Dominant Reigate Priory end title

Surrey Championship Premier Division

Wimbledon 158

Reigate Priory 163-4

Reigate Priory won by six wickets

Reigate Priory closed their championship-winning 2014 season Saturday with the win the side wanted - Wimbledon away by six wickets.

It was the Priory's first win over Wimbledon's first XI for four years and 44 days, and wrapped up a stunning season for the Llamas that saw them win 15 of their 18 games played, with one winning draw, one game abandoned and the one loss (against Wimbledon in July).

The team's superiority was such they finished on 171 points some 46 points (four wins) ahead of second placed Wimbledon.

Priory bundled Wimbledon out for 158 in just 38 overs and took only 29.1 overs to knock off the runs needed for victory with Worcestershire opener Richard Oliver scoring 42 from 47 balls and Sussex batsman Craig Cachopa cutting short the run chase with a flurry of boundaries to end on 73 not out off 62 balls.

On a cloudy day Priory skipper Neil Saker won the toss and put Wimbledon in to bat. As has been the case for most of the season the opposition openers could not settle down against the Priory opening attack of Saker and Will Hodson. Saker struck first by bowling Max Bernie for 6. James Bett, Wimbledon's Australian overseas player, came in at number three but lasted only seven balls before being well caught by Michael Burgess off Hodson for a duck at 26-2.

Wimbledon were without the services of both their captain Chris Benham, the former Hampshire player - away on holiday - and Ben Compton, who top-scored for Wimbledon with 68 the last time the two sides met. Compton is injured with knee ligament trouble.

So when Neil Turk, who scored a century in Wimbledon's game last week against Sunbury was well caught in the gully by Luke Beaven off Hodson, Wimbledon were in trouble at 37-3. That trouble became deeper when Will Leith was caught behind by Burgess off Saker for 5 at 41-4.

Gerry Penford and James Brown then doubled the score in a fifth wicket partnership of 42. Penford, who had survived loud appeals for a caught behind off Saker in the 12th over and then a strong leg before wicket shout against Hodson in the following over, was finally caught by Beaven off Simon King's first over for 25 in the 19th over.

By this time Beaven had been given the ball from the Church End and it wasn't long before he started to weave his way through the Wimbledon middle order. Wicket-keeper Dan Pratt was his first victim, leg before for 4 with the score now at 98-6. James Brown soon followed for 30, the top score of the innings, when he also was leg before to Beaven at 101-7.

James Johnston and Niall Solomon, a 16-year-old student from St. Paul's school, put on 29 runs for the ninth wicket before Johnston became Beaven's third victim, caught by Oliver for 26.

Wimbledon opening bowler Darrell Hooey soon went leg before to Saker for a duck at 132-9 and despite a last wicket partnership of 26 between Solomon and Snape, the run out of Snape by Stevens saw Wimbledon back in the pavilion, all out for a below par 158.

Beaven, who had made his first class debut at the beginning of the week for Surrey against New Zealand A, topped the bowling with 3-38 in his 10 overs, with Saker close behind with 3-42. Hodson finished with 2-30 from nine overs and King 1-28 off seven overs. Stevens bowled just the two overs.

Reigate Priory never looked in too much trouble in chasing down the runs, despite the history of four years of losses to overcome.

Richie Oliver opened with Andy Delmont and it was the Australian who was the faster out of the blocks scoring 15 off 18 balls. But with the score at 20 Delmont was caught behind by Pratt off Hooey for 15. Henry Tye, batting at number three, soon followed for a duck, caught behind by Pratt again off Wimbledon's other opening bowler, Jack Snape, and the Priory were 28-2.

Craig Cachopa joined Oliver in what proved to be a 55-run partnership. Oliver, quite circumspect at first, taking 20 balls to get into double figures, was moving into top gear with 18 runs in six balls when, having hit Neil Turk's medium pacers for a maximum he was out bowled next ball for 42 off 47 balls.

Michael Burgess joined Cachopa and these two put on 61 for the fourth wicket. Burgess batted, as he always has done, at close to a run-a-ball before being bowled by spinner Bett for 26. And Cachopa who had taken 34 balls to make 23 in his partnership with Oliver, started to crank up his own scoring rate. His next 50 runs came in just 28 balls as he peppered the Wimbledon boundary with 4's and 6's.

When Cachopa hit the winning 6 to take Reigate past the required total his 73 not out had contained four 6's and eight 4's.

Last season, Reigate Priory had been short at least one, possibly two batsmen in challenging for the title. This season with the addition of Oliver, Cachopa and Burgess runs were rarely in short supply. In the league averages, Reigate had three batsmen in the top 10 run makers - Delmont in second place with 675 runs for the season, Burgess sixth with 529 runs and Murtagh ninth with 478 runs. As for batting averages, four batsman had averages above 45 runs (Ali Raja 45.33, Burgess 48.09, Delmont 51.92 and Oliver 52.85).

The bowling attack in 2014 was the same as the previous year, as a championship-winning attack already was in place. Beaven topped the league table of wicket takers with a total 54 wickets, 16 wickets more than his nearest challenger. Hodson was the second largest wicket-taker with 32 wickets. For bowling averages (for a minimum 10 wickets taken), Beaven topped the list with an average of 9.90 runs per wicket. Hirst, who took 18 wickets, was second in the league with an average 13.66. Hodson was ninth with an average of 16.93.

For good measure, Robbie Williams's 7-35 against Sunbury at the Priory remained the best individual bowling performance in the Premier Division all season, just beating Beaven's 7-39.

Given such dominance in both batting and bowling in the league in 2014 the only question left at the end of such a season is what does Director of Cricket Michael Foster and Captain Neil Saker plan for an encore for 2015?