Friendly, Pub On The Park vs RMT, 1st September 2005, London Fields
Pub On The Park Take On Bogey Team the RMT...
Pub On The Park (178 for 2 off 18 overs) draw with the RMT (113 for 9 off 17.5) as bad light stops play on the last ball of the day...
Important Note to Hackney Council : Pub On The Park CC have no affiliation with London Fields CC. They just share the same players. And kit. And web site. And that's where we drink. Apart from that, there's no connection. Right? OK. Now on to the report...
On a lovely autumn evening, a Pub On The Park team sneaked on to London Fields to take on union giants RMT, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union. Not all of them obviously, that would be silly, but a representative team from their London headquarters, including ex-London Fielder Derek 'Del Boy' Kotz, and current general secretary (and "commuter's friend") Bob Crow. A gathering The Sun no doubt would have dubbed "Evil Bob Crow and his Henchmen".
The turnout for the Pub On The Park was not as large as I expected it to be, especially as the invitation email mentioned the opportunity to bowl beamers at a man responsible for numerous tube and bus strikes over the years (all of them completely justified, I hasten to add!). Er, that's Bob Crow, not Del Boy.
As we were unable to book a pitch with Hackney Council (see note above), we sneaked onto London Fields like naughty schoolboys for the 5pm start. RMT had all arrived by the time Pub On The Park started to trundle along, though unfortunately for karma, no one was delayed by trains, so we agreed that Pub On The Park would bat first. Eighteen overs was agreed, with three overs per bowler and retirement on thirty for the batsmen.
Having previously promised Derek we would reverse the batting order, unfortunately we had to pad up anyone who was there at the time. Against relatively weak bowling, Pub On The Park racked up the boundaries and the first four (!) batsmen retired unbeaten. Given the lenient umpiring for wides and no-balls, it could have been a lot worse. A case of umpiring signal failure, I think.
However, Matt Cowie steadied the ship by being bowled first ball and the Pub On The Park finished with 178 for two from the 18 overs.
Pick of the bowling for the RMT was, well, um, no one really, though returning London Fielder Del Boy rolled back the years by sending down some slow off-spin, and Bob Crow provided some express bowling that would have brought wickets on a drier pitch.
In reply, RMT wickets fell regularly. The captain brought on his slowest bowlers, but they continued to make inroads. Embarrassingly, I bowled someone with my first ball - one that I could have beaten to the batsman if I'd carried on running after it down the pitch. As I stood there hand on hips waiting for it to reach him, he took a wild swipe, played all around it and it bounced gently into middle stump, just succeeding in dislodging a bail.
Bob Crow and Mark Ling put on a decent partnership (from Railtrack bullies to flat track bullies, according to some), before batting hero Matt took the all important wicket by catching Bob at short mid-on.
It really was a case of "one out, all out" as the union struggled to match the required run rate (by then about 40 an over). Finally, the light deteriorated and a draw was agreed with one ball remaining.
Then it was all into the Pub On The Park for sandwiches and beer. Many thanks to the RMT for coming to Hackney to play us, thanks to Del Boy for organising a team from the RMT, and thanks to the members of the RMT for providing the food and the beer in the pub. Oh, and thanks to Paul for this link (Turley posing. He is turning into a very nice boy).
Here's the scorecard:
London Fields Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Colin | 441141444112 | retired | 31 | |
| Dave H | 644444122 | retired | 31 | |
| Steve D | 464424144 | retired | 33 | |
| Rob | 14114111444114 | retired | 31 | |
| Tony | 1111141211111 | caught Yandell | Wilkinson | 20 |
| Matt C | quack | bowled | Yandell | 0 |
| Parmod | 41 | not | out | 5 |
| Jason L | 1141 | not | out | 7 |
| Carl | did | not | bat | - |
| Paul T | did | not | bat | - |
| Extras | 20 | |||
| Total: 178 for 2 in 18 overs |
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RMT Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Bob Crow | 3 | - | 33 | 0 | - |
| James Murza | 3 | - | 30 | 0 | - |
| Derek Kotz | 3 | - | 28 | 0 | - |
| Mark Ling | 3 | - | 27 | 0 | - |
| Dave Ling | 1.4 | - | 14 | 0 | - |
| Geoff Wilkinson | 1.2 | - | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| Steve Yandell | 3 | - | 29 | 1 | 29 |
RMT Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Phil Bialyk | 4444 | bowled | Paul T | 16 |
| Geoff Wilkinson | - | bowled | Carl | 0 |
| Arthur Richardson | 4122 | caught Matt | Carl | 9 |
| Kevin Carey | 131 | bowled | Rob | 5 |
| Craig Stewart | 211 | caught | Colin | 4 |
| Mark Ling | 21141421411411 | bowled | Colin | 28 |
| Bob Crow | 44444 | caught Matt | Colin | 20 |
| Derek Kotz | 2442 | caught Dave H | Tony | 12 |
| James Murza | - | caught | Steve D | 0 |
| Dave Ling | - | not | out | 0 |
| Steve Yandell | - | not | out | 0 |
| Extras | 19 | |||
| Total: 113 for 9 in 17.5 overs |
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London Fields Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Paul T | 3 | - | 21 | 1 | 21 |
| Carl | 3 | - | 9 | 2 | 4.5 |
| Rob | 2 | - | 13 | 1 | 13 |
| Matt | 2 | - | 9 | 0 | - |
| Steve D | 2 | - | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Colin | 1.5 | - | 12 | 3 | 4 |
| Parmod | 2 | - | 10 | 0 | - |
| Tony | 2 | - | 12 | 1 | 12 |