Ickenham 1st XI

Saturday, May 29th 2004 - League

North's Ick as a Parrot                                                                                   Sat, May 29

NLCC                     293-6dec 50 overs

Ickenham                294-5         48.5 overs

Another galling league defeat for North London, as befitting the pattern of recent weeks. Once again the team performed well only to see their opponents squeeze them out in a tight finish.

 Ickenham's small ground is well suited to big hitting and both sides fronted up to the challenge. Twelve balls were lost altogether as 21 sixes were smacked in the match.

 North London's star performers on the day were Ian Johns (143) and Dan Amadee (59 & 1-89). Amadee's figures may sound poor but he was the only NLCC bowler to concede less than five an over, and provided skipper Ali Hart with a small amount of control to exert some pressure. Pressure was in desperately short supply as the Ickenham batters led by South African all-rounder Brett Penney set off at a frenzy smashing 90 off the first ten overs. From there on in the tension grew with every over, and most of it was on the NL players. Penney's 87 was an innings of high class to go with the hundred he smashed against Norths last summer in a Sunday cup game.

 Dan picked up another bat-pad wicket in the second over as North London's P Mills caught Ickenham opener R Mills. Ben Wakeford (2-63) bowled a decent spell, shaking up Penney and the others with his pace. The other centurion from that cup game, Robin Sims, departed for a three ball duck during which Ben rattled him, trapped him on the crease and then let fly with a short ball that Sims chipped to Rianne on the boundary. A fine effort from the feverishly ill fast bowler. Norths fielding was good throughout the day and Dan and Ian produced excellent efforts in the deep to catch Chadwick and Stacey. It was the innings of Matt Stacey that probably killed Norths chances as he smashed an improbable 21 from 6 balls at the death.

 Ian, Dan and Rianne (32 off 13 balls) all cleared the ropes with free hitting. An opening stand of 89 between Paddy and Ian paved the way, before a roaring stand between Dan and Ian of 109 in 11 overs.

 The most disappointing aspect of the result was that while Norths fielded well, Ickenham dropped several chances and still emerged as winners.

Report by: Run Machine