The Competition

The semi-final at Park Lane matched the Tier 1 U19 T20 Central Winners (Reigate) against the Tier 1 South Group Winners (Chobham) for the right to meet the Tier 1 North Group Winners (Esher-who beat Guildford in their semi final) in Sunday’s Final at the Oval; so no lack of incentive for either side.

The Teams

The Clubs previously met at U17 level in 2023 in the semi-final of the Dennis Jacobs Cup where the Llamas 118-7 fell short of Chobham’s 132-10.

Two years on Ben Ware, Tom Hart, Sam Bell, Jonathan Wylie and George McLoughlin, from the 2023 side, are playing in today’s game. Similarly Chobham have 8 of their 2023 U17 team playing today.

Seven of today’s Chobham team played for the Chobham 1st team in their last league game of the 2025 season which saw them beating already promoted Effingham to secure 2nd place and promotion to play next season in Division 4 (West); the same level as our own 2nd team which has featured many of our U19’s.

The Match

With rain forecast for later in the afternoon the match was reduced to a 15 over a side game and a late selection saw Duckworth-Lewis introduced. Chobham won the toss and chose to field.

Morgan Barnes and Sam Bell opened for the Llamas and after a few play & misses the Llamas were just 5-0 after 2 overs. Acceleration started as Sam Bell hit 26 runs in the next 3 overs as the Llamas moved onto 37-0 after 5 overs.

One run from a wide should have been enough but Morgan called for a 2nd run and running to the danger end saw him run out for 7 as the Llamas lost their 1st wicket (39-1).

Captain Tommy Bates joined Sam Bell and the pair (who were both later to see the other side of this fickle game of Cricket) put on a 50 partnership in just under 7 overs before Sam (45 from 32 balls) was caught at deep mid wicket by Will Daley from the bowling of Alex Yates (2-0-19-1) for 95-2 in the 12th over.

Next over (the 13th) Tommy Bates (44 from 31 balls) was bowled by Will Daley (2-0-11-1) as the 3rd Llama wicket fell (103-3).

Ben Ware (10 no from a run a ball) and George McLoughlin took 12 runs from the penultimate 14th over to get the Llamas to 115-3 before George (6) was caught at deep long off by Freddy Scott-Gall from the bowling of Cameron Birch (3-0-19-1); as Ben Ware and Tom Hart (1 no) saw the Llamas finish on 122-4.

Set a rate of just about 8 runs an over, Chobham’s top order were in early trouble as Aadil Raza had Will Daley (0) caught by Jonathan Wylie at short third man and in the 4th over Aadil Raza got his 2nd wicket (3-0-23-2) when Chobham Captain Archie Henderson (9) dragged a wide delivery onto his stumps and Chobham were 18-2 in the 4th over.

4 of Chobham’s first 5 batters today were batsmen number 1 to 4 for the Chobham 1st team and 2 of them, Freddy Scott-Gall and Ben Storey, set about the Chobham recovery putting on a 50 partnership. Chances were missed as Sam Bell, seeing what a cruel game this can sometimes be, put down 3 catches.

With 10 of the 15 overs played, Chobham were 67-2 and still needing 56 more runs from the 5 remaining overs. George McLoughlin, just bowling spin (1-0-14-1) while making his recovery from injury which has kept him out of almost the entire season, went for a couple of 6’s by Ben Storey as 14 runs came from the 11th over.

With just 1 ball left of the 12th over Obid Khan (2.5-0-24-1) got the Llamas back in the game as Chobham lost their 3rd wicket when Obid bowled Freddy Scott-Gall (33 from 31) to have Chobham 87-3.

With just 19 balls to go and with plenty of wickets in hand, Chobham still required 36 more runs to win (about 12 runs an over). Another Chobham 1st team top order bat, Alex Yates joined Ben Storey as the Llamas struggled to hold the chase in check and Tommy Bates (3-0-27-0); having seen the upside with his batting, was to see the downside as a very rare 9 ball over saw Tommy bowl a wide and 2 no balls with the free hits that go with them, as 20 runs came from the 13th over as Chobham duly overtook the Duckworth-Lewis target and were 111-3 needing just a run a ball 12 from the last 2 overs.

The penultimate over was given to Ben Ware; like George McLoughlin, bowling spin while recovering from injury. It was Ben that stalled the Chobham charge when he had Ben Storey (49 from 36 balls) well caught by Tommy Bates at mid off and the 4th Chobham wicket fell at 115-4.

At this point and with just 8 balls remaining and Chobham in front of the Duckworth-Lewis target, just 8 runs were needed as the players left the field as heavy rain started to fall. Play was halted for about half an hour at which point play restarted with Ben (1-0-4-1) completing his over with 2 dot balls to new batsman Sam Greayer-Smith, leaving Chobham requiring 8 balls from the last over.

A boundary 4 from the 1st ball eased some of the Chobham nerves as just 4 runs were now needed from 5 balls. A run off each of the next 3 balls saw Chobham draw level with the Llamas but was there a sting in the tail as Obid then ran out another of Chobham’s 1st team top order batter Alex Yates (18 runs from 9 balls) which meant Chobham still required 1 more run from the last ball.

Was a super over in store ? Alas not as the game was won on a wide that saw a victory for Chobham and perhaps a case of OVAL AND OUT for the Llamas who leave it to the Under 18 Girls to carry the Llama flag to the Oval for their Hundred Final.