Oliver and Burgess put Beddington to the sword

Paul Bridge writes...

Centuries from Richie Oliver and Michael Burgess followed by a six-wicket haul by skipper Luke Beaven saw Reigate Priory overwhelm Beddington on Saturday by 109 runs. The win means the Priory now sits atop the Surrey Championship Premier Division table together with old foe Sunbury, both sides having four wins from four games played, while Beddington with four losses from its four games joins East Molesey as early season cellar dwellers in the league 1st XI tables.
The Priory scored 338-4 in its 50 overs, the side’s highest score for nearly four years. That massive total was matched by Beaven turning in his second-best bowling figures ever for the Priory with 6-31, after taking only one wicket in the previous three league games of this season.
Put in to bat after Beddington won the toss, Reigate, who is sponsored by Brookworth Homes, lost big-hitting Oli Hairs for a fourth ball duck in the second over of the innings, bowled by Beddington’s Tom Bevan.
Disaster struck at the end of the seventh over, bowled by former Leicestershire and Northants opening bowler Ryan Cummmins, when Reigate’s Brad Scriven took a blow to his right hand and retired hurt with the score on 32-1. A subsequent x-ray proved that the knuckle on the edge of his right hand had been fractured, an injury that will keep him out of cricket for six to eight weeks.
It was just over a year ago that Scriven broke his thumb, fielding at slip, in a game against Normandy.
Oliver, who had scored 26 in just 17 balls before Scriven retired hurt, now was joined by Burgess. And just as the midday clouds gave way to glorious sunshine, so for the next 25 overs spectators were treated to run-a-ball cricket with a plethora of boundaries as this pair put on 176 runs together, as they took it in turns to dominate a weak Beddington attack.
First Oliver was in the ascendancy passing the 50 mark in 46 balls. He slowed up taking 25 balls to reach 15 more runs, before taking a fancy to Beddington’s off-spinner John Rogerson, plundering 30 runs off his bowling in just nine balls, on his way to a hundred in 85 balls.
When Oliver was caught at deep point off Arun Butler’s bowling, Burgess took charge. He had reached his 50 in 57 balls but now accelerated to reach his hundred in a further 29 balls, one ball less than Oliver had taken.
When finally out, caught by Graham Lester off Calum Smith for 120, he had scored three more runs than Oliver in almost the same number of balls. Since Burgess last played for the Priory, against Sutton in the first game of the season, he has gained plaudits for his score of 98 on his first class debut for Leicestershire against the Sri Lankan touring side.
By now, at 281-3 and with Burgess back in the pavilion, Andy Delmont began enjoying himself in the sunshine with a cameo innings of 61 in 53 balls, before he was stumped off the last ball of the innings. For four years Delmont has been one of the Priory’s standout batsmen, scoring more than 2,500 runs at an average of over 46. This year, though, the Australian professional has been converted into an opening swing bowler, and with such success he currently is in second place for the number of wickets taken in the Premier league so far this season (11).
His new role in the team means Delmont has dropped down the order from his favoured opening batsman spot, such that before this innings he has only batted twice for scores of 26 and 10. But against Beddington he had the chance to remind Priory supporters just how good a batsman he is as he hit nine fours in an untroubled innings of 61.
Delmont and his new partner, Ali Raja, who made 24 not out, put on 57 for the fourth wicket in just eight overs before the 50 overs was up.
Given his success against Beddington last year (7-64 at Beddington and 4-23 in the home fixture) one might have been tempted to put the mortgage money on Will Hodson being among the early wicket-takers when Beddington went in to bat. But it was all-rounder Delmont who made the breakthroughs bowling Sam Owen for 3 and having David White snapped up by Oliver at second slip for 4, leaving Beddington on 12-2.
Needing a target of almost seven runs an over when the innings started, Beddington now had to rebuild the innings and had only 31 runs on the board at the 10 over mark, thereby increasing the required run rate to almost eight runs an over.
Antony Down and Simon Lewis put on 52 for the home side before Beaven came on to bowl. The left-arm bowler had immediate success when Lewis was caught off a skier by a familiar-looking substitute fielder by name of Neil Saker, former Priory captain.
In his third over Beaven tightened the Beddington noose further by getting a leg before decision against Down, who made 33, and then he bowled South African Kyle Moolman, two balls later, for a duck.
At 77-5 Beaven decided to give his two other spinners a long bowl with Ben Shoare, off-spinner, and Surrey Under-17 captain Angus Dahl, leg-breaks, sharing 14 overs together. Unfortunately neither bowler could break the solid partnership developing between Bevan, batting at number five, and Lester, batting at number seven.
This pair put on more than half of Beddington’s runs by scoring 124 runs together in 20 overs, with Shoare, in particular, taking some ‘tap’ as he went for 64 runs in his eight overs.
Delmont came back to bowl in the 41st over, and two overs later had Lester well caught at the second attempt by Beaven for a run-a-ball 71. Beaven then brought himself back on to bowl from the Wandle End and immediately bowled his namesake Tom Bevan in the next over for 68.
A score of 201-5 now was 201-7 and while the tail-enders offered some resistance, a quick-thinking run out by Will Hodson, his second such dismissal in two games, and two more wickets to Beaven in the 50th over - one bowled, the other caught off a skier by Delmont, saw Beddington fold at 229 all out.
Outside of Beaven’s six-wicket analysis, Delmont took 3-31 in his 10 overs in Priory’s 109-run victory.
Next Saturday, June 4, Reigate Priory plays Normandy in the first of nine 120-over league fixtures, this game starting at 11:30 a.m. And the following week, June 11, is the fixture Surrey Championship fans will want to see, when the Sunbury 1st XI visits the Park Lane ground.