Haughton and bowlers bail out batters to defend sub-par 162

After last week’s setback at Wimbledon the 2’s were keen to get back to winning ways. A settled side seems a long way off as there were 5 changes from last week. Johnathan Gale returned and Ashwin Bhat, Will Dahl and Steve Cross came up from the 3’s. James Leck completed the changes.

Neil won the toss and openers Luke Haughton and Ashwin Bhat were restricted by some tight bowling from Farnham’s George Osborne (8 overs 1-30) and Dominic Lloyd (10 overs 1-22).
Ashwin (5) was first to go in the 4th over with the score on 17, caught in the slips off George Osborne and Luke (13) followed in a similar fashion in the 8th over off Dominic Lloyd with the score on 23.
Neil Saker and Matt Hutcheon took the Llamas onto 72 for 2 at the 25 over drinks break.
The score accelerated as the next 5 overs went for 40 mainly to Neil.
Hutch (23) then skied spinner Russell Golding’s first ball (8 over’s 4-30) for a catch to mid-on with the score on 112 in the 31st over.
Galer was lbw to a ball that straightened (119-4 in the 34th over) and Will Dahl was out next over (122-5 in the 35th over) also caught off spinner Russell Golding, this time at mid-off.

The Llamas continued to lose wickets when Neil was Russell Golding’s 3rd victim (132-6 in the 37th over) when he edged to the keeper for a fine 80 (8 fours and a six). Will Irving (10) was caught in the slips (144-7 in the 40th over) when the spinner Saaj Patel got one to jump. James Leck (11) then belted a couple of 4’s before he became Russell Golding’s 4th wicket when he skied to mid on (152-8 in the 43rd over).
Ollie Thilo (1) was out next over (152-9 in the 44th over) when he was caught and bowled by Saaj Patel (3.5 overs 3-13). Darryl King was Saaj’s 3rd wicket, caught for 6 leaving Steve Cross unbeaten on 3 and Reigate all out for 162 in the 46th over.

Only a few things are certain when playing second team cricket this year!
1. Is that Ali Raja won’t play
2. Is that Saker will bat himself too high and then count to 5 before getting a single then stand in the field and not say a word!
3. 9 out of the 11 batsmen will get out playing a shit shot or in Galers case...kick it in front of middle!
4. Most will moan about their batting position and claim they should be in the 1s off the back of the 23 runs they scored in 2015
5. The 2s will somehow normally win!

...and Saturday against Farnham was not different...Saker said nothing, won the toss and batted first...Luke and Bhatty fell cheaply, Saker counted every ball; but to be fair scored 80! Hutch stepped up, which was nice to see... and supported the silent moron before the rest of the side managed to bat so badly it was embarrassing!

162 All Out! But a lifeline was weaved back into the minds of the young 2s side as the legendary Jon Gale who, with the genius that made him the last skipper to win a bean, pointed out that Farnham hadn’t scored 150 in 3 out of their 4 innings all year, so if we bowled anywhere near our potential we would win. Simple.

You don’t lose games at the ½ way stage and the Llamas were quick out of the blocks when Darryl King had Farnham’s captain Jamie Strachan caught behind by Ashwin Bhat for a duck in the 1st over (0-1).
Matt Hutcheon (5 overs 0-19) kept things tight but it was Darryl who made the next breakthrough having Henry Sensecall well caught by a leaping Will Dahl at backward point (17-2 in the 7th over).

[i]Following tea, Saker mumbled something in a squeeze and the llamas took to the field hoping the normal state of play would occur....King.D to take the first pill and all the wickets, while Hutch bust a gut for facccck all at the other end... and guess what...it happened again...King removed the Farnham opener with a proper nut ? and then picked up a second and should have had a third to be fair, but the Farnham umpire clearly forgot his hearing aid and called “over” before the seed reached Bhatty’s gloves behind the sticks! Hutch bowled well with not much luck at the other end until the heat took effect and the Aussie has to be removed from the attack for health reasons.

Meanwhile legend Jon Gale and new found loud mouth Lecky kept the troops going with encouragement and a little bit of nonsense (Saker remained silent!). Thilo replaced Hutch and Haughton replaced King. This changed the game!

Thilo was superb going for only 3 runs in seven overs as he emotionally crippled the Farnham middle order with a mature spell, which in turn meant that the batsmen had to go after Luke H at the other end...who to everyone’s surprise actually bowled ok...taking a 5fer in the process! (Saker still silent by the way - but rumours of him sledging a 15-year-old batsmen had surfaced).

Mike O’Mahoney and Russell Golding steadied the ship for Farnham until Ollie Thilo had Russell Golding (13) lbw (39-3 in the 14th over).
Jonathan Gale led by example for the fielders with 3 boundary saving dives.

There were the occasional interruptions with a pitch invasion by a toddler and a few youngsters walking in front of the sightscreen; one was recognised by RGS’s James Leck and a shout of “I’ll speak to you at School on Monday” is awaiting young Mr Cromwell.

Having survived a run-out mix up with his partner, Mike O’Mahoney (22) was out caught by Galer for Luke Haughton’s 1st wicket (40-4 in the 15th over). Luke struck again clean bowling Dan Jones (41-5) and then had Alex Goldsworthy neatly caught in the slips by James Leck (54-6). Steve Cross (6 overs 1-13) joined the attack and had Ollie Godden lbw for 8 (54-7 in the 28th over).

The legend that is Steve Cross replaced Thilo, picking up a valuable wicket having bowled a great line to support the newly nicknamed Luke “The Beaven” Haughton at the other end!

Llamas weren’t allowed to get too confident of victory as Matt Crew smashed 33 off 32 balls with 3 huge sixes (1 over the Car park) and 2 fours with 16 coming off one of Luke’s overs.
Farnham were edging closer to victory with 3 wickets left and 50 runs to get off the 15 remaining overs.
With the score on 112 Darryl King held a catch off Luke Haughton to remove the dangerous Matt Crew for 33 (112-8). Darryl’s next action was having Saaj Patel (17) lbw (112-9) giving Darryl figures over 9 overs 3 for 24.
Luke Haughton (13.4 overs 5-46) finished Farnham’s innings when Neil Saker took a diving catch to dismiss George Osborne leaving Farnham 112 all out in the 41st over.

Wickets tumbled, Lecky was noisy, Galer fielded like a dream and someone a lot lighter, King returned to pick up the final pole, Saker said nothing, J Roy watched on, Raja still hadn’t turned up to watch on, Dahl hurt is finger dropping one he should have taken but taking one he shouldn’t have taken, Saker remained silent and eventually the Farnham batsmen were out for 112!

A real tale of two halves...terrible with the bat...brilliant with the ball...silence from the Sweaty Stand in Skip and 24 points completely and utterly burgled!