Llamas complete victory parade despite the rain

Well we certainly got the rain with a late start and 3 further interruptions and we
had the bonus of the Parade with a fly-past by the Red Arrows on their way to
the Trooping the Colour ceremony.
With Guildford’s Woodbridge Road ground being used for the Surrey matches
and the Guildford Festival, the Llamas were redirected across the West Sussex
and Surrey countryside (preferable to the bumper to bumper M25 trips) to the
pretty village cricket ground at Dunsfold.
The reported availability issue this week was evident in the 2 nd ’s with only 6 of
last week’s eleven in this week’s team. Galer called on the experience of Steve
Cross, Nick Rotsey, Simon Brewis, Elliott Lodge and Andrew Hook to step into
the breach.
With rain around Galer won the toss and chose to bowl. After a rain delayed
start which reduced the game to 96 overs, Guildford’s openers struggled to
make any headway against Ollie Thilo and Toby Briggs and slowly made their
way to 31-0 after 16 overs. The breakthrough came in the 17 th over from 1 st
change bowler Elliott Lodge who had Kiwi Jaeydyn Bartosh-Short (18) caught
by Wilbur Tiley.
A rain break with another 4 overs lost, reducing the match to 92 overs, before
Guildford lost a batch of wickets. In the 20 th over fellow opener Jonathan
Hedges (8) was caught by a diving catch from wicket-keeping Andrew Hook off
Toby’s bowling and 40-2 soon became 40-3 in the same over when Toby
bowled Aqeel Iqbal for a duck.
In the 22 nd over with the score on 41, Paul Stephens (9) became the 4 th wicket
when he gloved one to Andrew Hook to give Toby his 3 rd wicket. In the next
(23 rd over) Adam Appleton (1) was caught and bowled to give a diving Elliott
Lodge his 2 nd wicket at 41-5. Then in the next over (24 th ) Omar Khan (2) became
Toby’s 4 th victim when Nick Rotsey took the catch at cover with the score now
43-6. Toby figures were 4-26 from his 14 over spell and Elliott’s figures were
2-7 from his 6 overs.

If Guildford were to set any kind of target they would need their tail to wag but
the only tail that was wagging was Galer’s dog Bobby; mascot for the day in the
dog sitting hands of the Thilo family.
Another rain break knocked another 6 overs to reduce the game to 86 overs. The
innings moved onto 51 when youngster James McMillan (4) was caught behind
to give Andrew Hook his 3 rd catch, this time off the bowling of Mobeen Tahir
who had replaced Elliot Lodge. With the score on 58 in the 34 th over, Guildford
Captain Chris Coombs (1) was the 8 th wicket to fall caught in the slips by Toby
to give Mobeen his 2 nd wicket. 15 year old Jevan Kher, who was only the 2 nd
Guildford player to reach double figures (10) became Mobeen’s 3 rd wicket when
Steve Cross did the catching to leave Guildford at 67-9. Mobeen finishing with
3-6 from his 7 overs. Ollie Thilo then bowled Archie Freeth (4) to finish the
innings at 70 in the 41 st over. Ollie bowled 9.5 overs with 1 wicket for a miserly
14 runs as Guildford went from 31-0 after 16 overs to 70 all out in the 41 st over.
With every sympathy for our hosts who had to find this alternative ground, the
standard of the wicket was poor with some balls leaping dangerously high off a
length. That said we did bowl well and not too many wickets were attributable
to the state of the surface.
The Llamas would start with 45 overs to get the 70 runs which they knew could
be tough going on this difficult wicket. Openers Nick Rotsey and Simon Brewis
took us to 26 in the 6th over when Nick Rotsey (15) was out lbw to Archie
Freeth before yet another rain break reduced the available over by 6 down from
45 to 39. The total overs lost to rain now up to 20. On resumption, in the 8 th over
Simon Brewis (14) was bowled by Archie Freeth with the score at 33-2.
Another dozen runs added by Galer and Luke Haughton before Luke (11) was
caught by Adam Appleton off Jake Henderson’s bowling. The Llamas were
now 45-3 in the 15 th over still needing 26 to win but with (rain permitting)
another 24 overs left.. Galer and Andrew Hook both taking a positive approach
took us to 55 before Galer (8) was bowled by Paul Stephens. Andrew Hook (13
no) and Steve Cross with two boundaries (8 no) saw the Llamas to 71-4 from
18.5 overs to a win and 24 points to move up to 3 rd place.
Credit to both sets of players who stayed out in the rain to get a match played
and were quick to the task of getting covers on.