Alice in Wonderland

Captain Jess Whitcher won the toss and put Guildford into bat in this 35 over a side match in Division 1 of the Surrey Womens Cricket League.
The 1st over from Millie Hetherington proved to be fairly eventful and consisted of 9 deliveries (the maximum allowed in the playing conditions) the 1st of which clean bowled Guildford Opener Elizabeth Jurczenko for a duck. Millie then bowled a high beamer and received a no ball and a warning and the next ball produced a catch off a free-hit. The opening over also produced another no ball and 5 wides and 8 for 1 after the 1st over. It was time to take a breath if the rest of the game was to be this eventful. Millie bowled 3 overs 1-17 and fellow opening bowler Amy Gordon bowled 2 overs 0-6.

1st change bowlers Lily Foster and Claudie Cooper soon had success and in the 7th over Claudie (7-0-19-1) took a fine caught and bowled to dismiss Nikki Chaudhuri (8) for Guildford to be 32-2. Lily joined in the wicket takers (7-0-34-1) when Alice Capsey caught Louise Worsfold (18) at mid off to have Guildford on 50-3 in the 12th over.
In the next (13th) over a direct hit from Amy Gordon ran out Felicity Bennett (4) despite the observation of the Umpire (at the other end) who said the ball hit the bottle of sanitiser placed behind the stumps. Any debate was quickly stopped when the outgoing batsman confirmed it was a direct hit. With Guildford now 55-4 in the 13th over the Llamas were firmly in control.
But Guildford had other ideas and Niamh Bullen and Becky Hassan steadily got to grips with the Llama bowlers Alice Capsey, Rosie Foster (2-0-9-0) and Flo Johnson and the pair took their partnership to 69 when in the 28th over Flo Johnson (5-0-21-1) with the help of fine diving catch from Alice Capsey at mid on, got Niamh Bullen out for 44 (from 60 balls) and Guildford were 124-5.

Ellie Thomas (3-0-15-1) then had Guildford skipper Malorie Short (7) out to yet another Alice Capsey catch and Guildford were now 135-6 in the 30th over. Alice Capsey (6-0-20-1), returning for her 2nd spell joined the wicket takers when Danielle Gregory skied one to deep square leg where Millie Hetherington entertained her teammates with a bit of ball juggling before taking the catch and Guildford were 141-7 in the 33rd over with just 2 overs left. Daisy Barnes (4 n.o.) joined Becky Hassan (41 n.o.) to take Guildford onto 150-7 at the end of their allotted 35 overs bowled by 8 different bowlers with only Captain Jess, Keeper Izzy Cooper and Opening bat Emily Taylor not having a bowl.

The Llama reply started with Alice Capsey and Emily Taylor up against Guildford Captain Malorie Short (5-0-31-0) and leg spinner Danielle Gregory and it was Danielle who bowled Emily and the Llama reply was 2-1 in the 2nd over. Millie Hetherington hit some big shots in an almost a run a ball score of 11 before Millie was also out bowled to Danielle Gregory (5-0-29-2) when the ball trickled back onto the stumps to set the Llamas back at 24-2 in the 6th over.

Of the remaining Guildford bowlers it was only Daisy Barnes (5-0-31-0) who set Alice Capsey and Amy Gordon any problems as Alice and Amy went into Twenty Twenty mode to set about reaching the 150 target, making light work of Maryam Hafiz (2-0-22-0) and Louise Worsfold (2-0-21-0).

Alice was first to 50 in the 14th over and their 100 partnership came up in the 18th over before Amy got to 50 in the 19th over. The game was soon to finish as Amy hit a 4 and a 6 off Niamh Bullen (0.5-0-16-0) to see the Llamas to a win after 19.5 overs on 151-2 with Amy on 61 n.o. (from 49 deliveries) and Alice on 73 n.o. (from 55 deliveries) with their unbroken 127 run partnership taking just 13 overs.
A good all round bowling performance with 7 different wicket takers together with some fine catches and fielding but star performance goes to Alice Capsey with 73 n.o. runs , 3 catches and 1 wicket.