League Match vs Coach & Horses, 1st July 2006, London Fields
London Fields Get The Result Of The Day
London Fields 183-7 beat Coach and Horses 173-8 by 10 runs
by our extremely rare correspondent Simon Yates
London Fields' fantastic run of form continued - 10 wins out of 11 now in all competitions - with a shortened, early starting league win over Coach and Horses (there was some sort of football match on at 4 o'clock which people wanted to finish in time for - don't know why as it turned out).
Fields lost the toss and were invited to bat. After losing Colin Black in the first over, Shaun Duplessis and captain Jason Lord set about building a foundation for the innings. They took the score past 50 before Shaun was bowled for 16, and this brought Will Isaac in to join Jason for what would be the key partnership pf the match. Both were a little scratchy early on, on a pitch that needed care early in an innings, and both survived very tight lbw shouts. However, as each got the measure of the pitch and the bowling they blossomed. They were eventually parted after adding 100 (Jason got 57 and Will 61), having apparently set Fields on the way to a winning total of 200 from the 28 available overs.
However, Coach and Horses came back strongly and pinned Fields down (at one point Fields took only four runs off three of the last six overs) despite a few lusty blows from Alec McCrindle. At the end of the 28 overs Fields were 183-7, which looked a good total but by no means one that guaranteed the win.
The Coach and Horses innings also got off to a poor start with an opening batsman out for a duck, but after that, aided by some distinctly fallible catching from the Fields (with Ty Graham a very honourable exception), they regrouped. Unlike the Fields innings which contained a series of sprints flanked by slower patches, Coach and Horses progressed at a steady, and steadily increasing, rate.
An excellent third wicket stand apart, Coach and Horses wickets fell reasonably regularly thanks to good Fields bowling (special mention here to Will Isaac's 2-8 from two overs, with wickets in successive balls), but the score kept moving on until they needed eight an over from the last eight overs. Coach and Horses had a batsman well set with 50 against his name, and five wickets in hand. The game was very much in the balance.
However, Fields were to play out these overs in fantastic style. Imaginative and proactive captaincy from Jason, combined with accurate bowling from Ru Leggett, Rick Derons and especially Simon Yates (who bowled four of the last seven overs for 18 with two wickets) kept Coach and Horses behind the game, with Simon eventually conceding just one run in the last over.
It had been a gripping game, with each side looking on top at different times, but in the end Fields, fortified by their great run, were able to see it home.
Here's the scorecard:
London Fields Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Colin | - | lbw | Darryl | 0 |
| Shaun | - | bowled | Ian | 16 |
| Jason L | - | caught | Jack | 57 |
| Will | - | bowled | Ian | 61 |
| Alec | - | bowled | Mohammed | 9 |
| Ty | - | not | out | 5 |
| Rick | - | bowled | John | 5 |
| Simon | - | bowled | John | 0 |
| Ru | did | not | bat | - |
| Carl | did | not | bat | - |
| Paul T | did | not | bat | - |
| Extras | 20 | |||
| Total: 183 for 7 in 35 overs |
||||
Coach & Horses Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Darryl | 4 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Adam | 4 | 0 | 32 | 0 | - |
| Ian | 4 | 0 | 12 | 2 | 6 |
| John | 4 | 0 | 22 | 1 | 22 |
| Trevor | 4 | 1 | 23 | 0 | - |
| Rick | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 | - |
| Jack | 3 | 0 | 36 | 1 | 36 |
| Mohammed | 4 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 18 |
Coach & Horses Batting:
173 for 8 in 35 overs
London Fields Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Paul T | 4 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 16 |
| Rick | 4 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| Ty | 4 | 0 | 20 | 0 | - |
| Carl | 4 | 0 | 37 | 0 | - |
| Alec | 2 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 16 |
| Ru | 4 | 0 | 34 | 1 | 34 |
| Will | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 4 |
| Simon | 4 | 0 | 18 | 2 | 9 |