3rd XI
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Sat 25 May 2019  ·  Premier Division - 3rd XI
Malden Wanderers CC - 3rd XI
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Reigate Priory Cricket Club
3rd XI
Five-Bat McGuinness Takes Llamas to Victory Over Stags

Five-Bat McGuinness Takes Llamas to Victory Over Stags

Reigate Priory Cricket Club30 May 2019 - 20:46
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A dominant century from Fraser McGuinness led the Llamas to victory at Malden Wanderers on Saturday.

A dominant century from Fraser McGuinness led the Llamas to victory at Malden Wanderers on Saturday.

Sharing in three fifty-plus stands for the first three wickets, Fraser steered the Llamas towards the 261 target with much ease.

Earlier in the afternoon, Ant won the toss and invited Malden to bat first at their small ground, with the boundary being a couple of yards from the 30 yard ring.

Elliot Lodge and Toby Briggs once again took the new ball, with Briggs settling into a rhythm very quickly causing both opening batsmen problems. Briggs was unlucky with a couple drop chances and two close LBW shouts were turned down the player umpire.

Persistence won the day for Briggs as he squared up the young opener and Brewis Snr took a good catch at gully.

Abhi replaced Lodge at the golf course end and picked up the important wicket of Jacobs, playing back to one that skidded through. Whilst at the other end Harry McInley took over from Briggsy and bowled with real heat but with little luck, as the short third man boundary was hard to defend against the left handed O’Dowd.

Having seen his off-breaks underused in 2018, Swirve made a welcome return to the bowling attack. A sharp caught and bowled was put down, but it wasn’t long before he got his man as he turned one past the bat to see O’Dowd heading back for 37.

Meanwhile, Manny was putting in a good shift having taken over from Abhi. Bowling a very tight line, Manny picked up two wickets in his six over spell.

McInley return to the bowl at the Cambridge Avenue end, with a view to cleaning up the rest of the Malden line up. Tearing in off the thirty yard ring, Harry saw the left handed Williams smash him over long on for 6 in to the neighbouring gardens. It would be a lie if we said it didn’t raise a chuckle or two among some of the fielders. Next ball Harry came in harder, this time the ball went back just as fast to the long off boundary for one bounce four. Deep point was now in fits of giggles at the former first class bowler.

Harry got his revenge next over, as the aforementioned deep point took a great catch this time at point. Harry celebrated like there was no tomorrow.

Young Will Brewis showed that he wasn’t phased by the step up to third XI cricket, and bowled tidily, picking up a wicket by the still pumped McInley. And with the eighth wicket falling to Abhi, well caught at long on by Elliot, an early finish was on the cards. How wrong were we? The young ninth wicket pair of Rice-Oxley and Hopkins batted very maturely and put on 61 for the ninth wicket to take Malden up to 260 for 8 after their 50 overs. Manny was the pick of the bowlers with 2-36 off 9 overs.

After a sumptuous tea, the Llamas took to the field knowing that as long as they batted sensibly, the 261 target on a small ground was easily attainable.

Opening up was the returning McGuinness and Simon Brewis, and they faced the young tearaway Stags pace bowlers, Hopkins and Winn. Fraser was quick to pick up on anything not on a good length, and punished the opening bowlers with fearsome drives and pulls. Simon at the other end was playing the anchor innings, ensuring no early wickets were gifted to Malden (although he’d admit the number of playing and missing could have seen the opposite). The first of three consecutive fifty partnerships came up in the 10th over, before Simon nicked one behind off Rice-Oxley.

This brought William Irving to the crease for his first outing of the 2019 season. Swirve was straight in to top gear, as he showed the lads a masterclass in finding the gap. His fifty, and the hundred partnership, came up with his seventh four, before he perished next ball finding the man at cow corner. Swirve’s fifty came off just 27 balls and included two maximums. Ant Ireland strolled to the crease, knowing that still just over a hundred were needed for victory but plenty of overs were in hand. By now Fraser was starting to tire, having had to change his bat on no less than 5 occasions. One of the bats taken out to him was actually one of the oppositions that was left lying around. The owner of the bat only realised he was bowling to his own bat when Fraser hit three consecutive boundaries off him.

It has to be said that the quality of strokes through the offside were some of the best seen at 3rd XI level, with Fraser, Swirve and Ant all dissecting the field with ease.

This time Fraser wanted to make sure he got to hundred without the need to change the scorebook, and he did so with his fifteenth four. Thoughts of running out the other four bats for him to celebrate were quickly nullified. Massive sixes over the short leg side boundary to the main square ensured, but it wasn’t long before fatigue got the better of the keeper-batsman, and he fell for 134 off 94 balls, including 18 fours and 5 sixes - the joint fourth highest score for the 3rd XI (equalling Smudger’s effort against Spencer 5 years ago).

Twenty-eight were still needed by the Llamas, but Briggsy made short work of this smashing 26 off 17 balls, whilst Ant finished on 29 from 39 balls. Victory came in 36.1 overs, and one will always wonder what would have happened if we batted first. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but most importantly maximum points were achieved and we head back to SAR to take on table toppers Wimbledon this Saturday.

Match details

Match date

Sat 25 May 2019

Kickoff

12:00

Competition

Premier Division - 3rd XI
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Youth section sponsor - Savills
Proud Supporter - Aerotron
Club sponsor - Newmans Solicitors