Hairs leads the way in Llama T20

Paul Bridge writes...

A fast-scoring opening partnership of 51 runs in five overs by Reigate Priory CC was the foundation of a straight-forward 90 run win Tuesday over Dulwich CC in the second round of the 2016 Surrey Championship Twenty 20 competition.
The partnership between Reigate’s T20 skipper Oli Hairs, who was first out for 31 off 18 balls, and Chris Murtagh, who made 25 off 21 balls, saw the Llamas go on to post a score of 175-8 in the 20 overs allowed.
After losing wickets from 51-0 to 87-4, Henry Tye and Will Irving bolstered the middle order in a partnership of 38 with Tye scoring 25 in 21 balls and Irving 28 in 22 balls.
A couple of big-hitting 6’s from number eight batsman Luke Beaven, who made 26 in 14 balls, provided the final flourish of the innings.
Dulwich’s James Bridgland was the visitor’s best bowler taking 4-23.
Dulwich, who currently lie in third place in Division Two, made 24 for the side’s first wicket partnership in the first five overs, half of Reigate’s total in its first five overs. And that was how it went for the rest of the innings, Dulwich’s final score of 85 being just under half of Reigate’s total of 175.
Hairs varied his bowlers imaginatively, with seven different bowlers being given the ball, each of whom took at least one wicket. Indeed the seventh bowler, like some rare bird spotted by an ornithologist, was Chris Murtagh airing his leg breaks. His fifth ball won him a stumping of Dulwich number 11 batsman James Hirst much to the Reigate batsman’s delight.
After opening bowlers Harry Mckinley, who flattened the stumps of opener Richard King, and Luke Beaven, who accounted for the other opener with a caught and bowled, there was the unusual sight of the two King brothers bowling in tandem.
Simon King, the off-spinner, announced his arrival with two wickets in his first over, one a superb caught and bowled. In the next over, brother Daryl King won a leg before decision against Dulwich’s Naeem Iqbal. These three wickets in 11 balls ripped the heart out of the Dulwich batting, changing the score from 32-2 to 41-5.
This was the first game the King brothers have played together for the Reigate 1st XI for over six years. During the intervening time Daryl King has played for Warlingham and Oxted and Limpsfield cricket clubs before spending two years in Argentina where he was first a bowling coach and then national cricket coach for Cricket Argentina.
Left-arm spinner Chris Wigley and off-spinner Ben Shoare quickly mopped up the lower order, Wigley taking 2-9 in three overs and Shoare 2-11 in his three overs, before Murtagh came on for his cameo coup de grace in the 19th over of the innings..
Reigate will meet Epsom CC in the next round at Park Lane, with the date yet to be confirmed. Epsom, who lie in sixth place in Division 2, beat Banstead of Division 1 by four wickets, also on Tuesday, in a game played at the Epsom ground.