League Match vs Tower Ravens, 2nd August 2008, London Fields
Will Isaac's barmy army beat Tower Ravens in end-of-season epic to
guarantee share of League Title
by Richard Johnson
London Fields (230-6 off 36 overs) beat
Tower Ravens (215-9 all out off 35.1 overs) by 15 runs
Saturday saw London Fields take at least a share of the league title with
a memorable win over Tower Ravens. The Fields were underdogs in the last hour
with Ravens needing only about 40 to win off the last 10 overs, but superb
bowling from Steve Donelan and John 'Birdcage' Avery, and some astute captaincy
from Will Issac, turned this into 16 to win off the last over with one wicket
in hand. This task was beyond the Ravens, who for reasons best known to them
batted with 10 men but fielded with 11 for most of our innings.
A close finish had somehow seemed likely from the start when Ravens' captain Phil won the toss and put us in to bat on a showery afternoon. Ravens' larger-than-life cricketing character Dennis opened the bowling with his genuine pace and impenetrable patois, but Fields' opening bat Paul Teasdale was equal to the challenge, scoring 27 off the first two overs before his opening partner Birdcage had faced a ball. From this point the Ravens' bowlers fought their way back into the game, first restricting the scoring, and then having Teasdale caught at third man for 32. Avery and Will Isaac then added 90 for the second wicket off 16 overs, with John defending some difficult overs early on before accelerating with some big hitting on his way to 63. After John essayed one big hit too many, new bat Jason Lord promptly called Will for a suicidal single to run him out for 28. Still, at 149-3 after 26 overs the Fields looked well-placed to post an imposing score. Alec McCrindle made 16 but Fields then wobbled, with Richard Johnson bowled for one and Graeme Rodrigo first ball as Fields lost three wickets for one run with 30 overs gone. Credit must go to Ravens' Nick who, like most of their bowlers, bowled a consistent line and good length.
At this point the Fields were in some danger, but Jason Lord and Dave "Taz" Miller batted very well to add 60 from the last 6 overs. Ravens rather lost their cool as Mark bowled some wild bouncers and high full tosses, Avery showing himself to be a true all-rounder by no-balling them all as the square-leg umpire. Jason and Taz remained admirably sanguine, however, mixing chips into the trees with useful 1s and 2s to take Fields to a handy 230 off their full 36 overs.
Ravens started their reply by hitting every conceivable 4-ball from Richard Johnson and Paul Turley to the boundary, and despite Turley bowling the dangerous Ian, had reached 80-1 off 8 overs. Ravens' opener Nick showed a great eye for the ball in making 64, although he did survive quite a number of good-looking LBW appeals. Tyrone Graham and Graeme Rodrigo bowled well to slow the scoring, but after 20 overs Ravens were about 120-1 and seemingly on course for victory. The introduction of Will Isaac's pacey bowling and Tiggerish antics then changed the game, as he took 3 wickets including Nick finally LBW and Jamie superbly caught by Jason Lord at slip. Will's last over was a bit too Tiggerish, however, with several balls disappearing to the fine-leg boundary as Ravens' Ken showed considerable talent on his way to 45. Even after Taz bowled Ken with a full toss, as noted above Ravens needed only 40 from the last 10 overs with 4 wickets in hand and still looked favourites.
By this time, Will had wisely brought Steve Donelan and Birdcage on to bowl the last 12 overs and had brought the field in to save singles rather than boundaries. As the tension mounted, Ravens simply could not get a bat on Steve's bowling, as his figures of 6-3-13-1 attest. Between them, Fields' death bowlers had what looked very good LBW and stumping appeals turned down, and the Fields fluffed several catches, stumpings and run-out chances, with Richard Johnson dropping a catch that even Monty Panesar would have held. Still, Fields held their nerve a bit better than the Ravens, as we worked one run-out and bowled consistently on the stumps. John wrapped up his man-of-the-match performance by bowling two Ravens' batsmen to end the Fields' league season on a deserved high note and the game ended in fine style with both teams retiring to the pub with friendships intact.
London Fields Batting
| Batsman | Scoring | How Out | Bowler | Total |
| Paul Teas | caught | Dennis | 32 | |
| John | bowled | Jamie | 63 | |
| Will | run | out | 28 | |
| Jason | not | out | 31 | |
| Alec | bowled | Jamie | 16 | |
| Richard | bowled | Nick | 1 | |
| Graeme | bowled | Nick | 0 | |
| Taz | not | out | 35 | |
| Steve D | did | not | bat | - |
| Ty | did | not | bat | - |
| Paul Turley | did | not | bat | - |
| Extras | 25 | |||
| Total 230-6 from 36 overs | ||||
Tower Ravens Batting
215-9 (all out) from 35.1 overs
London Fields Bowling
| Name | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets | Average |
| Paul Turley | 4 | 0 | 42 | 2 | 21 |
| Richard | 4 | 0 | 30 | 0 | - |
| Ty | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 | - |
| Graeme | 6 | 1 | 36 | 0 | - |
| Will | 4 | 0 | 34 | 3 | 11.3 |
| Taz | 3 | 0 | 17 | 1 | 17 |
| Steve D | 6 | 3 | 13 | 1 | 13 |
| John | 5.1 | 0 | 15 | 2 | 7.5 |