League Match vs Coach & Horses, 4th June 2005, London Fields
By our occasional contributor Jason "J-Lo" Lord, Captain
On an overcast day in Hackney, London Fields won the toss and elected to bowl first. With an extensive bowling line-up bursting with talent, the Captain was spoiled for choice. Paul Turley (5-1-15-1) and Matt Broadbent (5-2-16-0) kept The Coach well tied down for the first ten overs, with Carl Death catching one of the openers at silly mid-on. Then Divan Vermeulen (5-1-18-1) and Matt Cowie (5-19-0) continued the good work. However, while the Coach's scoring had been restricted, the wickets weren't coming as regularly as needed. Enter Stuart Gunn (5-33-3) to make further inroads into the Coach's batting, supported by Tony Tedore (5-27-0).
With The Coach now looking to push the score along in the final 5 overs, Nick Beech (3-13-3) and Carl Death (2-9-0) kept their heads, continuing to put the ball in the right places. At one point, The Coach's number 4, Azmat (30), was charging up and down the pitch so much on Nick's run-up that the umpire stopped the bowler convinced that the batsman wasn't ready.
Coach Captain Jon Schnadhorst (64) was the other batsman who caused difficulties, although at times it seemed like he was more intent on getting his pads in the way of the ball rather than his bat, surviving a long succession of strong LBW appeals. Coach & Horses finished on 162 for 8. There were catches too for Stuart Gunn (off his own bowling) and Paul Turley.
With a target of over 4.5 an over, London Fields desperately needed someone to get in and stay in. Opening the batting, Colin Black (10) was in good shape but was run out in a damaging mix-up. Divan Vermeulen (34) started taking the game away from The Coach with some characteristic strong hitting, but was eventually undone. Matt Broadbent (13) also looked like he might be able to save the day, but sadly time was running out. Many London Fields strokes were being stopped short of the boundary by Coach fielders hiding in the trees, cunningly camouflaged in dark clothing.
Paul Turley (6) and Ian Charlton (8) kept the score moving, Ian in particular with one delightfully crisp off-drive for four, but neither could stay long enough at the crease. When Carl Death (7) was out caught it left Tony Tedore (1 not out) stranded. With no other batsman able to get into double figures, the London Fields chase had fallen short, ending on 131 all out.
As Coach and Horses celebrated loudly, the statisticians were trying to confirm that this was The Coach & Horses' first ever victory against London Fields. LFCC had bowled, fielded and caught pretty well, but were left to rue some poor batting and a need for television referrals on LBW decisions to Hawkeye.
Here's the scorecard:
Coach & Horses Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Greg | - | caught | Paul | 1 |
| Dave | - | bowled | Divan | 25 |
| Jon | - | bowled | Nick B | 64 |
| Azmat | - | bowled | Stuart | 30 |
| Nimesh | - | caught&bowled | Stuart | 2 |
| Shergar | - | bowled | Stuart | 0 |
| Tony | - | caught | Nick B | 0 |
| Ian | - | not | out | 6 |
| Podge | - | not | out | 14 |
| Extras | ? | |||
| Total: 162 for 8 in 35 overs |
||||
Andy Wyatt's XI Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Paul | 5 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 15 |
| Matt B | 5 | 2 | 16 | 0 | - |
| Divan | 5 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 18 |
| Matt C | 5 | 0 | 19 | 0 | - |
| Stuart | 5 | 0 | 33 | 3 | 11 |
| Tony | 5 | 0 | 27 | 0 | - |
| Nick B | 3 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 4.3 |
| Carl | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | - |
London Fields Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Stuart | - | caught | - | 4 |
| Colin | - | run out | - | 10 |
| Matt C | - | bowled | - | 8 |
| Jason L | - | bowled | - | 1 |
| Divan | - | bowled | - | 34 |
| Matt B | - | - | - | 13 |
| Nick B | - | bowled | - | 0 |
| Paul | - | caught | - | 6 |
| Ian | - | bowled | - | 8 |
| Carl | - | caught | - | 7 |
| Tony | - | not | out | 1 |
| Extras | ? | |||
| Total: 131 all out | ||||
Coach & Horses Bowling:
Don't know...