Match report: Dick Belcher

Having won the Surrey Trust League Tier 1 East, the Llama Under 21 team hosted a semi-final against Tier 1 West winners Valley End; a team that have defeated us twice at the same stage of the competition (Chris Bullen Trophy). In 2024 they swept past our 186 all out with 189-2 and in 2022, in a closer game, their 192-9 just got home against our 188-10.

So familiar opponents with 7 of the Valley End team from last year’s semi-final and 8 of our Llamas from last year’s match appearing in today’s game. Plenty of young cricketing talent on show as Valley End had 5 of Saturday’s 1st team (Division 1) and 4 of Saturday’s 2nd team (Division 4 West) in today’s line-up and similarly the Llamas had one 1st teamer (Premier Division) and 6 2nd teamers (Division 4 East) from Saturday’s games in their line-up.

Captain Jack Sadler won the toss and put Valley End into bat. A breakthrough as early as the 3rd over saw Alex Butterfield bowl Valley End 1st teamer Josh Jayasingh (2) and in the next over Bertie Morgan, after a series of wides, got his radar on course when he bowled Joe Clifford (3), another Valley End 1st teamer, and our visitors were 15-2 after 4 overs. The opening bowlers then combined to dismiss yet another Valley End 1st teamer Rishya Rawal (15) with Alex catching in the gulley to get Bertie a 2nd wicket (4-0-26-2) and Valley End were 27-3 in the 6th over.

The tide began to turn as Ralf Beer (yes yet another Valley End 1st teamer) and Shrey Rawal put on a 50 partnership which Tommy Bates finally broke having Ralf Beer (33) caught behind by Sam Bell. Partner Shrey Rawal (25) was then bowled by leg spinner Jun Mackrell (4-1-19-1) as Valley End went from 89-4 to 98-5 with half the wickets down at the halfway 20 overs.

Alex Butterfield (8-0-31-2) then got the 6th wicket when with the score on 120 in the 25th over he bowled Valley End Captain Freddie Brennen (18) and although the Valley End lower order all got runs they didn’t look likely to post a big score. The 2nd drinks break saw Fin Willsher introduced into the attack and he had immediate success as Tommy Bates caught Joe Hill (I promise he’s the last of the Valley End 1st teamers) to see Valley End at 148-7 in the 31st over.

Next over Captain Jack Sadler was into the action with a direct hit to run out James Barnard (14) with Valley End now 150-8. Another catch for Jack Sadler and a 2nd wicket for Fin Willsher (4-0-24-2) was the 9th wicket as Ben Smith went for 11 with the score 167-9 in the 35th over. Valley End weren’t to complete their allotted 40 overs as Tommy Bates (8-0-26-2) had Shiv Takyar lbw and Valley End were all out for 183 after 38 overs.

Priory’s reply started with a dropped catch at deep cover off the 2nd ball as opener Seth McDowall got an early let off. Seth and Sam Bell then proceeded to race towards the target and had reached 72 in just the 9th over when Seth (28), going for yet another boundary, was caught in the deep by Ben Smith off Joe Clifford’s bowling. Advaith Bali (1) was then caught in the covers by Joe Hill to give Joe Clifford his 2nd wicket (8-1-34-2) as Valley End had the Llamas 76-2 in the 11th over.

That was almost the end of any drama as Sam Bell (86 no from 96 balls) and Tommy Bates (43 from 46 balls) eased the Llamas to their target which they reached in the 29th over with 11 overs to spare. The only blip was when Tommy was almost caught with the target just 1 run away. Tommy, showing cricketing maturity that he’s also showing in the Llama 1st team, was probably just outshone by Sam Bell with a terrific innings with not quite enough of a target for Sam to add to his impressive roll of centuries this season.

So after 2 previous defeats to Valley End at the same stage of previous years competitions the Llamas FINALLY progress to the Final where we meet either East Molesey or Sunbury, who won the Tier 1 North Division and beat us at Park Lane in the 2023 Final.