Spencer tail clinches tight winning draw

The Llamas expected (& received) a tough match when they visited fellow top of the table Spencer.
The 2nd’s have rarely fielded a settled side so far this season and there were 4 more changes from last week with 2 new starters to bring the number of players used up to 27 from the 6 games played. Tom Massey and Skipper Ali Raja were the newcomers with temporary skipper Neil Saker absent for today’s fixture.
Although one of the Spencer team was frequently heard to say during the Llama innings that “It’s a 350 Wicket”, the Spencer Captain James Smith obviously knew differently as he elected to field upon winning the toss.
Openers Ashwin Bhat and Henry Tye found the early going difficult and Henry was first to go (9) when he edged a ball from outside off back onto his stumps (17 for 1 in the 7th over).
Ashwin (9) followed when run out to a direct hit (28 for 2).
Matt Hutcheon cracked a 4 through the covers before he was out for 5 caught behind off seamer Sameer Khan who was the pick of the Spencer bowlers and bowled a single spell getting movement off the seam and in the air to finish with 3 for 34 off his 14 overs.
Matt was the 1st of 4 caught behind by the Spencer keeper and later Ashwin was to take 3 caught behind’s in the Spencer innings
Luke Haughton, who came in at 3, was the only early order batsman to look comfortable and hit 8 fours in his 45 before he was caught behind (84 for 4 in the 30th over).
Will Irving scored 10 off 14 before being caught (88 for 5 in the 34th over)
Jonathan Gale and Ali Raja had some rebuilding to do if the Llamas were to post a challenging target, but while Galer was struggling with his timing, Ali quickly got into his stride and his 1st team quality shone as he was the only batsman (other than Luke) to get on top of the Spencer bowlers. Meanwhile Galer shook off his early innings problems and scored 5 fours before being out for 31 off 74 balls with the score now 141 for 6 in the 41st over. Tom Massey then hit a crisp drive which didn’t quite beat the fielder and an aborted single saw Tom run out for 3 (152 for 7 in the 44th over).
With 11 overs maximum remaining Ali needed someone to stay with him and Wilbur Tiley played that role that started with stubborn resistance and progressed to confidence as his 11 runs from 25 balls was just what the Llamas needed at that stage. Ali had scored 6 fours in his almost a run a ball 42 when at 180 in the 49th over he became the 3rd caught behind victim.
Wilbur was then the 4th caught behind victim (186 for 9) before Darryl King was last out at 187 in the 51st over leaving Ollie Thilo not out on 1 and Spencer 48 overs back.

Darryl King and Matt Hutcheon were soon into the Spencer top order. Unlike most weeks when it’s Darryl that comes up with the early breakthrough; this time it was Matt who had the Spencer Captain James Smith well caught at 2nd slip by Tom Massey (6 for 1 in the 4th over).
At the other end Darryl was frequently beating the bat and sometimes finding the edges which didn’t go to hand. Matt struck again; his second wicket in an opening spell of 10 overs of quality fast bowling; getting Oliver Martyn-Hemphill lbw for 10 (41 for 2 in the 18th over).
Opener Simon McConnell (64) and experienced Adam Caddy (32) were steering Spencer to their target with 15 fours between them. It wasn’t until Darryl King returned to have McConnell (115 for 3 in the 33rd over) and Caddy (116 for 4 in the 35th over) both caught behind by Ashwin.
Luke got his only wicket (11 overs 1 for 44) when pick of the fielders Wilbur Tiley held a fine low catch to dismiss Ikram (123 for 5 in the 38th over).
Llamas were pulling the game back and at 40 overs Spencer were 133 for 5.
The Llamas were 134 for 5 at the same stage of their innings.

Youngster Jack Hunter-Lees now arrived at the wicket. Jack had provided every Reigate batsman with “It’s a 350 Wicket” along with a constant stream of other verbal diarrhoea.
As you may imagine Jack received a friendly Llama greeting and his “sledging” was returned with interest. This is obviously not behaviour we approve of but to the defence of the Llamas young Jack was a –what’s the phrase ?- a gobby little lad. Nonetheless to his credit he scored a stubborn 19 before Ollie bowled him (149 for 6 in the 43rd over). Ollie’s 1 for 35 was scant reward for the frequency he beat the bat.

After only getting 2 wickets in his 1st spell of 10 overs, Hutch returned to claim 2 more as he had Cummings caught behind by Ashwin for 8 (153 for 7 in the 44th over) and then Bajwa lbw for a duck (157 for 8 in the 44th over) giving Matt deserved figures of 12 overs 4 for 32.
Matt’s visiting parents happily there to witness.
Ali switched his bowlers and Tom Massey bowled 2 tight overs for just 6 runs.
The Llamas now looked favourites but in a see-saw game Sameer Khan (18 n.o.) was joined by Babar Hussain (7) and although the win looked out of Spencer’s reach, they crept ever closer to the winning draw target of 174.
Ali gave Ollie Thilo the responsibility of the final over and Spencer took singles until with the score on 172 with 2 balls left they completed one and attempted to run the second only for Hussein to be run out by Ali (173 for 9).
Going for the 2nd run meant 3 results were possible off the final ball:-
A wicket off the last ball would give a win to the Llamas
A dot ball would bring a winning draw to the Llamas and
A run would bring a winning draw to Spencer.
In hindsight, although the run out meant Reigate could win, it brought Sameer Khan back on strike and he hit a four to give the cheering Spencer team the extra 2 points for the winning draw.
A tight finish to a cracking game of cricket.

Highlights were Matt’s 4 for 32 off 12 overs and Luke’s 45 and Ali’s equally classy 42.