In the words from Play Your Cards Right “Points make Prizes”

Going into the last league game of the season in the Surrey Trust League Tier 1 East where the Llamas were in in top spot just 1 point ahead of 2nd placed Wimbledon; the Llamas needed to win the game to guarantee winning the league.

Having recently played Sutton Scorchers in a Reigate Rapids U19 fixture when Sutton arrived without an Umpire, Scorer or match ball, we were hoping for better things this time around but alas no Umpire or Scorer this time either. Sutton Skipper Connor Griffin was obviously having his work cut out with late drop outs and had to call upon family members to complete his team which was made up of one Sutton 1st teamer, four 2nd teamers and 6 young colts.

We weren’t in a position to take the higher ground as there was no pitch prepared at St Albans Road and we had Alvin’s Dad to thank for marking out the pitch so a game could take place.

Sutton won the toss and chose to bat and lost a wicket with the 1st ball of the match (0-1) as Matthew Gardner (0) hit a ball from Will Brewis to extra cover where Jacob McLoughlin dived to take the catch. Connor Griffin then smacked George Mcloughlin’s 1st 3 balls for 4,6,4 before George bowled Connor (14) with the last ball of his 1st over (16-2).
Next to go (49-3) was Connor’s Dad and 2nd team Captain Jamie Griffin (11) when he became George McLoughlin’s 2nd wicket when he lobbed one into the hands of Alvin.

Sutton 1st teamer Rehan Ratnasabapathy , who had scored 46 against our 1’s the previous day, fared less well today as his bails were removed by Alvin (4-0-20-1) and Sutton were 87-4 and most of their experienced 1st and 2nd teamers had been dismissed.
Jacob, bowling spin, then had youngster Maddox Dakin (7) lbw and then Jacob bowled Aarav Rajnikanth (36) as Sutton went from 100-5 to 111-6. Jacob McLoughlin then got his 3rd wicket (8-0-32-3) with the help of fellow 1st teamer Sam Hall who took the catch at slip to dismiss Callum Noonan (2) for 113-7. Next wicket saw Sam Hall into the action again, this time with the ball (5-0-25-1) as he had colt Harry Cates (14) caught by Alvin at mid wicket as the 8th wicket fell (119-8).

The opening bowlers returned to finish the Sutton innings as firstly George Mcloughlin (5-0-36-3) bowled Dyath Premasinghe (3) and then Will Bewis (6.1-1-22-2) bowled Connor’s brother Sam Griffin (1) leaving Samar Ahmed not out on 22 as Sutton were all out for 142 after 28.1 overs.

With fast bowling Captain Connor Griffin (Sutton 2nd team) choosing not to bowl today, Sutton opened the bowling with his brother Sam and the Llama innings didn’t start much better than Sutton’s innings as in the 2nd over Sam Griffin had a wicket maiden when he bowled Thomas Harvey James (1) to see Reigate at 9-1.

Jack Sadler and Morgan Barnes then almost matched each other with Jack scoring five 4’s in his 25 and Morgan scoring four 4’s in his 27. With the score on 50 Callum Noonan had Jack caught at deep cover by Rehan Ratnasabapathy and then with the score on 75 the Llamas lost their 3rd wicket when Callum Noonan (5-0-34-2) had Morgan Barnes, in attempting to hook, caught behind by Maddox Dakin.

Rory Haughton, making a rare but welcome appearance, was joined by Will Jones and just as Jack and Morgan innings were similar, so were the innings of Rory and Will. Rory hit seven 4’s in his 39 and Will hit six 4’s in his 34 as the pair took the Llamas over the 100 before Rory was bowled by Sam Griffin (6.3-1-34-2) as the Llamas were 117-4 in the half way 20th over.

Captain Will Timmons (15 no) and Will Jones (34 no) then saw the Llamas over the line at 145-4 after 23.3 overs to give the Llamas the full 16 points to win the league and finish just a single point in front of Wimbledon who also won their last fixture. Points are awarded for teams having Umpires and Scorers and all 8 of the Llamas games have seen us gain full points for having a Scorer and an Umpire.

Next up is the semi final where the Llamas will have a home game next Sunday against the runners up in the West division which looks like being Valley End with the other semi final seeing Wimbledon visit East Molesey.

The Trust team will be sharing the accolades with the Lady Llamas who today won the Surrey Women’s Cricket League Premiership by 2 points from Richmond CC with Amy Gordon’s 101 no and Jess Whitcher’s 47 chasing down Guildford’s 197-6 with 198-3 in just 21.2 overs. Well done everyone.