Llamas draw despite entertaining Fluck

Priory skipper Richie Oliver won the toss and chose to bat on another good wicket at Park Lane. His side were soon in trouble at 31/3 before a period of rebuilding as opener Luke Haughton and Ed Fluck took the score to 118/3 at the lunch break. Haughton fell in the 1st over after lunch for 51, but by now the wicket was perfect for batting and the dry outfield allowed for quick scoring. Fluck shared partnerships of 91 with Sam Hall (28) and 54 with Jon Flanders (36*) as Reigate accelerated towards a formidable total. When Fluck was caught on the rope he had amassed 147 runs from 156 balls with 22 boundaries. This was his first competitive century for the club following one made in pre-season. A flurry of boundaries at the end of the innings from Flanders and Richard Stevens allowed the Llamas to declare on 298/6 from 62 overs.

Reigate would need to take 10 wickets to secure victory and made a good start as youngster Jacob McLoughlin bowled a tight line with some movement to cause the top order some difficulty. His return of 4/27 reduced the Ashtead to 62/5, however from this point taking wickets proved difficult with the batsmen playing for a draw. Crucially an opportunity to catch overseas player Matthew Breetzke in the slips was not taken early in his innings. He would go on to frustrate the Reigate bowlers by batting for the rest of the innings in making 120*. Reigate tried everything they could to take the remaining wickets but Ashtead were able to hang on and reach 201/8 from 58 overs.

Overall a good performance with the bat and a good effort with the ball weren’t quite enough to take maximum points as the Llamas go into the last two red ball fixtures, starting with a trip to Normandy on Saturday.