Delmont and Oliver destroy Sutton

Paul Bridge writes...

A fifer from opening seam bowler Andy Delmont and a quick scoring 86 not out from Richie Oliver saw Reigate Priory trounce Sutton by eight wickets with 27 overs to spare at the Cheam Road ground on Saturday.
Sutton won the toss and went in to bat in the 50-over-a-side game, but lost wickets straight away. In the second over, but with his first ball of the game, Delmont had opener Mike Nicol smartly caught at third slip by Richie Oliver for 3. This was Nicol’s debut innings for Sutton having joined the team from Leatherhead who were relegated from the Premier Division 1st XI league at the end of last summer.
With his third ball Delmont struck again. Harry Allen, the Surrey 2nd XI player who tormented the Priory last summer with a century in a Sutton win by 134 runs, was caught at mid-wicket by Ben Shoare for 4 at a score of 8-2.
And Reigate, who are sponsored by Brookworth Homes, did not let up as further wickets fell in the seventh, eighth and ninth over.
First Will Hodson joined the wicket-taking action by having former captain Gary Outram leg before for a duck. Then, to whoops of joy, Delmont took his third wicket by having Sutton’s new overseas professional Kelvin Smith caught behind by Burgess for 10.
Delmont and Smith know each other through South Australian grade cricket where Smith plays for West Torrens and Delmont for Adelaide University CC. Both South Australians have played for the state side with the 21-year-old Smith still in the Adelaide Strikers setup.
Hodson then had Luke Smith caught by Brad Scriven for a duck to leave the home side five wickets down after nine overs with only 22 runs on the board.
Mark Rose and Daniel Douthwaite, also a Surrey 2nd Xi player, doubled the score but then Hodson nabbed his third wicket when Rose was caught by Oli Hairs for 18 at 47-6.
Douthwaite was then joined by skipper and wicketkeeper Dan Edwards and this pair put together the one substantial partnership of Sutton’s innings scoring 85 runs together.
The partnership was slow at first but neither batsman seemed troubled by Reigate’s spinning trio of Luke Beaven, Simon King and Ben Shoare. Douthwaite took 69 balls to score his first 29 runs but then loosened up, adding a further 33 runs to his total in just 21 balls, including two sixes.
Douthwaite finally was caught by Craig Cachopa in the deep off Oliver for 54 in the 34th over at 132-7. Edwards was caught by Murtagh off King before Delmont returned to take the remaining two tail-end wickets to finish the innings with a return of 5-41. Hodson took 3-19 in his 10 over spell.
Sutton’s final total of 186 never looked enough runs against possibly the strongest Priory batting line-up in the past five years. And when Oli Hairs showed off his big-hitting prowess, scoring 41 runs in only 17 balls, the game seemed over after five overs with Reigate almost half-way to its target on 69-1.
Hairs tucked into anything Sutton tried to bowl to him, hitting seven runs off the first over, 18 runs off the second and 16 off the fourth, with five 4’s and three 6’s. There were several delays as fielders tried to find balls slammed into hedges or the surrounding undergrowth.
Burgess was bowled by Douthwaite for 6 in the second over at 32-1. And when Hairs left to the first ball of the sixth over, caught behind off Smith for 41, Sutton’s woes never let up. For now the home team had to contend with Richie Oliver, the former Worcestershire batsman, and Chris Murtagh, both of whom are in fine batting form.
The 50-run partnership between this pair came in 47 balls and the 100-run partnership in 91 balls. Oliver was scoring at the rate of over nine runs an over whereas Murtagh was scoring at the more modest rate of five runs per over.
Oliver looked to be dropped at slip when he was 67 not out at 163-2. But otherwise the untroubled pair put on an unbeaten partnership of 118 runs as Reigate reached its target of 187 with two wickets down in just under 23 overs.
Oliver finished on 86 not out in 55 balls with fourteen 4’s and one 6. Murtagh was 48 not out off 58 balls with five 4’s and one 6.
Next Saturday the Llamas play Guildford at home at the Park Lane ground.