The Game That Got Away (3 Times)

Having won the toss and opted to bat; at 88-0 at the 15 over drinks break the Llamas U21 Trust team openers Seth McDowall (44no) & Sam Clark (29no) had provided the perfect platform for the Llamas to set a challenging target for their Valley End opponents in this Surrey Trust League semi final of the Chris Bullen Trophy. Valley End had qualified as runners up to East Molesey (sounds familiar) in the West Division of the Trust League.

After a 13 ball over that included 6 wides and a no ball; a flurry of wickets tumbled after the drinks break starting in the 16th over with Seth hitting a full toss to be caught at mid wicket.
The 17th over saw Sam Clark caught at deep square leg by a diving Shrey Rawal and in the 18th over Will Jones was run out (Barbecued I think is the expression). The 19th over Jacob McLoughlin was caught and bowled and from 88-0 after 15 overs the Llamas were 96-4 at the 20 over halfway stage.

A rebuild started as Captain Will Timmons and Tommy Bates took the score to 122 in the 25th over when they lost their 5th wicket when Will (12) had just a bail removed to be bowled for Ollie Barrow’s 2nd wicket. Jack Sadler and Tommy Bates accelerated the scoring and at 156-6 at 30 overs and with 10 overs left the Llamas could still post a defendable total.

But with 4 wickets falling in 4 consecutive overs earlier in the innings, the Llamas were about to lose 3 wickets in consecutive overs (31-33) as firstly Tommy Bates (32) was caught at mid off, then Alvin skied one for the keeper to eventually locate and catch. Jack Sadler (22) was out caught behind when he sportingly walked despite not being given out by Panel Umpire Anthony Blondell. Tom Harvey James was run out without facing a ball (another Barbecue ?) as the mini collapse ended with the Llamas 168-9 in the 33rd over.

Fortunately the tail did a bit of wagging as Will Brewis (10no) and George McLoughlin (11) took the Llamas into the last over when George was out to become Ollie Barrow’s 4th wicket (7.1-0-26-4) as the Llama innings ended on what looked a below par 188 all out.

The Llama opening bowlers were soon on top of the Valley End batsmen as Will Brewis dismissed the Valley End Captain and 1st teamer George Freeman (6) when he was well caught by Sam Clark at mid on. George McLoughlin (6.2.-0-34-1) then bowled the other opener Josh Murray (3) before Will Brewis clean bowled both Douglas Cant (2) and Joe Clifford (6). Tommy Bates (8-0-35-1) then caught and bowled Nathaniel Brittany (16) and the Llamas had Valley End 42-5 in the 12th over.

After letting a good position of 88-0 in our own innings slip away, we then saw another good position of 42-5 begin to slip away as Valley End’s Shrey Rawal aided by Ollie Barrow took the score to 123 when Ollie Barrow (27) was 6th out when caught at extra cover by Tommy Bates from Jacob McLoughlin’s bowling (8-0-31-1)

Shrey Rawal was building an excellent innings and was taking Valley End towards the target when with his score on 73 he attempted a 2nd run to be run out by a direct hit from George McLouhghlin and at 162-7 the Llamas were back in the game. Will Brewis then clean bowled both James Barnard (12) and Fred Beer (2) to claim his 5th wicket (8-0-39-5) as Valley End were 169-9 still needing 20 more from the remaining 3 overs.

6 runs from the 38th over left Will Brewis bowling the 39th. Having clean bowled 4 of his 5 earlier victims Will’s radar deserted him as the over went for 12 runs including 3 wide deliveries as Valley End were now just 1 behind with 1 over left. George couldn’t repeat his last ditch efforts from the Oxted game when he took the last wicket to tie the game; as a wide took the scores level before a 4 took Valley End to victory at 192-9 with 4 balls to spare.

From our own 88-0 and having the visitors 42-5 and 169-9 this narrow defeat will be hard to take when many will look back on individual mistakes that could have made the difference. A good game nonetheless which unfortunately comes on the back of another semi final defeat (for 9 of today’s team) on Friday evening against East Molesey’s U19’s. But the team should keep in mind that with most of the group being U17’s they are often up against older players and going one step further next season will not be beyond this talented group.