League Match vs The Coach & Horses, 20th August 2005, Low Hall Farm

"He's never going to catch that"
By our occasional contributor, Vice Captain Andy Wyatt

London Fields 185 for 7 (45 overs) beat Coach and Horses 120 all out by 65 runs.

The winner take-all decider for second place in the league. It had finally arrived. Rained-off at London Fields, the match had been hastily rearranged to Low Hall. Both teams stood like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start.

Walthamstow had not escaped the rain either, so it was on a very tricky cricket wicket that Rhodri Evans and Andy Wyatt started the Fields' innings. The ball swang, and snorted a bit too. This was never going to be a highscoring match.

The openers carefully took us to 45 before Andy lost his patience in the eleventh over and had his stumps cleaned out by the very accurate Ian. Enter Stephen Donelan who combined with Rhodri for another useful partnership before the vagaries of the pitch led to him being bowled virtually over his shoulder.

Dave Hickey had recently found his form and he was quickly into his stride again. Rhodri fell to some fierce bowling by the Coach's captain Jon for 32, but his replacement Richard Johnson provided a vital injection of runs. Even though he claimed not to be seeing the ball, he quickly overtook Dave, including one massive six. A rapid 60 partnership was broken when Richard was bowled for 34.

London Fields finished their 35 overs on 185, with Dave Hickey unbeaten on 41.

With high energy levels and some vociferous support of the bowling we went on the attack. The Coach could never get going against some top-quality bowling. After 12 overs they were on just 23 for 1. Special mention should go to Paul Turley (9 for 1 off 5 overs) and Stephen Donelan (no wickets but just 6 runs hit off his 5 overs).

The Coach's required run-rate kept growing, even though they had wickets in hand. This pressure proved too much for them, and Rob Harries was the man to take advantage with three quick wickets that removed the spine of their batting.

Some late, spirited hitting by Kirk and Mohammed meant we could not over-relax, but we stayed calm and took the necessary wickets. Rick Derons took 3 for 13 to quell any resistance. Hero Harries took a 'sky-er' on the boundary to dismiss their last batsman Adam, who, while the ball was in the air, said "He's never going to catch that."

So we finished a league campaign with a solid , all-round team victory, and a well-served runners-up spot.

Scorecard "later"...