Preston Nomads blown away by Llamas in Pre-Season Friendly

The Llamas made the trek south to just under the South Downs to take on Preston Nomads in a season opening friendly.

A wonderful setting in the Sussex village of Fulking greeted the Llamas, the pavilion very much developed to mirror the local farmhouses and outbuildings, but constant strong winds from the north east made life not so easy for the players.

Nomads won the toss and elected to bat first, with former Llama Kam Mirza taking the first ball. A typical wristy clip flew through midwicket, but it wasn’t long before Briggsy opened his account getting one through the gate and clipping off stump, to much adulation from the Llamas.

Olly Massey was next up enticing a loose drive from Gatting, in the next over, well taken by Fraser McGuinness. Briggsy, bowling into a force 10 gale, picked up where he finished last season and concluded his 8 over spell conceding just 14 runs.

First change bowlers, Ed Russ and Will Hodgson, continued to apply the pressure with Ed hurrying one through Borsoi’s defences. The pair teamed up for the fourth wicket as Hodgson tempted Close-Brooks in top edging a short ball down to long leg where Russ comfortably took the catch.

Henry Tye (2-32), after a rusty first over, got into a rhythm and picked up a couple of wickets and young Will Jones, making his senior Llama debut, bowled with confidence.

Russ (1-37) and Hodgson (1-24) returned to complete their allotment of 8 overs and Preston Nomads finished on 151-7 after their 40 overs.

After what was an excellent tea (setting the bar very high early on), Genty and Fraser set about the run chase. Both timing the ball exquisitely, Fraser even included an upper cut for 6 over third man. The pair put on 90 in just over 12 overs before Fraser was first to reach his 50, with back to back boundaries. His half century came off just 31 balls and included 10 boundaries and the aforementioned maximum, and was the first of three retirements.

A mini wobble occurred as Lofty played on to his third ball, but Ant settled the ship and with Skipper Gent set about accumulating runs with ease before Genty was the next to reach 50 and not long after the winning runs were posted in the 23rd over.

The skippers agreed to continue to a total of 200 to give both batsmen and bowlers some valuable middle time. Genty retired on 52 off 72 balls, with 8 fours, and Ant wasn’t far behind when he square drove the impressive youngster Ibrahim for his 7th boundary. This brought Will Timmons to the crease to join debutant Jones. Unfortunately for Timmons, he was victim to a straight drive from his namesake being clipped onto the stumps off the bowlers boot.

Jones continued to play with aggression and with Hodgson (how many times do we get three William’s batting one after the other in an order), got the Llamas past their 200 stretched target and were victorious by 8 wickets.

Thank you to Surrey Championship umpire John Flatley who umpired, as he’d turned up to umpire the 1s but Preston Nomads had provided two league umpires themselves, and Harry for scoring.

Next week we take on Sandwich Town at St Albans Road, before the league season kicks off at East Molesey the week after.