Bond and Thilo turn the tables on Sunbury

Guests were invited to GALER’S BIRTHDAY PARTY on Saturday 14th July where the entertainment was a match between Reigate Priory CC second X1 v Sunbury CC second X1.

With both Captain Ali and Vice Captain Neil playing in the 1’s, it was Hutch who stepped in to Captain a team packed with bowlers (no spinners though) and included a debut for U15 Captain William Hodgson.

Sunbury won the toss and put the Llamas into bat.
The start was difficult for openers Jonathan Smith & Ashwin Bhat; particularly against the accurate bowling of Sunbury’s Adam Stanier who made the batsman play at almost every delivery.
Ashwin was first out for 16 off the last ball of the 8th over, caught at 1st slip off Adam Stanier with the score 21-1.
Jonathan Gale came in at 3 but despite surviving an LBW shout (he hit it) the same ball was caught in the slips and Galer was out for 1 (27-2 off the 1st ball of the 10th over) off the bowling of Adam Stanier.

Debutant (U15) Will Hodgson was next in (facing Adam Stanier’s hat-trick ball).
Will survived the hat-trick but fell for a duck, bowled by Adam Stanier (27-3 still in the 10th over).
Nick Rotsey joined Smudger but immediately fell to a harsh LBW decision off James Birch (30-4 in the 11th over).
Nick was out to the same bowler last week when both played for their respective 3rd X1’s.
Skipper Hutch was next in at 6 & the Llamas struggled to 36-4 by the 16th over when Hutch hit 2 fours to move the score along to 44-4 at 17 overs & the 1st break for drinks.
And what often happens straight after drinks ?
Yes you’re right; a wicket falls.
Smudger this time out for a patient 18 caught by a combination of 2nd slip knocking it on for the 1st slip to finish the catch, off the bowling of Adam Stanier; 46-5 in the 18th over.
Our shortage of batsmen was beginning to tell.
This became 63-6 in the 22nd over when Hutch was out for 15 caught by Sean Ventham in the slips ; another wicket for Adam Stanier.
Sean Ventham then had Tom Massey (1) caught by a combination of the wicket keeper and slip (66 for 7 in the 23rd over).
Not only was an early tea on the cards an early finish looked likely, but the 2’s didn’t lie down and who do you call for in a crisis ?
Why Bond of course, Christian Bond, appropriately coming in to bat at 007 and along with Ollie Thilo the pair started to dig the Llamas out of trouble.
Sunbury’s Adam Stanier was ending his spell –he finished with figures of 5 for 53 off his 14 overs- and Bondy and OT started to get on top of the Sunbury change bowlers.
From 66 for 7 Christian Bond scored his 1st runs for the club (Chris has only had a few innings before this but hadn’t previously got off the mark).
Chris started with some straight drives, included a reverse sweep in his repertoire and even had a scoop shot which somehow never left the ground. By the time of the 2nd drinks break (34 overs) the Llamas had moved up to 122-7 and Bondy had made his maiden 50.
Ollie T was joining in and matching Christian and their 100 partnership came up in the 40th over (170-7).
The pair continued to score heavily and Christian had reached 95 when he skied a catch to mid on only for Adam Stanier to drop it.
Christian was on 96 when with the score on 206 in the 47th over he was caught off the bowling of Sohi by Oliver Roland-Jones who just got his fingers under the ball.
The pair had put on 140 in 24 overs. A record 8th wicket partnership for the 2’s.
Ollie had scored an excellent 63 but was then out charging down the wicket and was stumped off the bowling of Sohi (224-9 in the 49th).
Mobeen Tahir was last out in the 50th over bowled by Sean Ventham leaving Darryl at 6 not out.
The Llamas finishing on 238 all out after 49.3 overs.

Sunbury openers were Darren London whose 67 almost won the opening fixture and Sean Ventham who had recent scores of 112 & 83.
Not for the 1st time this season, when you need an early wicket send for Darryl King and Darryl duly delivered in the 3rd over when he had Sean Ventham caught by Mobeen Tahir (15-1)
Hutch than had Darren London given out LBW (20-2 in the 6th over).
Hutch’s next over saw Sohi out for 1, well caught by Jonathan Smith diving forward (32-3 in the 8th over).
U15 Will Hodgson then had an “exchange of views” with Sunbury’s Oliver Roland-Jones on the subject of catches carrying-Oliver Roland-Jones had caught Christian Bond out on 96.
Oliver Roland-Jones was a long standing player in Sunbury’s 1st team so young Will was choosing to “exchange views” with a senior cricketer well used to the “chat”.
While we don’t want our young players to meekly accept everything we need to remind them not to cross the line. On this occasion Oliver Roland-Jones was happy to say Will approached him and said he got caught (!) in the moment and all was happily forgotten.

OR WAS IT ?

Because next over Will bowls to Oliver Roland-Jones on 33 and Nick Rotsey’s safe hands takes the catch at deep square leg giving a little victory for Will (75-4 in the 16th)
Will’s not done yet and next ball sees Alex Hughes out for a duck by the catch of the day from Tom Massey at second slip diving full length to his right (75-5 still in the 16th over).
Will’s 5th over brought him his 3rd wicket (110-6 in the 22nd over) getting Nick Jupp caught by Ollie Thilo.
Mobeen Tahir had to wait until his 7th over for his wicket when Tom Massey snapped up another slip catch to get Harveer Mahajan out for 29 (110-7 in the 23rd over)
Will Hodgson had bowled one beamer considered high but not dangerous.
Will then bowled another and was given his warning.
Unfortunately with the 1st ball of his 6th over Will bowled another and had to be taken off.
A really good bowling debut for the 2’s saw his figures of 3 for 23 from 5.1 overs.
We’ll be seeing a lot more of William Hodgson.

Although the team was packed with regular bowlers, Hutch had a moment of inspiration (or was it Hutch’s birthday present to Galer ?) in throwing the ball to Galer to finish Will’s incomplete over.
Galer then proceeded to clean bowl Finlay for 4 (130-8 in the 26th over).
Galer efficiently only bowled the leg stump leaving the other two stumps and bail intact.
Galer then did exactly the same in his next over bowling Birch for 8 (144-9 in the 28th)
Galer clearly had the after match party to attend and wanted the game over and he didn’t have long to wait as in the 30th over he finished the game when Nick Rotsey’s reliable hands caught Adam Stanier at deep square leg leaving Sunbury all out for 156 in the 30th over.
Part time bowler ?–not any more- 3 for 6 from 3 overs

The birthday celebration continued with a birthday cake (& candles, and we’re not saying how many).
Instead of the traditional birthday party goody bags, Galer sent his guests home with mixed gifts. The Reigate guests were happy with their prize of 24 points and even the Sunbury guests didn’t go home empty handed as they collected 4 bonus points.
The Llamas overtook their opponents to climb to 3rd place in the league.
Next game is against 2nd place Wimbledon

Highlights Christian Bond 96, Ollie Thilo 63
Mentioned in despatches William Hodgson 3 for 23, Jonathan Gale 3 for 6
And for his catch of the day- Tom Massey.