Friendly vs The Coach & Horses, 23rd April 2005, London Fields
Noggin* Trouble on The Fields as Lamb Take Early Advantage
A typical April day of threatening skies on London Fields ended up with The Lamb taking first blood in our (many) meetings this season.
Batting first, London Fields started brightly with Vince (The Prince) and new boy Will (brother of Nick) hitting out at the opening bowling. Will and Jason C's partnership kept us motoring along, and useful contributions from Rob and Donny rounded off the batting for The Fields.
Chris Skinner (warning! pants picture!) was unlucky enough to be batting at the death when The Lamb brought back their opening bowlers to keep the run-rate down. Ducking under a slow bouncer from Olsen, he was even unluckier to be struck on the noggin** as he attempted to hook. The thump could be heard from the boundary, and there were several anxious moments until he recovered himself. Or seemed to. The next ball, he played and missed, the wicket keeper gathered safely and Chris called "Yes!" and set off for the run. Donny quite rightly sent him back and Chris was stumped in a weird slow motion race to the stumps between himself and the wicket keeper, running up to the stumps with the ball in his hand to make absolutely sure.
Chris was left with quite an impressive bruise behind his ear, and very little memory of the pints after the game. Come to think of it, I'm struggling to remember much after the fifth pint....
In reply, The Lamb fairly rattled along to gain a psychological advantage for the coming League matches and win quite comfortably. Highlight of our bowling was Paul and Rick for line and length, and Vince, Rob and Nick for comedy effect (though the last three also took important wickets). Cricket commentators will be talking for years about one of Rob's balls that pitched, seamed right, pitched again and seamed left, completely flummoxing the batsman, who could only dab at it in wonder. A pleasant change from the previous over which had gone something like 4-4-6-W-0-4. Harmison-like, if you ask me. Ah, hmm, that link kinda gave things away...
Special mention to Mark Nuttall for his uncomplaining wicketkeeping on London Fields' variable bounce pitch. Hardest job in the world.
* note first use of word "noggin" in an Internet Match Report, in tribute to our ex-captain Simon "Shanga" Lang
** second and final use of same
Anyway, here's the scorecard:
London Fields Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Vince | 41 | bowled | Romeo | 5 |
| Will I | 1112464 | bowled | Junior | 19 |
| Jason C | 1111441244231611414 | c&b | John | 46 |
| Jason L | lbw | Junior | 0 | |
| Rob | 11111451 | bowled | John | 15 |
| Donny | 11111112111421 | not | out | 18 |
| Chris S | 111 | stumped | Olsen | 3 |
| Nick I | not | out | 0 | |
| Rick | did | not | bat | - |
| Mark | did | not | bat | - |
| Paul | did | not | bat | - |
| Extras | 33 | |||
| Total: 132 for 6 from 35 overs |
||||
Their Bowling:
reasonable
Their Batting:
138 for 7 wickets
London Fields Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Paul | 5 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 15 |
| Rick | 5 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| Nick I | 4 | 0 | 30 | 3 | 10 |
| Vince | 3 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 14 |
| Rob | 2 | 0 | 26 | 1 | 26 |
| Will I | 4 | 1 | 13 | 0 | - |
| Donny | 1.3 | 0 | 16 | 0 | - |