Beaven leads the way to beat the French

Paul Bridge writes...

A ‘fifer’ from Reigate skipper Luke Beaven and a fast-paced 49 from opener Oli Hairs saw Reigate Priory beat Normandy by four wickets with an hour still left to play on Saturday, thereby maintaining the 1st XI’s place topping the Premier Division table together with rivals Sunbury.
Chris Murtagh, the long-serving and consistent run-scorer for the Llama top order, scored his 6,000th run for the 1st XI since making his debut as a 14-year-old some 16 years ago – runs that have given Priory supporters much pleasure over these years.
On a grey cloudy day, Normandy had won the toss and elected to bat but never was able to dominate the Priory attack. The Reigate team is sponsored by Brookworth Homes.
After the first 10 overs the visitors had managed only 20 runs for the loss of opening batsman Will Harris. By the 21st over Normandy had managed to increase this run rate to 3.38 by taking 14 runs off Willodson’s 11th and last over of the innings. ButHods
Hodson’s 11th and his last over of the innings. But as the Priory pace bowler retired to the fine leg boundary he had the last laugh as he had taken the first two wickets to fall – Harris caught behind for 1 at 3-1 and Jamie Gibson from Wellington CC in New Zealand leg before for 28 at 46-2.
Richard Stevens, who replaced opening bowler Andy Delmont, had chipped in with his first wicket of the day in his second over at 48-3, having Grice well caught at second slip by Richard Oliver for 17, the first of four catches Oliver pouched in the innings.
Opener Oliver Batchelor had retired sick on 2 not out at the end of the fifth over at 5-1, suffering from a dizzy spell. Fortunately the Surrey 2nd XI batsman was to return later to finish his innings after lunch.
But Normandy was in difficulties throughout the morning session and while Ian Prowse and Ben Frost put on 32 for the fourth wicket, Reigate’s bowling attack was keeping the visitors in check.
Left-arm spinner Luke Beaven came on to bowl from the pavilion end for the 23rd over at 73-3 and proceeded to bowl 23 overs on the trot, working his way through most of the remaining Normandy wickets.
Frost was the first to go, superbly caught by Oliver at slip for 10 at 80-4 in Beaven’s third over. Two overs later, on the stroke of lunch, Beaven had new batsman Chris Jones caught by Stevens for 10 at 90-5 off 29.4 overs.
Following the break, wickets fell steadily. Batchelor returning to bat had moved on to 19 before he was leg before to Stevens at 115-6. Eight overs later Stevens had Ian Prowse well held by a diving Beaven in the gulley for Normandy’s top score of 40 at 134-7.
Leg-spinner Angus Dahl took over from Stevens after a long 16-over spell by the pace bowler who took 3-57. Dahl bowled nine economical overs while Beaven continued to chip away at the lower order from the other end.
Normandy wicket-keeper Chris Hampton was caught by Hairs for 21 at 150-8. Vignesh Venkateswaran was well held, yet again, by Oliver at slip for 2 and Dan Miles was also caught by Oliver off Beaven for 21 to end the innings at 175 off 65.3 overs, the run rate having declined from that high of 3.38 runs per over to a final run rate of 2.67 runs per over. Beaven’s 5-43 in 22.3 overs came at a rate of 1.91 runs an over.
When Reigate went in to bat, both Oliver and Hairs set off like an express train – 9 runs in the first over and 10 in the second.
In the third over, bowled by Miles, Oliver thought himself unlucky to be given out caught behind for 10 at a score of 19-1. New batsman Murtagh and Hairs continued apace with Hairs taking 16 runs off Gibson’s second over including a massive six over the hedge onto the bowling green. Reigate had rattled up 46 runs in the first five overs, where Normandy was 5-1 after five overs. Reigate was 78-1 after 10 overs, in comparison to Normandy’s 20-1 at the same stage.
When he drove Venkateswaran for a 3 to move on to 8 runs, Murtagh passed the 6,000-run mark for the club – only the second batsman to do so since Andy Packham, Club President, started to keep such records in 1972.
Reigate’s all-time leading run-scorer in that time is the incomparable Zubin Bharucha, once of Mumbai and India A, who scored 7,241 runs at an average of 51.35 for the Llamas. With Murtagh now on 6,040 runs at an average of 40.81 the former Surrey batsman needs another 1,202 runs to surpass his one-time teammate.
If you look at Murtagh’s runs over the past five years you are struck by how consistent his performances are.
In the five years from 2011 to 2015, he has been in the top 10 batsmen in the 1st XI Premier Division for each and every year. His runs scored range from a low of 494 in 2014 league games to 657 runs in 2012. And his batting average in that same time period has ranged from 35.29 to 54.75. In those five years he has scored a total 2,915 runs at an average of 44.17.
After five overs of the Priory innings, Venkateswaran had come on to bowl from the pavilion end. Like Beaven, Venkateswaran is a left-arm orthodox spinner. Beaven topped the league bowling in 2014 with a total of 54 wickets. Last year, though, Venkateswaran topped the league bowling with 48 wickets, Beaven being in third place with 41 wickets.
But on this pitch, try as he might, Venkateswaran could not get the results Beaven did, despite the ball turning.
Venkateswaran, or Venky as his teammates call him, bowled in tandem with the Surrey 2nd XI pace bowler Will Pereira. But with Pereira shedding 19 runs in three overs, Chris Jones, the off-spinner came on to partner Venky with immediate results.
After 12 overs the Priory was 88-1, with Hairs on 49 off 27 balls. Most batsmen in that position might think of ‘nurdling’ a single for the half century. Not Hairs.
As one spectator put it:
“It looked as if Oli was trying to hit Jones for a six over Reigate Hill.”
Hairs missed. And Jones had his first wicket with his second ball.
Michael Burgess then came in to partner Murtagh and with tea approaching hit the last four balls before the break, bowled by Venky, for a 4, 6, 4 and another 4, walking off the pitch with 26 runs off 15 balls.
But after the tea break, Burgess unsuccessfully tried to reverse sweep Jones, and then next ball he faced, he misjudged Venky’s flight and was caught at deep point for 26.
Delmont came and went for 5, caught and bowled Jones at 132-4. Murtagh and Shoare put on 23 together in eight overs before Murtagh spooned a ball to mid-wicket off Jones and was out for 46 at 155-5.
Ali Raja blocked 10 balls before hitting a boundary into the car park. Trying to repeat the shot next ball, all he managed to do was to slice Venkateswaran to Grice, out for 4 at 166-6.
Thereafter Shoare and Dahl saw Reigate through to the victory at 176-6 off 36 overs, with Shoare not out on 25.
Jones had the best bowling figures for Normandy with 3-23 off 12 overs, while Venkateswaran was expensive in his 16 overs with figures of 2-91.
The equal positioning in the tables between Reigate and Sunbury should be resolved on Saturday when last year’s league winners – Sunbury - visit the Park Lane ground.
Despite already having a strong batting line-up, Sunbury this season has recruited wicketkeeper-batsman Dane Vilas who played for South Africa against England at Johannesburg last January.
So far this summer Vilas has played four innings for Sunbury and scored 304 runs at an average of 152.