League Match vs Coach & Horses, 1st July 2006, London Fields
Magic Johnson - RJ brings Lazarus Fields back from the dead
London Fields 244-6 beat Coach and Horses 242 all out, with four
balls to spare
by our extremely rare correspondent Simon Yates
There was a time, at around four in the afternoon, when if you could find a bookie who followed our league, you would not have been able to get a price on a Fields defeat.
Village stood at 200-3 off 25 overs, Fields captain Jason Lord had tried giving most of his bowlers a go with similarly disappointing results, and Fields' fielding had become very poor at times as the players began to wilt in the sun. However, yet again, Fields were able to come back to a narrow win despite the apparent hopelessness of their position. That they could do this is a great tribute to the resilience and belief coursing through an excellent squad on a winning roll.
Fields won the toss and bowled, and all seemed to be going according to plan as Pete Morris struck early and looked dangerous. However, Village's second wicket stand was to assume ominous proportions very quickly, and was largely responsible for the desperate position in which Fields found themselves halfway through the 35 overs. At this point Steve Donelan came on and broke the stand at the start of an outstanding spell. His eventual figures of 1-31 from five overs do not really do him justice: when he came on, he restored control for Fields when it had been almost entirely lost.
Once the key stand was broken, wickets began to fall regularly although the Village scoring rate remained high. Matt Thoms bowled well to take 3-39, but the real star of the end of the innings was the recovering Richard Johnson (hopefully his doctor is not reading this or he may get in trouble). Richard took 3-14 in four excellent overs to pull Village up short - from 210-3 they had crashed to 242 all out.
For all Fields' great recovery, 242 was still a very substantial score even on a fast, true pitch with a lightning-quick outfield. It looked all the more daunting when Steve Donelan and Pete Morris were back in the hutch with only 13 on the board. However, this Fields side do not know when they are beaten. Andy Wyatt and Jason Lord put on an excellent partnership of 79 at good speed before Jason was out for 39, and then Richard Johnson came out to join Andy. They were to put on a further 86 in very quick time before Andy was dislodged for a superb 58. This left Fields 178-4 off just under 25 overs, needing a very gettable 65 off ten and a bit overs.
Richard continued to punish the bowling, brutally at times, while Mark Nuttall joined him to play a sensible role holding up the other end, nudging singles but still hitting the bad ball when it came. When Richard was finally out for a tremendous, savage 70, the target was down to 18 off four overs and the match was all but won. Fields made slightly hard going of knocking off the last few runs, losing Mark in the process, but Matt Thoms and Ty Graham saw them home with four balls to spare.
This was a remarkable win, continuing Fields' recent record of holding out for victories in very tight finishes. Although Richard Johnson clearly deserves the man of the match award, all concerned can take pride in a great team performance.
Here's the scorecard:
Village Batting:
242 all out in 33.2 overs
London Fields Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Pete M | 5 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 23 |
| Tony | 4 | 0 | 26 | 0 | - |
| Ty | 4 | 0 | 49 | 0 | - |
| Gordon | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | - |
| Simon Y | 3.2 | 0 | 32 | 1 | 32 |
| Steve D | 5 | 1 | 31 | 1 | 31 |
| Matt T | 5 | 0 | 39 | 3 | 13 |
| Richard J | 4 | 0 | 14 | 3 | 4.6 |
London Fields Batting:
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Steve D | - | lbw | Toby | 11 |
| Andy W | - | c & b | Morgan | 58 |
| Pete M | - | bowled | Maj | 0 |
| Jason | - | bowled | Dean | 39 |
| Richard J | - | bowled | Andy | 70 |
| Mark N | - | bowled | Page | 21 |
| Matt T | - | not | out | 5 |
| Ty | - | not | out | 4 |
| Simon Y | did | not | bat | - |
| Gordon | did | not | bat | - |
| Tony | did | not | bat | - |
| Extras | 36 | |||
| Total: 244 for 6 in 34.2 overs |
||||
Village Bowling:
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Toby | 5 | 3 | 16 | 1 | 16 |
| Maj | 5 | 0 | 37 | 1 | 37 |
| Ben | 5 | 0 | 32 | 0 | - |
| Dean | 5 | 0 | 40 | 1 | 40 |
| Morgan | 5 | 0 | 31 | 1 | 31 |
| Page | 2 | 0 | 22 | 1 | 22 |
| Andy | 5 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 33 |
| Dan | 2.2 | 0 | 21 | 0 | - |