ball dispatching Williams leg before for 16 at a final total of 138. Beaven finished with 2-16 off 6.2 overs.
Banstead beat Beddington by 119 runs in this Royal London competition to set up a Battle of the Borough cup fixture May 29 at the Priory.