2nd XI vs Old Actonians

Saturday, 31st May 2003 - League

North London V Old Actonians

North London 2nds got their season going with this spirited win against Old Actonians. Having been put in to bat by the apparently masochistic Old Acts captain on a swelteringly hot day, we got off to an inauspicious start top three batsmen Nick Howard, Jeff Bennet and Andy Blount all fell early on. That left skipper Bob Pedersen and Salman Ali to rebuild the innings, and they certainly did that with some careful batting followed by overwhelming strokeplay, and we gradually rose to 100 for 3 off around 30 overs. Unfortunately both batsmen refused to get a 50, with Salman getting caught and bowled rather softly at 46, and Bob missing a straight one on 49. Hal tried to keep the runs flowing, and newcomer Joel played a perfect cover drive before hitting a full toss straight to mid-on, as predicted by the bowler the ball before. Richard Hall joined Hal to take the score over 160, before Hal yorked himself, and eventually Bob declared with 193 on the board. There was a feeling that North London hadn't taken full advantage of a short boundary and average bowling, and something special would be needed to prevent the second defeat of the season. That something special eluded North London for a while, as Old Actonians made a confident, if frantic start, but John Flood removed their on-dimensional opener with his first wicket of the League season (sorry Floody, but it's over now). Victory still seemed a long way away when their number 3 clattered a huge six over the long boundary and numerous lofty shots continued to fall either between fielders, or to the wrong ones, like Blounty for instance. However, Bob turned to his experienced players and was rewarded as Salman Ali, Bernie Chapman and Ian Mateczyk began to stem the tide with accurate bowling. It became clear that we were playing on a level playing field, although it didn't always feel like that with Blounty, Jeff and Ian all fielding on the offside. Youngster Richard Hall provided more impetus with an excellent spell of bowling, keeping a nagging line which gave the batsmen little room, and he was rewarded with three wickets. However, a late stand by Old Actonians appeared to have given them victory, as they needed just ten runs with three wickets in hand, but Salman clean bowled their annoying number 6. John Flood returned to pick up the remaining two wickets, including a 4^th catch for Bob, and we won by 8 runs.

Report by: H Godfrey-Wood