Weybridge spoil 100% record

Paul Bridge writes...

In a tense finish at Park Lane, Saturday, Reigate Priory lost its first game of the season to Weybridge by the tantalisingly slim margin of four runs.
Because of results elsewhere, particularly the Wimbledon-Sunbury game being abandoned without a ball being bowled, Reigate retains its top spot in the Premier League on 131 points, which is a 22 point lead over Sunbury in second place with 109 points, with Ashtead now leapfrogging into third place on 99 points.
Priory skipper Luke Beaven took 5-41 as the home side bundled out the visiting Weybridge side for 152 in 55.3 overs. Beaven’s fifer brought his bowling tally in the last four games to 20 wickets at an average 8.4 runs apiece.
However Weybridge’s bowlers responded in kind with opening quick bowler Henry Turner taking 4-28 and Weybridge’s left-arm spinner Francois Vainker taking 4-26 as the Priory was bowled out for 148 in 42.3 overs. The difference between the two sides was Sarel Erwee, the Weybridge captain, who scored 61 in Weybridge’s innings. The next highest score in the game was 28, from Reigate Priory all-rounder Andy Delmont.
Reigate Priory, who is sponsored by Brookworth Homes, won the toss and put Weybridge into bat after the game started an hour late because of damp patches close to the pitch. The ball seamed and moved all day long and Reigate’s Will Hodson, the opening seam bowler, was the first to take advantage of this when he had Weybridge opener Harry Cripps smartly caught at first slip by Oli Hairs.
Ben Curran, the middle one of the three Curran brothers (elder brother Tom and younger brother Sam both play for the Surrey county side), added a quick 24 before becoming Hodson’s second victim, leg before wicket, at 34-2.
When Weybridge’s Oliver Mills, batting at number four, was caught by wicket-keeper Michael Burgess off pace bowler Richard Stevens for 5 at 39-3 after 14 overs, Weybridge appeared to be in trouble.
However, Sarel Erwee, the South African professional from the Durban Dolphins and skipper of the Weybridge side, still was there as new partner Odge Davey came to the crease. Last year Erwee scored 145 in this fixture ensuring a Weybridge victory by 144 runs. And while Reigate beat Weybridge in the return away fixture, Erwee still scored 115 in that fixture as well.
And once again, in this game, the South Afrtican took a liking to the Priory bowling as he and Davey scored 54 together in a fifth wicket partnership which proved to be the largest partnership of the game.
Davey was bowled by Hodson for 15 at 93-4, thereby becoming Hodson’s third wicket of the innings.
Thushara Managei, originally from Sri Lanka, put on a further 31 with Erwee, before Managei became Beaven’s first victim of the innings, caught behind for 17.
Erwee soon followed, well caught by Andy Delmont at mid-wicket at 129-6 having made a watchful 61 off 125 balls. But with Erwee finally gone it took only a further 30 minutes for Beaven to wrap up a long tail taking three of the remaining four wickets to fall.
However Reigate found batting just as difficult as Weybridge when it went into bat, losing Oli Hairs in the second over caught by Managei off Turner for a duck.
Chris Murtagh, one of last week’s heroes against Sunbury, followed Hairs back to the pavilion in Turner’s next over at 12-2, also for a duck, before Richie Oliver and Michael Burgess put on 28 together for the third wicket.
This partnership took only five overs as both batsmen score quickly. But Oliver was the next to go, caught behind off Sussex 2nd XI bowler Jack Winslade for a run-a-ball 24.
Andy Delmont now joined Burgess for a 32-run partnership, which proved to be the largest of the innings. Both batsmen kept up the four runs an over run rate but the stand was broken when Burgess was given out leg before off seamer Brent Kay for 26 at 72-4.
New batsman Ben Shoare put on 19 with Delmont, with the Australian professional scoring most of these runs, before Delmont was stumped off the third ball of a new spell from Weybridge’s left-arm spinner Vainker.
In Vainker’s next over, Fraser Macdonald, the captain of the 2nd XI and a man averaging 70 with the bat so far this season in 2nd XI cricket, nicked Vainker to slip where Cripps took a fine catch. Once 91-4, the score now had moved on to 91-6 and the target of 153 to win looked a long way off.
Simon King came in and after three balls proceeded to score nine off his next three balls from Vainker and then a further 11 runs off three balls from Kay. Suddenly the score was 125-6 and the hitting out approach seemed to be bringing victory within certain grasp.
But cricket can be an unfriendly game and one swipe too many saw King well caught by Erwee off Vainker for 20 and Reigate was now 125-7.
Winslade, the opening bowler was brought on from the Blue Anchor End for a couple of overs, without success, but when skipper Erwee gave Turner the ball from that same end, Weybridge’s fortunes changed.
First Beaven was bowled by Turner for 2 at 133-8. Then Shoare was out leg before to Vainker for 27. That brought last batsman Will Hodson in to partner Richard Stevens at 143-9 and 10 runs needed for the win.
Hodson took a single off Vainker and when he cut Turner for a boundary through the gully area at the beginning of the next over, it brought to mind Hodson’s match-winning innings of 38 not out in 18 balls in August 2011 when his batting gave the Priory victory over Ashtead when a loss seemed inevitable.
But history does not always repeat itself and when Turner hit Hodson’s stumps two balls later such dreams of a famous Reigate last wicket match-winning stand vanished in a puff of smoke. The game had been close but Reigate Priory had lost by four runs.
Hodson returned an analysis of 3-42 in the Weybridge innings. This brought his career performance to date for Reigate Priory to 161 wickets at an average of 21.06 runs per wicket. These three wickets move Hodson into eighth place in the list of most wickets taken by a Priory bowler since modern-day records were begun in 1979. Hodson moves above Simon ‘Billy’ Bonsor in this list. Bonsor also was a seam bowler – but in the 1990s.