League Match vs Crescent & Star, 18th June 2005, Low Hall Farm

Match report by our roving reporter, captain Jason "J-Lo" Lord

Crescent & Star - rhyming slang for "Squad With Car"?
(editor's note: please bear with us, this does make sense eventually. My tagline would have been "Why don't sharks eat Crescent & Star umpires? Professional courtesy.")

A hot day at Low Hall Farm (yes, apparently there can actually be such a thing on Walthamstow's extraordinary "two-jumper-minimum-marshland") began well with London Fields winning the toss and electing to stay in the shade. Andy W and Colin B rewarded the skipper's faith in this strategy with a solid opening partnership. Scoring freely in the opening exchanges, they looked understandably baffled as the C&S Squad System(TM) made a bewildering number of substitutions in the field, none of which had been pre-agreed with the Umpires or the Captain.

The first two (of three) LBW followed, given by the keen-eyed London Fields umpires. From a distance, Colin (17) looked out all ends up, but Rupert (6), hit on the front pad, might perhaps have earned the benefit of the doubt. There was further support for Andy from Jason (12) and Will (22) but thereafter no one got into double-figures. This innings was all about Andy Wyatt's fine 54, anchoring one end while also scoring at a decent rate. In the end it was more the heat of the day, coupled with a lot of hard running between the wickets, which led to his downfall.

A target of 166 was unlikely to prove too daunting to Crescent & Star's batting line-up. As half their side hared off in their C&S Squad Car(TM) at teatime to who-knows-where, London Fields were left waiting in the middle wondering if the opposition were going to bother coming back. When they did finally return to the middle, they set off at a typically smart pace. After one of their openers was scandalously given not out to a huge LBW appeal in Nick's first over, there was precious little for London Fields to shout about. Divan (5-31-2) and Carl (3-26-3) took wickets, but it was too little too late as C&S romped home in short order

One bright spot in the second innings was a sparkling catch by Will Isaac at deep mid-off, looking into the sun at a ball that went high and long. Other than that, the ball seemed destined always to fall into gaps in the field. Not our day.

Editor's note: apparently, compounding their disappearance between the innings, one of the C&S bowlers stopped proceedings halfway through the match to take a phone call. During his over. It lasted about 4-5 minutes, by common consent. Make of that what you will... Personally I think [editor's comments deleted by lawyers].

Anyway, here's the scorecard:

London Fields Batting:

Batsman	Scoring	How Out	Bowler	Total
Andy		bowled	Latif	54
Colin		lbw	Malik	17
Rupert		lbw	Imran	6
Jason L		bowled	Mahmood	12
Will I		bowled	Latif	22
Divan		bowled	Latif	4
Rick		lbw	Latif	2
Nick B		not	out	5
Paul T		bowled	Latif	0
Matt C		not	out	6
Carl	did	not	bat	-
			Extras	165
Total: 165 for 8 in 35 overs

Their Bowling:

Highlight:
Latif : 5 overs, 0 maiden, 5 for 18

Their Batting:

166 for 5

London Fields Bowling:

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average
Paul	5	0	26	0	-
Nick B	1	0	23	0	-
Will I	4	0	34	0	-
Divan	5	0	31	2	15.5
Rick	3	0	13	0	-
Carl	3	0	26	3	8.3
Matt C	1.1	0	12	0	-