Needing to win to potentially claim a place in the play-offs as best runner up; Reigate Rapids (U19’s) played neighbours Banstead Rams (U19’s) in their final Tier 1 East T20 League.

With the 2nd elevens meeting last Monday evening in the T20 Plate it was a case of déjà vu, as from tonight’s teams 7 of the Reigate Rapids and 5 of the Banstead Rams played in the T20 Plate fixture.

Banstead’s Ben Butterfield won the toss and chose to bat. At least tonight the coin landed on the pitch unlike Tuesday evening at Ashtead when it disappeared down the stump hole !!.

Openers Ben Butterfield and Alfie Haxton made the most of the 6 power play overs and reached 53-0. Alfie (33) was 1st wicket to fall caught at deep long on by Tommy Bates off Seth McDowall’s bowling for 68-1 in the 9th over. Next over with the score on 73 Banstead lost their 2nd wicket when fellow opener Ben Butterfield (35) was caught and bowled by Tommy Bates (4-0-21-1). Ben was to catch Tommy in the Reigate innings.

Reigate began to claw their way back into the game as the run rate stalled and wickets were lost. Alex Dodson (6) was out stumped by Sam Bell off Seth’s bowling (4-0-20-2) although he was so far down the wicket I think the correct decision should have been a run out as he was clearly looking to run. 82-3 soon became 84-4 as Alex Butterfield, who had scored well on Joey day, was caught by Seth at deep long on from Will Brewis’ bowling.

A flurry of wickets followed. Isaac Rusbridge (91-5) caught by Tommy Bates at mid on for a wicket to (spin bowler) George McLoughlin. George (2-0-8-2) then bowled Bertie Morgan (92-6) . Will Darbishire (97-7) was caught at deep cow by Jack Sadler to give Will his 2nd wicket (4-0-14-2). Eash Aravinthan (110-8) was then caught by Ben Ware at mid off for a wicket to Aadil Raza (1-0-9-1) and Banstead finished on 124-8 from their allotted overs.

As usual games aren’t won or lost at the halfway stage and although Reigate finished well having Banstead held from 68-0 after 8 overs to claim 8 wickets for 56 runs from the remaining 12 overs; Banstead had runs on the board.

Seth McDowall and Tom Harvey-James opened for Reigate, but Seth having reached 16 off 10 balls with 3 fours was caught by Alex Dodson at deep cover for Eash Aravinthan’s 1st wicket and Reigate were 29-1 in the 4th over. 5th over saw Advaith Bali lbw to Isaac Rusbridge (2-0-7-1).

Tommy Bates (46-4) was next to go, caught by a leaping one handed catch by Ben Butterfield off Jo Glen’s bowling and the Llamas then lost Tom Harvey James, who top scored with 19, lbw hit on the toe to give Vaibhau Vaidyanath his 1st wicket which saw Reigate on 52-5 in the 11th over.

The Llamas never recovered as wickets continued to tumble with the runs almost coming to a standstill. Harrison Lewis was lbw to Jo Glen (4-0-11-2) for 59-6 and then Sam Bell (61-7) was caught at deep cow by Alex Butterfield for Vaibhau’s 2nd wicket. Jack Sadler (68-8) became Vaibhau’s next wicket when Jack was caught at short cover by Ben Butterfield and then George McLoughlin (70-9) was out bowled by a leg spinning ball for Vaibhau’s 4th wicket and match winning figures of 4-0-15-4. With Aadil Raza run out the Llama innings ended in just the 16th over on 72 all out to give neighbours Banstead the bragging rights for a comprehensive win.

The Llamas end the season in mid table 3rd out of 5 with 2 wins and 2 defeats.