MEEK MARTIANS FLATTER FIELDS

London Fields 172/5 (16 overs) Beat Norfolk Martians 64/4 (9.3 overs)

In glorious conditions, perfect for cricket, (for once), London Fields beat Norfolk Martians after they quit midway through their innings.

Winning the toss for the first time since the Elizabethan era, Fields batted first and accumulated steadily, aided generously by a series of extra’s, overthrows and misfields. Openers Robin Friend (38) and Paul Teasdale (29) reached a fifty partnership with ease, mixing big hitting and more orthodox shots as they went.

Dave Lane briefly looked in good touch, but a mini collapse was prevented from being too troublesome by Jason Lord who stroked a mature 18. Things were brought to spectacular finish by Will Isaac (31*) and Stefan Proud (13*) who found the boundary regularly as the innings reached its climax. Extra’s narrowly missed out on a top score, accruing 35 runs.

Fresh off the boat from Uspidedownsville, Tyrone (2.0.20.1) troubled the batsmen with his pace, whilst Stefan (3.0.22.0) teased them with his nagging line and length, Tyrone shattering one openers stumps. Will Isaac soon followed with another wicket before a spectacular run out from Paul Teasdale, with just one stump to aim at. Chris took a further wicket with his first ball, but play was halted due to the Martians declaration soon after.

Two wins out of two makes it a great start, and it was a joy playing in bright sunshine, but a disappointing finish given that almost everyone wanted to continue playing. Maybe if Norfolk Martians had brought their complete kit we could have done.

Scorecard Below…

LFCC V NORFOLK MARTIANS SCORECARD

London Fields 172/5 (16 overs)

Name	How Out	Runs
Robin F	B	38
Paul Tea	B	29
Jason L	B	18
Dave L	B	6
Will I	NO	31
Chris S	B	0
Stefan P	NO	13
Tyrone G	Dnb

Extras 37
TOTAL 172/5


Norfolk Martians 64/4 (9.3 overs)

Name	Overs	Maidens	Wickets	Runs	RPO
Tyrone G	2	0	1	20	10.0
Stefan P	3	0	0	22	7.3
Will I	3	0	1	10	3.3
Chris S	1.3	0	1	7	5.4

London Fields won by 108 runs

ALMOST UNDER WATER, AND OVER THE MOON...

Old Fallopians 69 All Out
Stefan 3/27
Dave Lane 2 wickets, Taz 1

London Fields 72/3
Robin F 31 no
Chris 15 no

London Fields win by 4 wickets

Robin Astley on our first match of the season:

With a mixture of early season eagerness, tactical nous and sheer determination to play whatever the conditions, LFCC got their midweek campaign started in the best possible way. With A WIN!

The visible panty line league was aptly monikered as the heavens opened and players wondered if they were here for cricket, rugby or a wet t-shirt competition. (Without the fringe benefits of lithe female bodies.)

Our illustrious captain true to form lost the toss and was invited to field in the ever deteriorating, inclement conditions. Down to six players things looked tricky. With the batsmen hitting cleanly, opening bowler Stefan cleverly throttled back the pace and scoring was much more difficult. Late arrivals Taz and Robin bolstered the field and immediately Stefan struck. In total he took three wickets, one a crafty slow bowled Yorker,a la Harmison v Clarke circa 2005, removing danger man Freddie and setting up a hat trick ball with the next batsman caught plumb. With sterling support from Will at the other end, quickly the old Fallopian's batting had been removed, Midweek Virgins Dave Lane and Robin F (behind the stumps) combined with on line bowling and tidy glove work for a stumping and Taz ripped them in from the other end, bowling a fallopian with a slider. Modest as ever, Taz credited the pitch.

By now every member of the team was soaked to the bone but Chris marshaled his troops and the pressure was ratcheted up on the Fallopian’s. Taz and wickey Robin F got a smart run out and then Skipper Chris took a high swirling catch to finish things off.

Set 70 on the nose to win should present no problems even in fourteen over cricket but with every fibre of the batsmen drenched, the fields still had to apply themselves. Johnny come lately Robin A opened the chase with Will and was lucky to survive a good LBW shout first ball. With a mixture of runs and byes a twenty odd partnership was added until Robin (9) was bowled trying to sweep Fallopian’s South African spinner.

Soon Will followed for 7 but had been in good touch, unluckily hitting the cover fielder with crisp drives. VPCCL debutant Robin F then made a mockery of the condition with an outstanding 31 not out in partnership with Nick Isaac (3) and a bullish 15 from captain Chris.

With only two boundaries in the innings due to the Somme like outfield, sharp running for twos and threes were the signature of a fine win in ridiculous weather, this match was even wetter than the league triumph over Coach and Horses at Springfield park last year. The total was reached with two overs to spare for the loss of three wickets.

It’s worth noting that despite the atrocious weather both captains wanted to play and never was a grumble heard, only light-hearted banter from the superbly sporting Fallopian’s. Finally a great tradition of mid week cricket was upheld with the silly hat award going to Robin F’s flat cap and jumper combo. Well done everyone.

See you next week!

RESULT!

London Fields win their 1st game of the season, against Old Fallopians, played almost entirely in torrential rain. More to follow soon...

TOUR '08

It's never to early to plan a good piss up...

We're going back to Slovenia in September:

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~einhorn/2008/tour.htm

OPEN SESAME...

An apology, i published the wrong photo of our win over Pacific (a few posts below), this is the correct one...






























Back row – John Avery

Middle row – Chris Skinner (Capt), Tyrone Graham, Ruby Quince, Robin Astley

Front row – Alex LeMay, Jason Lord, David Miller


(Thanks to Jason Lord)

THE TASTE OF SUCCESS

London Fields CC, toasting our 2nd midweek season @ Rooburoo, Chapel Market, 7th August 2007

SEE WHAT WINNERS LOOK LIKE!

I have 'facebooked' photo's from last week here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17234&l=26975&id=566095338

DOMINANT FIELDS SAIL PAST PACIFIC TO TITLE

After a disappointing July where we were let down by opposition and weather, we were still in a position where a win against Pacific would guarantee the Division 2 title. With a closely mowed outfield and glorious evening sunshine we were sure we could overturn last years defeat against our opponents, even after we (once again) lost the toss.

Ty and John opened the bowling with massively contrasting styles; Ty mesmerising the Pacific openers with a mix of wayward pace and unplayable swinging deliveries, John offering good old fashioned line and length. Pacific had little in reply and were barely into their 30’s after 6 overs. After a brief change of ends, bringing a wicket maiden, Ty finished his 4 overs with an excellent 2 for 20.

Robin and Dave ‘Taz’ Miller took control from here, initially baffling the opposition (Robin picking up 2 key partnership breaking wickets), until Taz had a go at Alex Le Mays bowling achievements from a month back. Despite managing to go for 22 off his 3^rd over he could only manage falling 2 runs short of Le Mays generous record, going for 41 from 3 – there’s always next season!

Chris and John finished the bowling off, John continuing his niggling medium pace and Chris bowling terribly, picking up a flattering 1 for 11 from his 2 overs (thanks to some sharp keeping from Jason).

With the heady scent of victory inflaming our nostrils, a strong start was needed if we were going to chase down the target of 126. The early loss of Ruby did little to slow down Lordy who opened his innings with fours to all corners of the ground. Joining him, John also played some cracking aggressive strokes and when he fell for 15 we were already ahead of the required run rate.

Excellent tip and run play dominated the middle of the innings, as Rachmaninov lover Alex and Lordy milked the Pacific bowlers like buxom Manatee’s. The two departed in close succession however, Alex for 12 and Jason for what was to be a match winning 50 – not only did he have the pleasure of retiring, but we could call on him again should the run chase get sticky.

Not to be slowed down, Taz (23no) embarked on some massive leg side hitting against the Pacific spinners, and he and Chris saw Fields over the line with 2 overs to spare.

A comfortable victory in a match that we never looked like losing. We fielded superbly (John Avery taking a superb running catch), bowled aggressive lines and batted with supreme confidence. Apparently we even get a trophy!!

(Scorecard below)

LONDON FIELDS V PACIFIC SCORECARD

London Fields won by 4 wickets...

Pacific 125/6 (16 overs)

Name	Overs	Maidens	Wickets	Runs	RPO
Ty	4	1	2	20	5.0
John	4	0	0	15	3.8
Robin	3	0	2	20	6.7
Dave M	3	0	0	41	13.7
Chris	2	0	1	11	5.5

London Fields 128/3 (14 overs)
.

Name	How Out	Runs
Jason	Retired (N.O.)	50
Ruby	B. Rees	5
John	C. B. Gledow	15
Alex	C. B. Purcell	12
Dave	Not Out	23
Chris	Not Out	5
Extras		18
Total:		128

CHAMPIONS!

What a difference a week makes... a 50 for Jason Lord and two wickets each for Robin Astley and Ty Graham see us to victory over Pacific and wrap up the Division 2 title...more to follow...

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.

TEENAGERS TERRORISE TERRIBLE FIELDS. PART 2

There’s not a lot you can say about this. We lost to them a few weeks back in the league and lost by an almost identical score this time. Therefore, let’s do this in 2 lists:

THE SAME AS LAST TIME

1. They batted 1^st and won the toss.
2. They scored just over 120
3. In reply, we scored less than 90.
4. Only a slight wag from the tail prevented complete embarrassment.
5. They were an impressive and friendly opposition.

DIFFERENT TO LAST TIME

1. More than 2 of our batsmen got into double figures.
2. One of their players annoyed his own team almost as much as ours.
3. Er, different pitch.
4. That’s about it.

Well done to Ty for bowling like he was still at Glastonbury one moment, ripping stumps out the other, and Alex who hit an accomplished 24.

More fun and games next week.

(Scorecard below)

LFCC V VP JUNIORS SCORECARD

Cup Round 1...

VP Juniors won by 41 runs:

VP Juniors 127/4 (14 overs)

Name	Overs	Maidens	Wickets	Runs	RPO
Ty	4	0	2	34	8.5
Will	4	0	0	24	6.0
John	3	0	0	26	8.7
Alex	3	0	1	43	14.3

London Fields 86 All Out

Name	How Out	Runs
Paul Tea	Caught	12
Nick	Bowled	12
Jason	Caught	2
Will	Bowled	3
Chris	Bowled	13
Alex	Stumped	24
John	Run Out	3
Ty	Not Out	3
Extras		14
Total:		86

FINAL TABLE

Just to confirm, we finished 4th and qualify for division 2...

Green League	Played	Won	Lost	N/R	Points
Tower Ravens	6	5	1	0	10
Victoria Park Juniors	6	5	1	0	10
Vallance	6	3	2	1	7
London Fields	6	3	3	0	6
Central London	6	2	3	1	5
Chats Palace	6	2	4	0	4
OId Fallopians	6	0	6	0	0