WORST. SUMMER. EVER.

Amazingly, we actually had some opposition on Monday. They were there, so were we. The rain was also there however, pissing itself at the thought of us playing our 1st game for a month. Not a ball was bowled.

It'll probably snow next Tuesday when we play Pacific.

DOUBLE WICKET DANGERMEN!

With no opposition, but a sunny evening, 8 men and a free pitch, a net session turned into a double wicket contest...

Recent Cat in The Hat school graduate Dave paired up with Telfer and set an imposing net target of 33 from 6 overs (5 runs deducted for each wicket). Following them Chris and Ty seemed to be on the verge of eclipsing that until the big hitting Ty got bowled twice in succession by Paul T(ea), they finished on 39.

Ruby and Nick Isaac then really upped the tempo (or just sussed out there were few fielders and no umpire), losing just 1 wicket and scoring 62. Things then got a little ridiculous when we realised that both keepers were on the same team. Lordy and Teasdale then giggled their way to towards the last over with some woeful support from the fieldsmen. They needed 12 to win from the last 6, and 1 off the last ball which they achieved comfortably. Nick Isaac then revealed that it should be a tie as he had miscalculated on the scorebook (which was a Sainburys receipt from Chris's wallet). Cue a pointless debate where the honours were disputed...

I can now officially reveal that Ty and Chris won.

Scorecard and receipt info below:

Bowlers
	O	M	R	W
Nick	3	0	31	0
Ty	3	0	26	1
Simon	1	0	14	0
Paul	2	0	17	2
Jason	3	0	37	2
Chris	3	0	30	2
Ruby	3	0	20	1
Dave	3	0	20	0
Telfer	3	0	33	0
Bats	(-5 runs per wicket)
Dave	32/1				Ruby	33/1
Telfer	10/2				Nick	22/0
Extras	6				Extras	8
Score	48				Score	62
Wickets	3				Wickets	1
Total	33				Total	57
Ty	27/3				Paul	34/1
Chris	16/0				Jason	21/1
Extras	11				Extras	12
Score	54				Score	67
Wickets	3				Wickets	2
Total	39				Total	57

Receipt:
1 ploughmans sandwich 1.70
2 multibuy packs of satsumas 2.00
Cashback 20.00
Total 23.70

It's obvious that the sandwich set the early pace, but the multibuy saw satsumas dominate as soon as they were introduced. A brief, but excellent shop.

NO ONE IN LONDON WANTS TO PLAY CRICKET

Without a game since 26th June due to no-shows and cup matches, we were quite looking forward to playing on Tuesday. Sadly the opposition pulled out 24 hours ahead of the game as they only had 4 players.

Now, I’m sure they did go to some effort to get more men, and running a side can be hard work on top of jobs, drinking, telly etc. but surely there were people somewhere in town who would have played? League rules state that a team needs 5 players minimum so they were only 1 man away from a good run around in the park. Surely a slightly under strength team would be better than twiddling your thumbs at home, watching Eastenders?

There were even a few people at the nets who would have loved a game, and I'd have had no problem with them joining our opposition.

Still, 8 of us still turned up and played an excellent double wicket match, more on that to follow.

So we're now top of division 2 without having played a match, our fingers firmly crossed for Monday’s game! If the league AGM didn't already last so long I’d propose that any side that fails to fulfil a fixture should automatically finish bottom of the league.

(Gets off high horse)

SKINNER'S A WINNER AND ISAAC'S WHACK

After East End Cavaliers failed to put a team out against London Fields, the 8 Fieldsmen, plus 4 New Boys and 2 (very pleasant) randoms embarked on a 12 over, 7 aside smashathon.

Isaac won the toss and decided to bat and openers Sudu and Jason made steady (slow) progress until Ruby finally broke the partnership in the 7th over (thanks to a great catch from Saif). Tyrone upped the run rate with some clean hitting but another wicket for Ruby and one for Chris prevented any serious partnership building. The Isaac brothers nudged the batting sides to a competitive 82 and the Skinner 7 needed 7 an over to snatch victory.

The chase started poorly with Saif and Ruby both bagging golden ducks to the bowling of New Boy Kashem, before his fellow New Boys Mosin and Nizmul got the score moving. Nizmul, Alex and Chris fell in quick succession (two for Rips and one for a lucky Will Isaac) which left Paul T(ea) and the returning Mosin (who had retired on 25) needing to knock off a nervous 23 runs from 3.3 overs. Despite the immense pressure, they kept their heads and completed a marvelous victory with 5 balls to spare.

A good fun contest with a rare opportunity for Fieldsmen to sledge their colleagues made a potentially cack evening a far better experience than anticipated. Best of luck to New Boys for the rest of the season too.

Will Isaac VII
(Will, Jason Lord, Kashem, Nick Isaac, Ty Graham, Rips, Sudu)

Chris Skinner VII
(Chris, Nizmul, Saif, Ruby Quince, Mosin, Alex LeMay, Paul Teasdale)

Isaac VII 82/4 (12 overs)
Jason 18 (Ret)
Sudu 15
Nizmul 2.0.1.12
Chris 2.0.1.12

Skinner VII 83/5 (11.1 overs)
Mosin 38 no
Paul 20
Rips 2.0.2.13
Kashem 2.0.2.17

(Apologies if I've misspelled/incorrectly named anyone)

CLOSE CONTESTS?

East End Cavaliers failed to turn up for our match last night, a bit annoying that they never let us (and one of their own players) know this was going to happen but at least we get the points!

In the end we played a friendly match seeing a Will Isaac VII against a Chris Skinner VII with numbers made up by a few lads from New Boys and a few other random netters - a good fun match was won by the excellent Skinner side and a report will follow soon.

On another note, we tend not to pay too much attention to the oppositions results, but check this amazing result out:

WEATHER NOT TOO MUCH TO BARE*

After Sunday’s fixture Vs Baring was cancelled due to a slightly (very) damp pitch, a few Fieldsmen headed to Viccy Park for a net session. Baring CC had a similar idea and with the artificial pitches coping fine with the showers we decided to hold an impromptu 20/20 fixture.

With 2 Baring players already padded up, there was no toss and 8 of their players got going against 5 of us (RJ, Will, Ty, Faraz and Chris), plus their keeper, and the son of one of their players. Chris opened the bowling (with an old ball) and was soon rewarded with a wicket, another soon fell to RJ and Barings seemed to have, er, lost their bearings. A resolute partnership from Matt and Andrew steadied their innings, but we were boosted by the arrival of two new players in the form of debutant Matt Thompson and Ruby ‘Cat in the Hat’ Quince.

Tyrone finally broke the partnership and was unlucky not to claim a hat-trick, soon after Will also took 2 wickets in 2 balls and we looked to have wrapped it up. Barings however had managed to get on the phone to the rest of their team, who seemed to arrive just in time to keep the innings going and they finished their innings 8 wickets down with 112 on the board.

Richard (16) and Will opened our reply confidently but as Chris joined Will at the crease there were potentially disastrous off-field events taking place. A large group of kids and parents had arrived, with tables, chairs and even gazebos. Sadly they were not here to watch us and the park warden wandered over and ordered us off the pitch. Not to be beaten (we had after all relocated pitch already that day), we marched over to another free pitch and continued there. The move did for Chris who was bowled in the first over of the restart, but Faraz (25no) and Will guided us come with a mix of lucky drops and good hitting. Will clumped the winning runs for 4 and finished on 49 not out (if only he had gone for a 6!).

Considering this was meant to be another casualty to the rain, it turned out to be a great afternoon thanks to Baring's enthusiasm and the power of mobile communication. Who knows, one day it might stop raining and we might get a proper game in at London Fields!?

*Worst. Headline. Ever.