A five wicket haul from Priory off-spinner Simon King – his first for nearly six years – led to a Guildford batting collapse and an easy win for Reigate Priory as Chris Murtagh, Jake Lehmann and Michael Burgess knocked off the 150-run target with ease with 25 overs to spare.
The Priory’s win by seven wickets leaves the club tied on top of the Premier Division with three wins from three games. Sunbury, who also has 60 points from three wins, comes head to head with the Llamas this coming Saturday at the Park Lane ground, a game that will sort out temporary leadership of the division.
Guildford won the toss and elected to bat on a cloudy day. Runs initially came quite quickly in the first 10 overs when Guildford reached 50-1, the opening wicket falling once again to Will Hodson, thanks to a sharp slip catch by Jake Lehmann.
At a score of 56, Lincoln Edwards, Guildford’s overseas professional from Melbourne CC, was bowled by Hodson for 14. Hodson finished his eight over spell shortly thereafter with 2-33, a typical Hodson haul.
Ben Jeffery, batting at number two for the visitors, had reached a run-a-ball 25 not out at this stage and now he was joined by Bradley Erasmus, Guildford’s 17-year-old Surrey Academy and 2nd XI player. Erasmus started off slowly while Jeffery, who played three years for Oxford MCCU, continued hitting boundaries to bring up his 50 in 51 balls with ten 4’s. But Jeffery’s aggressive progress came to an unseemly end when a mix-up between the two batsmen (No! Yes! No! was the call from Erasmus) saw Jeffery run out by Delmont for 55 at a score of 90-3.
There followed a flurry of wickets. Matthew Teale, also a Surrey 2nd XI player this year, was caught by wicket-keeper Michael Burgess off Luke Beaven for a second ball duck. Jack Cunningham soon followed, also caught behind by Burgess, fourth ball for one off King.
Ben Walter, Guildford’s number seven batsman, then joined Erasmus at 94-5 and the pair put on 43 runs together in the largest partnership of the innings. Walter continued along the lines of Jeffery scoring at the rate of a run a ball while Erasmus remained on his defensive path which saw him score only four runs in the first 30 balls he faced.
But then King struck. First he had Walter well caught in the deep by Murtagh for 25 at 137-6. In his next over King had Erasmus leg before for 20 off 66 balls at 138-7. And in his next over after that, King had Guildford skipper Joe Pipkin leg before for 1 and next ball got yet another leg before decision to send Guildford wicket-keeper James Smith back to the pavilion for a golden duck at 141-9.
Guildford’s last wicket pair lasted three overs before Priory skipper Neil Saker brought on seamer Richard Stevens who brought the innings to a swift conclusion when his fourth ball saw number 11 batsman Ollie Birts slice the ball to Luke Beaven in the gully.
Guildford, once 137-5, had lost their last five wickets in eight overs for just 12 runs to post a final total of 149 all out.
Reigate started its innings at a gallop and remained in fast track mode for the 24.5 overs it took to overhaul the Guildford score.
Chris Murtagh opened in confident style with Delmont happy to play second fiddle to a batsman in form. Guildford’s opening attack of Teale and Edward Lowe was wayward in the first six overs with Lowe giving up 10 runs in wides.
Delmont was unlucky to be run out for 7 in the eighth over when he fell victim to a fine piece of fielding from Guildford’s Edwards when Murtagh declined a quick single.
Delmont’s demise at 43-1 brought Jake Lehmann to the wicket. The Australian took six balls as a sighter in a maiden over from left-arm spinner Pipkin before he took the Guildford attack apart by hitting 36 runs in 14 balls, 32 of them in boundaries.
Erasmus was hit for 8 runs, Collins for 17 and Birts for 12 as the Priory score raced from 47-1 to 84-1 in just three overs. Murtagh scored a single off Erasmus’s second ball and Lehmann scored the remaining 36 runs in these three overs.
With the hundred up, Murtagh was caught by Collins off Birts for 37, off 49 balls. Lister followed soon after for 3 runs, unlucky to receive a ball that bounced low for a leg before decision also to Birts.
So at 113-3 Burgess joined Lehmann for the last rites. With his 50 coming after 43 balls, Lehmann was content to watch Burgess do the heavy lifting as Burgess, always an exciting batsman to watch, scored 30 not out from 23 balls.
Lehmann finished with 57 not out from 49 balls as the Priory finished on 152-3.
But despite this attractive batting, it was King’s bowling that took the Man of the Match award. This was King’s first five-wicket haul since July 2009 when he took 5-109 against the same opponent – Guildford, at Guildford’s Woodbridge Road ground.
King first played for the Priory 1st XI in 2007, the same year he was contracted to Surrey’s county cricket squad, at the age of 19. From 2007 through the 2010 season, King took 99 wickets for the Priory in 1st XI cricket at an average 22.71.
However in 2011 his contract with Surrey was not renewed. King had played only four first class games for the county since a first class debut in 2009. King lost interest in cricket for a while following this loss of contract and between 2011 and 2013 played only 10 games for the Priory taking a combined 7 wickets at an average 45.43.
Last season, however, saw the return of the off-spinner to regular 1st XI Premier Division cricket and he took 16 wickets at 25.25 runs per wicket during the season.
But it’s now, in the 2015 season, that spectators are seeing why King was in the first class system as he returns to his old off-spinning ways. In three league games so far this season he’s returned eight wickets in only 12.3 overs at a cost of 4.75 runs per wicket – a truly regal performance.