League Match vs The Lamb, 17th June 2006, London Fields

A day of incident and drama on the Fields, most of it off the field...
by our very regular occasional correspondent, Andy Wyatt

London Fields 224 for 5 (35 overs)
beat the Lamb 196 all out (31.4 overs) by 28 runs

Clearing the outfield of picnickers was more of a pain than usual, as the hot summer continued. Shortly into the first innings a lofted cut landed over the third man boundary and startled some of those bright sparks who had chosen the shortest distance from the square as their preferred spot in the whole park.
"What would happen if that hit me?" one loudly whined.
"It would hurt" was the loudest, least abusive, reply.

This was illustrated in the flesh half an hour later, when a young boy learnt not to turn his back on play as he was clonked on the back of the head by an on-driven six. Cricket has been played on London Fields for over 200 years. If you want to sit near us when we play, watch the ball!

The drama took a surreal, criminal turn when a not-so-light fingered thief was spotted attempting to steal a wallet from the fielding side's kitbags. He was challenged by the Lamb's players and after protesting his innocence - " I didn't mean it" may have not troubled the jury for long - he tried to hotfoot it away. One tip for would be robbers - do not wear large furry gorilla shoes. He was chased in Benny Hill fashion across to the pub, where he fell to his knees and claimed sanctuary. Satisfied that they had retrieved all of their property from him, he was left crying over his bad luck.

Anyway, on to the cricket!

London Fields batted first and made careful progress to their final total of 224. No batsman was dismissed for less than 20, a good effort in conditions that allowed for some large amount of late swing. Best of the bowling came from young Minhaz who dismissed two batsmen clean bowled when they tried to reilve the pressure his accurate left-arm spin was exerting. Alec McCrindle top-scored with some characteristic big-hitting including a huge six over the furthest boundary.

We were quietly confident that we had more enough runs on the board for the Lamb's slightly weakened batting attack. Things were going to plan when Pete Morris was too quick for opener Ivan. Opposition captain John Hubbard had other ideas. He started sensibly, getting his eye in, but then launched into our change bowlers.

Picnickers came under bombardment again as he built up his runs. The bowlers lost their line to the left-hand/right-hand batting partnership. Our fielding got shoddy. Something had to be done to stop the rot. At this stage captain Dave Hickey decided to bring Pete back into the attack and this bold move was rewarded within the over as he knocked over Hubbard's stumps for 78. We could not relax too soon though as Mustafa took up the mantle and punished anything short. He was somewhat fortunately removed when he missed a full-toss from Carl Death and we were back in control.

The Lamb's youthful new players refused to rollup and die but Carl Death's spell of 4 wickets for 24 runs polished off the tail..

Here's the scorecard:

London FieldsBatting:

Batsman	Scoring	How Out	Bowler	Total
Rhodri	-	caught	Junior	20
Andy	-	bowled	Minhaz	33
Richard	-	bowled	Minhaz	30
Alec	-	bowled	Mustafa	43
Dave H	-	caught	Peter	20
Mark	-	not	out	23
Matt C	-	not	out	4
Paul T	did	not	bat	-
Pete M	did	not	bat	-
Carl	did	not	bat	-
Matt T	did	not	bat	-
			Extras	25
Total: 224 for 5 in 35 overs

Lamb Bowling:

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average
Cameron	5	0	21	0	-
Pilal	5	0	36	0	-
Junior	5	1	17	1	17
John	5	0	24	0	-
Minhaz	5	0	21	2	10.5
Mustafa	5	0	33	1	33
Peter	2	0	30	0	-

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Lamb Batting:
196 all out (31.4 overs)

London Fields Bowling:

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average
Peter	4	2	13	2	6.5
Matt T	5	0	24	1	24
Matt C	5	0	47	0	-
Richard	3	0	29	0	-
Alec	3	0	24	1	24
Carl	5	0	24	4	6
Rhodri	3	0	14	1	14

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