Rapids undone by Grasshoppers

With A level and GCSE Exam results out this week it was perhaps appropriate that Master’s Park was the venue for this week’s U19 fixture.
With Sutton Scorchers already guaranteed top spot, it was left to Reigate Rapids U19’s and Oxted Grasshoppers U19’s to battle it out at Oxted’s Master Park for 2nd place in their ECB U19 T20 Surrey group 3. Best 2nd place from the 3 Surrey Groups could secure a place at Finals day.

Having lost by 3 runs to the same opponents at Park Lane last week a tough game was expected.

Jonny Flanders won the toss and opened the batting alongside Seth McDowall and Jonny had an escape in the 1st over when bowler Alfie Cutmore failed to grab a return chance; but in the 3rd over Alfie Cutmore got his wicket when Seth (1) gloved one for a catch behind to wicket keeper/captain Jac Cleaver and in the 3rd over Llamas were 9-1.

Jonny continued in his free hitting form and was soon hitting boundaries but lost partner Will Dahl (5) in the 8th over with the score on 45 when Will was bowled by spinner Harvey Cutmore. By the 12th over Jonny had got 42 of the Llamas 59 runs when he was bowled by Ben Barney who then had Arnav Patniak (0) stumped by a bit of quick thinking from keeper Jac Cleaver when the bails where removed by a rebound off his pads whereupon Arnav left his ground and the keeper proceeded to remove a stump. The Rapids were 59-3 then 59-4 and by the end of the 12th over the score was on 60.

In past games the Rapids batting would have included Will Timmons, Will Brewis, Will Hodgson and Jacob McLoughlin but none were playing and it was left to Tyler Shoare and Ollie Thilo to try to get the Llamas to a defendable total. They put on 45 in the next 4 overs to take the score to 104 in the 16th over before Tyler, who had survived a caught and bowled chance from Harvey Cutmore became the 5th wicket to fall when was caught at deep square leg for 25 from 21 balls.

Any hopes of continuing the recent run rate were scuppered when spinner Harvey Cutmore (4-0-18-3) clean bowled Shanyu Vuppala (0) and Ed Russ (0) in successive balls. Alex Wilbraham survived the hat-trick ball and hit a run a ball 14 (no) in partnership with Ollie Thilo before Ollie was 8th out when he skied one to be caught for 27 from 18 balls. The Llamas were 127-8 in the last over and finished their allotted 20 overs on 133-9, having recovered from 60 after 12 overs.

Ollie Thilo (2.2-0-10-1) opened the bowling and after a wayward bowl was hit for 4 Ollie then bowled Harvey Cutmore (4) and Oxted were 6-1 in the 1st over. Ed Russ kept the pressure up with 2 excellent overs that conceded only 4 runs and with Ollie also keeping it tight, Oxted were restricted to 12 runs after 4 overs.

However Oxted’s Jac Cleaver and Toby Whelan then scored freely off both Seth McDowall (4-0-33-0) and Jonny Flanders (4-0-33-1) and 12-1 after 4 overs became 64-1 after 10 overs.

With Ed Russ having left the field with an injury at the end of the 7th over and with Oxted sportingly providing a substitute fielder it was Arnav Patniak and Adam Chladek who replaced Seth and Jonny and Adam held onto a high catch to dismiss Toby Whelan (35); with the score 83-2 in the 12th over. Unfortunately neither could stem the flow of runs, particularly from Jac Cleaver who reached his 50 and had to retire, but he had taken his team to 100-2 after 13 overs and with only 34 runs needed from 7 overs the Grasshoppers were almost over the line.

Jonny Flanders returned to clean bowl Ben Barney but by then Oxted were 132-3 with 3 overs left and they only needed 2 more balls to get the 2 singles required for their win.

There were no A* performances from the Llamas tonight; hopefully the A* performances were reserved for their exam grades.
The Llamas still have 1 fixture remaining next Wednesday at Park Lane when they are due to play Banstead although they can no longer qualify for Finals day.