League Match vs Coach & Horses, 12th July 2008, London Fields

Coach And Fielders Derailed
by Ben Sanders

Upon arriving at the POTP I found Arthur Smart and Brock Martin enjoying a gentle pint and admiring from a distance the Coach and Horses team running through some determined fielding and catching drills. Apparently they'd been there for an hour or so and looked to be well up for the game.

Captain Dave Hickey turned up feeling a little ‘rough', which could well have something to do with sampling the delights of the dusty top shelf of an Irish pub in Stratford. So the obvious decision was to open with himself and Paul Teasdale to help clear the head.

Paul, having smashed a cut over backward point for 4 fell next over after clipping a straight ball to midwicket. He took himself off to a park bench to think about what he had done. Alec McCrindle came to the crease and was witness to some fine bludgeoning from Dave, who started to amass runs mainly in boundaries. Alec was watchful, hitting one fine straight block for 4 before unfortunately hitting his wicket and departing for 19.

Jason Lord came to join Dave and proceeded to waft at pretty much everything outside off stump, much to the muttering consternation of Paul who'd come back from the bench of shame to score (and who also struggled to count later, letting one Coach and Horses bowler have 7 overs). Dave continued to pile on the runs, hitting some fine 6s into the trees and helping to ease his throbbing headache. Jason went lbw for 19 with Brock Martin replacing him. After the drinks break, the Coach and Horses tightened up the bowling, Dave eventually falling for a very fine 86 which included 6 sixes. A fine captain's innings which set LFCC on course for a decent total.

With Brock and Arthur's batting being accompanied by the squeals and giggles of a gaggle of young ladies playing rounders nearby, they opened up their shoulders and some brutal shots around the ground pushed on the innings. Arthur fell to a fine catch on the boundary, having finally middled one, for 34. Brock raced to 37 before falling leaving Dave Wheeler and Simon Lee to see out the last few balls, which were really only memorable for Dave carefully and defensively blocking out the penultimate ball. The final total ran to 224 for 6. The Coach and Horses' earlier fielding practice and warm up had proved to no avail, as they put down a number of chances throughout the innings, including dropping Dave a couple of times (at least) and dropping what can only be called a ‘sitter' off Jason.

After a quick fag, drink and what is now an almost ritual mocking of Ben's vegetarian delights (which goes something along the lines of: "What's that?" Ben: "Quinoa" Other: "What's that - it's not meat is it?" Ben: "No."), London Fields took to the field. Paul Turley, a fellow vegetarian, opened up from the top end and bowled the best spell this reporter has seen from him, which is all the more admirable considering he had to shrug off the injury he'd aggravated from his stint at scoring earlier (something to do with having to sit on the floor). Turley was well supported by Simon Lee at the other end, both bowling very tightly and giving nothing to hit.

With sharp fielding and runs hard to come by the pressure begin to tell with wickets tumbling regularly. Turley finished his spell with 3-17. Simon picked up one wicket with a rank long hop, having the set the batsman up with a couple of peaches the balls before but didn't manage to complete his spell. Mr Lee pulled up with a ‘tight hammie' - having just been clipped through square leg for a boundary and not wishing to ruin his figures further, he let Brock complete his last over. Ben Sanders came on with serious intent but the less said about his 4 overs the better really. He managed one wicket - Arthur Smart, covering a lot of ground for a big man, running from midwicket to behind square to take a good catch that came down with snow on. Meanwhile Brock at the other end bowled straight and got a couple of wickets including bowling one Coach and Horses batsman, who was sticking around, middle stump. Ruby Quince, replacing Ben, turned his arm for one over and claimed one scalp.

With only 2 Coach and Horses wickets remaining, Dave threw the ball to Arthur for some mercurial spin to finish the game. This he duly did, getting a wicket having had his first ball slogged to deep midwicket where a nervous looking Jason took the catch. The game was wrapped up with a mix up from the tailenders ending in a run out.

Retiring to the pub, Arthur put a dampener on the celebrations by purchasing some minging lemon and chilli crisps to share with everyone while Ben reiterated that the ‘Pink Samba' drink he concocted the night before was a worthy drink (a good slug of Sambuca, cranberry juice and lots of ice). Overall it was a clinical performance that maintains LFCC's hopes of retaining the League title.

Here's the scorecard:

London Fields Batting

Batsman	Scoring	How Out	Bowler	Total
Dave H		-	-	86
Paul Teas		-	-	4
Alec		-	-	19
Jason		-	-	19
Brock		-	-	37
Arthur		-	-	34
Ben	did	not	bat	-
Paul T	did	not	bat	-
Simon L	did	not	bat	-
Ruby	did	not	bat	-
			Extras	??
Total 224-6 from 36 overs

Coach & Horses Batting

not sure

London Fields Bowling

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average
Paul T	6	1	17	3	5.6
Simon L	5.4	1	12	2	6
Brock	4.2	1	12	2	6
Ben	4	0	49	1	24
Ruby	1	0	5	1	5
Arthur	1	0	1	1	1