Friendly Match vs Little Baddow, 16th September 2007, Little Baddow

Indian Summer, Mr Tickle and Other Peculiars
by our mid-week-captain, Chris Skinner

London Fields 246-6
lost to Little Baddow 250-5, with 7 overs spare
Timed match, vicar

There are two ways a Fieldsman can tell the end of the season is near - firstly, in an act of cruel irony, the weather is spectacular. Secondly, we meet at the unholy time of 11.30 on a Sunday morning for our annual beano down to Little Baddow in rural Essex.

After much debate over the merits of batting/fielding first in this unfamiliar timed format of the game, skipper Will managed to lose the toss thus removing any decision making. With several members still finding their way to the ground we were put in to bat and RJ and Paul Teasdale were tasked with giving us a good start – which after a slow start they duly did.

With a lightning quick downward sloping outfield, boundariess were there to be had and RJ found his touch, biffing his way through two cheap bats ("only £18!") and six fours on his way to 26 in a partnership of 54. Jason was next at the crease and he and Paul formed a similarly run-free session of block and bash boundary hitting.

Paul T(ea) completed a well timed half century in another 50 partnership, but there was soon a classic London Fields mini-collapse. Jason was dismissed on 23, bringing Chris to the middle with the intention of pinch hitting. Now, seeing as I am Chris, I find ‘me' a perfectly affable character, but an alarming trend that has developed over recent months further emerged as people around him (me) decided to get themselves out as soon as possible – first Teasdale for 56, and then Will for a duck. Why do I make people so nervous?

Anyway, Vince strutted to the middle like a man with all the time in the world, not entirely appropriate for a timed match, but hey, he's always been his own man. Bit by bit however Chris and Vince picked things up and a 60 partnership was broken when Vince ran out a ball-watching Chris for 32.

Alex Chase made a brief boundary scoring cameo and after being bowled, was replaced by Nick Isaac. With the clock ticking, the two batsmen finally had a dart at a big total and a flurry of late boundary's (including a lovely 6 from Nick) brought the score up to 246, Vince finishing on 28 not out, and Nick on 27, stumped going for one final heave off the last ball.

247 to win seemed a competitive target but, possibly after way too much (excellent) tea, we started sluggishly. Will bowled with venom and Taz had the ball jumping at the batsmen off the dusty pitch, but the runs kept flowing. A brief spell of wicket taking put us back in the match as Taz removed one opener, before the excellent Turley took 2 'scalps' (he also got 2 men out).

The batsmen seemed to just get bigger and bigger however, and more and more time was spent fetching the ball from the trees, frequently after passing through Fieldsmen's hands. This isn't too say it was all bad – as the game drifted from us, Jason took a superb catch at first slip off Turley's bowling, his arm extending like Mr Tickle with a giggle-craving, leaving the batsman (and most of us) stunned.

Sadly, there were little more heroics, Davin bowled a fine spell of teasing moonballs to complement the hard work of Will, Paul and Taz, the latter two bowling 9 hard overs each. The runs were knocked off comfortably with a whole 7 overs left and we had probably been 50 runs short.

Fortunately, the Baddow boys were as friendly as ever and the bar soon opened to everyone's relief. We have won two and lost two out here now so if there is one thing to look forward to about the end of summer 2008, it's a chance to put us back on top (and enjoy the sunshine).

Here's the scorecard:

London Fields 246/6

Paul T	Caught	56
Richard	LBW	26
Jason	Caught	23
Chris	Run Out	32
Will	Caught	0
Vince	Not Out	28
Alex C	Bowled	4
Nick I	Stumped	27
Turley
Taz

Little Baddow 250/5 (with 7 overs to spare)

London Fields Bowling

Will	7	0	36	0
Taz	9	0	49	1
Turley	9.1	1	51	3
RJ	4	0	43	1
Chris	1	0	14	1

Golding 67*
Tuttlebec 50