Spin Twins Ease Llamas To Pre-Season Victory

Paul Bridge writes...

Seven overs of spin from Reigate spin twins Luke Beaven and Simon King was enough to end any ambitions Sevenoaks might have had of overhauling Reigate’s total of 254-9 in 45 overs at a pre-season friendly at Park Lane on Saturday.
Beaven and King took five wickets for 32 runs between them, reducing Sevenoaks from a competitive 77-1 in the 15th over to 123 all out 11.1 overs later, leaving the Priory easy winners by 131 runs.
On a surprisingly pleasant April day, albeit on a greenish-looking wicket, Reigate lost two early wickets after Sevenoaks had won the toss and put them in to bat – Burgess being bowled for 1 and Delmont being caught for 7.
However Richie Oliver, back from captaining Geelong City in Australia, found a partner in Ben Shoare, batting at number four, as the pair put on 47 together before Shoare was leg before for 29.
Neil Saker, the former Llama paceman now back with the club as a batsman, joined Oliver in what was to prove to be the biggest partnership of the innings as these two put on 74 runs in just over 12 overs.
Oliver reached his 50 in 49 balls with seven 4’s and one 6 but was leg before to Sevenoaks spinner Max Aitken when on 73, as he played back and simply missed the ball at 153-4.
Saker was next to go after a bright 43 in 44 balls, leaving Matt Hutcheon, one of three debutants in the first team, the task of chivvying along the lower order batsmen to boost the score from 182-5.
This Hutcheon did with some style, taking few chances, but pushing the scoreboard along at a run-a-ball rate. Initially things didn’t go well as Harry McInley and King both went cheaply. But Hutcheon and Beaven formed a 39-run stand before skipper Beaven left after scoring 17.
Then two vital 11-run stands firstly with Reigate’s new paceman Nick Harrison and then with Colt new boy Oli Thilo, pushed the Reigate total past the 250 mark, a total that always looked as if it would be challenging for Sevenoaks.
Sevenoaks did start their innings in a hurry as veteran 43-year-old opener John Bowden and former Durham MCCU batsman and Sevenoaks captain Oliver Durell put on the first 30 runs by the end of the sixth over.
Delmont then had Bowden superbly caught at silly mid-off by Hutcheon for a run-a-ball 23. But this only brought to the crease the Kent contracted batsman Zak Crawley, the best batsman in their side.
Crawley and Durell put on 40 runs together making light work of Reigate’s opening bowling attack of Harrison (0-32 from 6 overs) and Delmont (1-34 from 5 overs). But then Beaven does what he always does in order to stem runs, he brings himself on to bowl and at this juncture he brought on Thilo as his bowling partner.
In a nine-over partnership, Beaven and Thilo successfully put a brake on the scoring and sent back three batsmen as Sevenoaks went from 66-1 from 11 overs to 100-4 after 20 overs.
Thilo, bowling at medium pace, was by far the meaner of the two bowlers, giving away only seven runs in five overs and bowling the Sevenoaks number four batsman Tom Harvey for 1 as the cherry on the top of a memorable debut bowling spell for the first team.
Beaven gave away 26 runs in his four over spell, which was expensive for him. But he did dispatch both Durell and danger-man Crawley, both batsmen being caught by Oliver.
From 100-4, Sevenoaks capitulated quickly. McInley saw Delmont take a good catch off his bowling to get rid of Sevenoaks wicketkeeper Cyrus White for 4. In the next over King joined the party by having Aitken caught behind also for 4.
Two balls later new batsman James White (no relation to Cyrus) went for an ill-advised second run off King’s bowling and Thilo moving around from cover point to third man threw in a quick return which saw White run out by several yards, Sevenoaks now stuttering at 105-7.
After a couple of tail end flourishes with the bat by Harry Johnson, King and Beaven quickly brought proceedings to a close. King had Johnson caught by Beaven for 15 at 123-8.
Next ball, having brought himself back on to bowl at the pavilion end, Beaven had Tom Parsons leg before for 2 also at 123-9.
With Sevenoaks all-rounder James Carslaw unable to bat after he turned his ankle in the field, 123-9 meant 123 all out with the Priory winning by a large margin of 131 runs.
Beaven finished with 3-26 from 4.1 overs; King ended with 2-6 off 3 overs; Thilo had 1-7 off 5 overs and McInley 1-17 from 3 overs.