Friendly Match vs Duke Of Hamilton, 19th July 2008, London Fields

Wet Nurse Tends Fields to Comfortable Win
by Simon Yates

Duke of Hamilton 175 all out (34.4 overs)
London Fields 178-5 (24.2 overs)
London Fields won by 5 wickets

Strange goings on at the Hackney Lido. Was the Tramp Cider taking hold...? An ever-extending many-headed serpent of curious musicheads curled from the entrance to the Pool, whose walls separated two quite different worlds. Behind the Great Divide, Neptune cavorted with Minerva, a bizarre confusion of sounds uncannily and unwelcomely reminiscent of Spinal Tap's notorious Jazz Odyssey pouring forth. Whilst on the lush Fields of Elysium, Bacchus had his customary way, damn that Cider.

But it was not hallucinations born of decaying apples which caused confabulated cricketers to sense that bad craziness was abroad: "Nurse with Wound" were headlining the Wet Sounds festival at the Lido, drawing a gaggle of bewildered onlookers at who knows what price (and Arthur Smart, who had heard fabulous if jumbled tales possibly involving nurses in swimwear but on learning the truth retreated, disappointed, to the boundary and the soothing arms of Red Stripe).

As if in compensation for the periodic sonic disturbance, the sun shone and the Gods smiled on keen swingers. A series of bowlers of both sides had the ball talking, even if there was evidence they could not always understand what it was saying. Duke of Hamilton batted first, and in the warmth of the sun, clearly had no enthusiasm for wasteful activities such as running. Anything short was ruthlessly walloped, anything straight was blocked, and anything full and wide was greeted with expansive swings-and-misses as DoH opener Lee rattled along scoring the bulk of his side's runs.

At the other end wickets fell steadily in the face of good bowling from Graeme, Dave and Chris in particular, until the arrival of the estimable Paddy at no. 6, who stood tall and swung true, keeping the DoH innings moving. However, Lee went to a sharp catch by Simon (if he saw us more often, he'd know how unlucky that made him) and Brock came on to bowl Paddy and clean up the tail. DoH's 175 did not look enough with the wicket playing largely true and the outfield in fabulous condition.

Fields opened up with a surprise opening pair of Richard Johnson and Simon Yates who got the innings off to a good and well paced start against consistent away swing bowling, before each fell to Turley End grubbers from Evan. Progress eased off for a period, until Brock took the innings by the throat and clattered a quick-fire 61 to put the issue quickly beyond doubt. Sadly he was plumb leg before just before the end, but the job was done.

Fields' win was ultimately comfortable, but the game was very enjoyable and played in a great friendly spirit throughout. All that remained was a large pile of blue carrier bags to empty....

Here's the scorecard:

Duke Of Hamilton Batting

Batsman	Scoring	How Out	Bowler	Total
Lee		caught Simon	Misha	65
Evan		bowled	Graeme	9
Matt		bowled	Graeme	0
Andy		bowled	Simon	0
Nandi		lbw	Chris	9
Paddy		bowled	Brock	44
Sam		not	out	29
Mark		caught Steve D	Rob	4
Aiden		bowled	Brock	0
Alex		bowled	Brock	2
			Extras	13
Total: 175 for 9 (all out)

London Fields Bowling

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average
Simon Y	5	0	24	1	24
Graeme	7	1	31	2	15.5
Misha	4	0	25	1	25
Chris	4	0	28	1	28
Dave H	6	1	17	0	-
Troy	4	0	25	0	-
Brock	2.4	0	7	3	2.3
Rob	2	0	7	1	7

London Fields Batting

Batsman	Scoring	How Out	Bowler	Total
Richard		bowled	Evan	28
Simon		bowled	Evan	22
Grant		bowled	Lee	9
Brock		lbw	Matthew	61
Graeme		bowled	Paddy	11
Dave H		not	out	8
Steve D		not	out	8
Rob		did	not	bat
Chris		did	not	bat
Troy		did	not	bat
Misha		did	not	bat
			Extras	31
Total: 178 for 5, 25-ish overs

Duke Of Hamilton Bowling

Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average
Evan	5	0	46	2	23
Lee	7	2	24	1	24
Sam	6	0	39	0	-
Paddy	3	0	21	1	21
Andy	1	0	5	0	-
Nandi	1	0	14	0	-
Matthew	1	0	5	1	5
Mark	0.2	0	4	0	-