Shock News - Teenagers Frustrate Adults

Current league leaders Spencer (199 points) were the visitors to Park Lane to play the Llamas (4th on 159 points). Having lost the early season encounter between the teams (189 all out v 190-4) the Llamas were keen to reverse the result and narrow the gap to keep themselves in the hunt to retain the title.
Two very different teams this time, with Spencer fielding just 5 players and the Llamas fielding 6 players from the previous encounter; with the Llamas including 5 U17’s in today’s team.

Harry McInley won the toss and put Spencer into bat with openers Richard Fleming and George Horler making steady progress; including some good running between the wickets, against the Llama seam attack. Although the seamers didn’t break through they didn’t let the Spencer openers get away; no mean feat on a fast flat track with a lightning fast outfield. After 25 overs of seam (except for 2 overs of spin) the Spencer opening partnership had reached 100 with a run rate of 4 an over as Toby Briggs (8 overs for 30), U15 George McLoughlin (6 overs for 27), U16 Alvin Richard Sathya (4 overs for 16) and U17 Will Brewis (5 overs for 21) all kept the run rate under control.

Bowling changes brought on the spinners with the duties being shared by skipper Harry McInley and U16 Tommy Bates. Opener Richard Fleming (59) had reached his 50 in the 24th over but was dismissed as the spinners combined with Harry taking a brilliant diving catch as the 1st wicket fell in the 29th over with the score 110-1.
Harry’s turn next to get a wicket, this time all on his own as he had Will Grant (23) lbw as Spencer were 161-2 in the 40th over; still at 4 an over. Harry (14-0-60-2) then bowled the Spencer Captain Simon McConnell (9) for the 3rd wicket down on 173-3.
Adam Caddy was next to go as Will Brewis took the catch at deep square leg to give Tommy Bates his 2nd wicket as Spencer slightly faltered to 174-4 in the 43rd over.

Archie MacPherson and Opener George Horler then had a 50 partnership with Archie contributing 32 off 27 balls with 5 fours which included some reverse sweeps; but Archie was then dismissed by the returning Will Brewis (8-0-40-1) as Will Jones took a good catch at deep long off with the score 227-5 in the 50th over with opener George Horler just short of his ton on 97no..

This started a flurry of wickets as the innings drew to a close as in the 51st over Tommy Bates bowled Abid Jafri for 230-6 with opener George Horler still on 97no. Tommy got his 4th wicket having Cameron Ponsonby lbw for 234-7, with George still on 97no and now wondering whether the tail would stick around long enough for him to reach his hundred.
George’s ton duly arrived and George remained not out (106 in 125 balls with 10 fours) but was to lose one more partner as Ollie Harris took a catch at mid on to dismiss Nomi Bashir and provide Tommy Bates with his 5th wicket ending a fine spell of bowling with both spin and bounce with figures of 14-1-74-5 as Spencer declared their innings on 253-8 after 54 of the maximum 55 overs.

The 2nd innings started at 4pm and there was a minimum of 46 overs available to the Llamas with openers David Gent (having earlier done a good job keeping wicket with just 5 byes) and Matt Hutcheon setting about their task each scoring boundaries in seeing off the early threat from seamers Abid Jafri and Nomi Bashir, and reaching 70 by the 17th over when the last ball of the over saw the partnership broken as Hutch (40 from 50 balls) was caught at point by Rahul Shah off the bowling of fellow Aussie Hugo Trotter (13-3-49-1).

Captain Harry McInley promoted himself up the order (with Luke Sheridan’s late call up to the 1st team) to number 3 with clear intent to chase the total. Unfortunately Harry’s stay was all too brief as 2 fours in his 12 runs from 13 balls was ended bowled by Abid Jafri as the Llamas lost their 2nd wicket at 94-2 in the 21st over.
Genty was next out just 2 runs short of a deserved 50 when in the 28th over he was caught behind by a fine leg side catch from fellow keeper Archie MacPherson off the bowling of Abid Jafri as the Llamas lost their 3rd wicket with the score now 122-3.
Ant Ireland joined U16 Tommy Bates as the pair took the score up to 145 by the 34th over when Ant (25) was lbw to become Abid Jafri’s 3rd wicket (14-6-37-3).

With the target still 108 runs away and 6 wickets remaining and a minimum of 12 overs left it was the turn of the youngsters to continue the run chase; but U16 Alvin was dismissed lbw to Nomi Bashir and then U17 Will Jones called for a run but the ball didn’t beat the fielder and Will was run out as the Llamas went from 150-5 to 161-6. It was now a case of hanging on for a draw but that got harder as Tommy Bates (20) was well caught by Abid Jafri at 1st slip off Cameron Ponsonby (11-1-41-1) with the Llamas 163-7 in the 40th over.

Ollie Harris, in the role of senior partner, and U17 Will Brewis then settled in to chew up the remaining overs as the 46 minimum overs was passed as the match finishing time of 6.50 was still a half hour away. With an array of close catching fielders around the bat, Ollie and Will negotiated 6 consecutive maiden overs; along with putting up with the sledging that seems to be part and parcel of cricket at this level, before Will, who had scored 5 runs but successfully used up 32 balls, was given out (memo to self to check next eyesight appointment) caught behind down the leg side off the bowling of Nomi Bashir to see the 8th wicket down on 168-8 as Spencer scented victory.

Ollie Harris (1no) never wavered and proceeded to put Jack Leach’s 1 not out (from 17 balls in keeping Ben Stokes company in the 2019 3rd test) in the shade as Ollie used up 45 balls to frustrate Spencer’s efforts to seal a win.
With U15 George McLoughlin stretching the 3 minutes time allowed to be ready to face the next ball Spencer’s frustrations continued as George blocked out 12 balls before he went lbw to Nomi Bashir (11-4-17-3) for 171-9 and with the time now at 6.50 and with just 2 balls left of the 54th over and having watched the teenagers (& Ollie) almost save the game, it was now down to Toby to see out the last 2 balls. 4 byes from the penultimate ball took the Llamas to 175-9 and their 2nd batting point before Toby blocked the last ball to see the Llamas successfully hang on for a draw and stay in 4th place (165 points) with visitors Spencer retaining their top spot with 213 points.

The learning curve for today’s 5 U17’s playing 2nd XI premiership cricket alongside experienced players like Harry, Toby, Hutch, Ant & Genty and against experienced and competitive sides like leaders Spencer, is invaluable in their cricketing education and will stand them in good stead in their cricketing careers and hopefully their contribution to Llama senior teams in the seasons to come.

There will be many; and Spencer would certainly be included as would many of our own players, who would prefer to see the end of timed cricket and only play 50 overs a side result cricket. I suspect I’m in the minority but I hope there is still a place for timed cricket where the declaration comes into play and the ability to defend is part of the skill set. The bonus points should still enable the side who have dominated the game to take the lion’s share of the points with today’s points being 14 to Spencer (albeit 10 less than 24 points for a win) and 6 to the Llamas.