Friendly Match vs Duke Of Hamilton, 11th June 2006, London Fields
Milk Snatcher!
by our getting-even-more-regular occasional correspondent, Andy
Wyatt
New rivals the Duke of Hamilton met us on a hot, sultry day in London Fields. Having we won the toss, we initially struggled against the skilful use of the swinging ball. Alround excellent fielding added to the pressure and it showed in our run rate and loss of wickets. Only Robin Astley made a significant impression in the scorebook with a lively 27. The deceptive spin of Lee then took care of the lower half of our batting order. His five wicket haul left Donny Mahmood stranded not out on 11 when he was looking dangerous.
Our opponents set off at rapid pace with opening batsman Shamus smiting some lusty blows all around the park on his was to 77. He was eventually caught on the boundary by Richard Johnson who is making a habit of spectacular catches on the Fields. Shamus tried to hoist another delivery from Carl into the trees, but he slightly miscued and as the ball dropped towards the line, Richard leapt and snatched the ball as if it were a bottle of milk from a child's mouth. Unfortunately, this was all to late to give us any chance of victory, although an extra 40 runs on our total would have made for a very interesting finale. Our bowlers all bowled well, but had no sufficient target to defend.
Among the bumper crowd spectating was former London Fields captain Darren MacInerney, paying a surprise visit from Australia. His nation's football team's loss was our gain as he chose to watch us rather than World Cup in Germany.
Here's the scorecard:
London FieldsBatting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Andy | - | lbw | Adam | 16 |
| Richard | - | bowled | Rohan | 6 |
| Dave H | - | caught | Rohan | 0 |
| Matt C | - | caught | Andrew | 14 |
| Robin | - | caught | Andrew | 27 |
| Carl | - | lbw | Lee | 0 |
| Paul T | - | bowled | Lee | 1 |
| Ru | - | caught | Lee | 6 |
| Donny | - | not | out | 11 |
| Davin | - | caught | Lee | 14 |
| Grant | - | bowled | Lee | 2 |
| Extras | 25 | |||
| Total: 112 all out in 28.4 overs |
||||
Duke Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Rohan | 6 | 1 | 20 | 1 | 20 |
| Adam | 7 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 23 |
| Andrew | 7 | 1 | 22 | 2 | 11 |
| Lee | 6.4 | 0 | 33 | 5 | 6.6 |
| Nicky | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | - |
Duke Batting:
115 for 4 (19.3 overs)
London Fields Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Paul T | 3 | 0 | 22 | 0 | - |
| Grant | 4 | 1 | 13 | 0 | - |
| Matt C | 2 | 0 | 14 | 0 | - |
| Ru | 3 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 16 |
| Donny | 4 | 0 | 24 | 1 | 24 |
| Carl | 2.3 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 25 |
| Davin | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 4 |