Friendly Match vs Occasional Casuals, 17th July 2005, London Fields

"The number 38 bus was a bugger" - Jason Lord
by our roving reporter, Dave Hickey

London Fields beat The Occasional Casuals by 4 wickets at London Fields.

On a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon London Fields beat the Occasional Casuals to record the Fields' first friendly win since the end of May.

Play was scheduled to start at 2pm but a captain having problems catching a bus (what next!) and flowing beer (what else) delayed the start of play until 2.30pm. Tony Tedore replaced the late 'bus waiting' Jason Lord as the skipper for the toss, he was then promptly replaced by myself as he managed to lose the toss and force the Fields into the field on a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon. Cheers Tony!

Starting the game with only ten players the Fields needed some tight bowling and we got it! Adam Stevens (4 overs for 13) and Will Isaac (7 overs 3 wickets for 33) produced some fine aggressive bowling that kept the Casuals top order pinned to the crease.

Once the ball lost its 'hardness' (D. Gough c1999) the Casuals found it easier to score, however some accurate bowling from Tony Tedore and Donny Mahmood both of whom took 2 wickets kept the Casuals down to a score of 175 all out. It was good to see that 6 different bowlers took wickets in the Occasional's total, Gordon Fleming, Ian 'Pie Chucker' Charlton and Grant Strachan all taking a wicket a piece.

With the wicket now playing like a second day scorcher at The Oval, London Fields got off to a good start. The opening pair of Mark Nuttell and Jason Lord pushed the score onto 26 off 4 overs before Jason Lord was given out LBW for 7, claims from Lord that the ball hit his bat first were ignored by Will Isaac standing as umpire (and rightly!). This brought Peter Rank to the crease who managed to last seconds and not balls as he was bowled by opponent and also fellow London Fields member Matt Broadbent for a golden duck.

The fall of Peter brought Tony Tedore to the crease to partner the not out Mark Nuttell; it also must be noted that it took the combined age of the two batsmen to nearly 100... The two old campaigners made batting look easy putting on another 50 runs before Mark Nuttell was out LBW for 26. We really are the nicest team in London when it comes to giving LBW decisions.

Dave Hickey then came to the crease and started giving catching practise to the Casuals fielders, however thanks to a little lot of luck he got away with 4 dropped catches in his first five balls, with one drop coming from London Fields member Jason Carwood (He was playing for the opposition) . After scoring a quick fire 48 Dave decided to give someone else a bat so he did as Obi-Wan-Kenobi did in Star Wars 4 and lifted his bat to allow the ball to smash all 3 stumps (honest!).

Grant Strachan, Will Isaac and Adam Stevens eventually saw the Fields past the required 175 with more than seven overs to spare.

After a good day on the park both teams retired to the Pub on the Park to discuss the walks that can be had on the Scilly Isles (see Paul Turley) and the fact that we had won a friendly.