Family outing spoiled by quality Guildford Academy XI

With fathers and sons Srikanth & Shanyu Vuppala and Brijesh & Jai Patel in the Reigate team and three McMillan brothers in the Guildford team, the fixture could have been a family game in the back garden.
However the venue was Guildford’s Woodbridge Road ground with its reputation as a batting paradise; this promised plenty of runs for the batsmen and a tough day for the bowlers.

Neil Saker remembers playing on this batting paradise for Surrey v Somerset in 2006 when Somerset scored 688-9dec (Justin Langer 342) and Surrey replied with 717 (Rikki Clarke 214). In a Surrey side including Anil Kumble, Neil modestly omitted to mention he bowled a respectable 16 overs for 0-73.

James Leck won the toss and elected to bat and opened with the father-son combination of Srikanth and Shanyu Vuppala (U15).
A 6/4/4 in 3 balls saw Srikanth set off at his usual pace when in the 5th over Shanyu was bowled for 4 by Cameron Green (31-1). Dad continued with another over hit for 13 before he too was bowled in the 7th over by Cameron Green for 34 (46-2).
With the usual batting order of trying to have a Senior at the crease to help the youngsters Brijesh Patel joined Finlay Milton (U16).
With a sun-scorched fast outfield Finlay and Brijesh made good use of the short side boundaries and both hit a couple of 4’s when in the 12th over with his score on 10, Finlay was bowled by Anwar Khan (U17) 73-3.

Jai Patel (U18) joined Dad to make it the second Father & Son combination of the innings, but unfortunately Dad didn’t get too much opportunity to bat with Son as Jai was caught behind for 1(immediately after the drinks break) in the 14th over also off Anwar Khan (79-4).
Jacob McLoughlin (U15) in at 6 now joined Brijesh who continued to hit boundaries and had scored 1 six and 7 fours in his 39 when he was bowled by Henry McMillan (U16).
This full toss was close to being over waist height but the Guildford Umpire at square Leg decided it was below waist height and Brijesh departed with the score now 107-5 in the 18th over.

James Leck was next in to continue the Senior/Junior combination. Jacob played some solid defensive shots against Guildford speedster Anwar Khan (U17), who took 2 wickets for Guildford 2nd’s on Saturday, before being bowled leg stump for 8 becoming Henry McMillan’s 2nd victim (118-6). Ollie Thilo (U16) was out next ball for 0, also bowled by Henry McMillan (118-7) in the 20th over. The scoring rate was fine at almost a run a ball but the Llamas needed to consolidate and David Gent joined James Leck and the 2 Seniors temporarily steadied the innings with James scoring a 6 and 2 fours before James was caught at slip for 14 by a combination of McMillan brothers with elder brother Fred doing the catching off middle brother James’ bowling, (136-8 in the 23rd over).

Having scored 2 fours David Gent (9) pulled Henry McMillan to deep square leg where
he was caught to become Henry McMillan’s 4th wicket, (140-9 in the 24th over).
U16’s Oliver Harris (5 not out) and Keeran Kirupakaran (17) made the tail wag when KK had a dash down the track and was stumped becoming U16 Henry McMillan’s 5th wicket (5-42).
The Llamas were all out in the 30th over for 167 with 5 of the team having been clean bowled.

Tea was taken in the new Guildford pavilion.
No-one would describe the new pavilion as a traditional cricket pavilion; it is more of a corporate event centre with:-
Spacious changing accommodation on the ground floor.
The middle floor is available for hire for events. There is a bar at this level
-not yet operational, and when it is operational it is apparently going to be run by the Oval (with Oval bar prices ?).
The top floor is a small room which Guildford CC hope to use as “their” bar-bottled beers etc.
The new pavilion was mainly funded by Surrey County Cricket Club and Guildford Borough Council with Guildford Cricket Club contributing –although a hefty £50,000- a minor share of the new build costs. The Cricket Club are represented on the board that operates the Pavilion, but only time will tell how much influence Guildford Cricket Club have over their new accommodation; we wish them well.

Back to the Cricket.
The Llamas would need an early breakthrough if they were to have any chance of defending 167.
This came in the 2nd over when Jacob McLoughlin (U16) had opener Ed Osborne (0) well caught behind by James Leck (6-1).
James Leck bowled the youngsters to try and get another wicket.
Ollie Thilo (U16) bowled 3 overs 0-25 and Jacob McLoughlin (U15) 4 overs 1-24.
James then introduced U16 spinners Finlay Milton and Oliver Harris who both bowled 8 overs for 36 and 45 respectively to peg back Guildford.
After 20 overs Guildford had reached 117; Reigate were 118 after 20 overs;
unfortunately Guildford had only lost 1 wicket whereas we had lost 7 at the 20 over mark.
Short boundaries and a fast bumpy outfield (just like ours) made fielding difficult and unless the ball was straight at the fielder there was no chance of stopping a boundary.
The Llamas couldn’t make another breakthrough and Oscar Martin (U17 and Guildford 2nd’s) with 75 not out and Jonathan French (also Guildford 2nd’s) with 74 not out took Guildford to victory.

This was a game where there was a mismatch of ages
The Llamas selected 4 Seniors, 1 U18, 4 U16’s and 2 U15’s.
Guildford selected 3 Seniors, 3 20 yr old’s, 2 U18’s, 2 U17’s and 1 U16
2 played for Guildford’s 1st team, 3 are 2nd teamers and 5 play for their 3rd team.
This doesn’t mean this format isn’t worth playing as it does give experience against Seniors and different (& similar) aged Juniors; it doesn’t however guarantee a competitive game.