RECORD BREAKERS?

When the teams met 3 weeks ago at Guildford, 7 of today’s Guildford team and 6 of today’s Lady Llamas played in the fixture. This time around Guildford were missing Danielle Gregory (Surrey Stars) and the Llamas were missing both Amy Gordon (Surrey Stars) and Claudie Cooper (Surrey Women).
With the forecast of heavy rain from mid afternoon onwards the match started in dry conditions as Jess Whitcher won the toss and asked Guildford to bat and they duly obliged as they batted and batted and batted....you get where this is going ?
Milestones were duly reached in the :-

• 14th over 100 Partnership
• 15th over Louise Worsfold 50
• 16th over Elizabeth Jurczenko 50
• 20th over 150 Partnership
• 25th over 200 Partnership
• 26th over Louise Worsfold 100
• 27th over Elizabeth Jurczenko 100
• 31st over 250 Partnership

Jess tried 8 different bowlers in an effort to break the partnership and it was Emily Taylor who finally succeeded having Louise Worsfold (118) caught by Ellie Thomas and Guildford were 256-1 in the 31st over. The only other wicket to fall was also to Emily Taylor (5-0-37-2) when she trapped Izzy Berry (Surrey Women) lbw for 2 as Guildford finished their 35 overs on 278-2 with Elizabeth Jurczenko undefeated on 133.
Given the conditions of the ball it wasn’t unsurprising that a couple of catches were spilled but that shouldn’t detract from the hard hitting Guildford Opening stand of 256 which will no doubt have the ground/club/league record keepers checking their books.
The innings started in the dry, but with the start of Wimbledon Tennis imminent, the rain began to get in some practice as the match continued in light rain followed by heavy rain that forced a break in the innings for 15 minutes. No rain for the restart but light rain soon came back for the remainder of the innings. Had the light rain been there from the start then it is doubtful the match would have got underway but having once started the match it was credit to the Llama fielders for playing in these far from ideal conditions trying to grip a wet ball. (The Sunday Cavs played the Mogs at St Albans Road in similar conditions).
278 (about 8 runs an over) was a huge challenge and Guildford’s accurate bowling (5 of the wickets to fall were to be bowled and 2 were to be lbw) soon had the Llamas in trouble as Izzy Berry bowled Emily Taylor (6) for 18-1 then had Alice Capsey (13 from 6 balls with 3 fours) lbw at 32-2 then next ball bowled Millie Hetherington 32-3. Lucy Harris (11) was bowled by Malorie Short and Izzy Berry (6-1-23-4) then bowled Chloe Bailey (8) and any hopes of reaching the target were gone as the Llamas were 41-5 in the 10th over.
A brief stand from Captain Jess Whitcher and keeper Izzy Cooper before Izzy was out for 15 followed by Vicki out lbw on Vicki’s first game since giving birth (future Llama) 9 weeks ago and the Llamas were 65-7 in the 18th over. Zara Thorn (2) was the 8th wicket to fall. Daisy Barnes bowled 5 overs for just 5 runs as Jess Whitcher (36 n.o.) took advantage of some batting practice to take the Llamas past the 100 before heavy rain finally ended the match after 32 overs with the Llamas on 107-8.
The Llamas shouldn’t get downhearted by this one defeat as although it made a dent in the Llamas lead at the top of the table, cricket is a fickle game and great leveller and they will recall that only 3 weeks ago Reigate dismissed this week’s Guildford centurions for 18 and 0 and it was Alice Capsey and Amy Gordon who, had the game gone beyond 20 overs, were both heading for a century and a potential 250+ score.