As you will all be aware there were three momentous sporting occasions taking place on Sunday 11th July, Spain won the World Cup, Mark Webber won the British Grand Prix and most shockingly, Walthamstow Horizontals Cricket Club recovered from being 36 for 4 off 10 overs to beat Potter Street by 98 runs. It’s a story of Amit turning into Mr Grumpy, the real Mr Grumpy remembering how to bat (well sort of) and Simon Warren discovering that he likes playing cricket, is good at it and should turn up more often.
Due to the planned start time of 12 noon the toss took place before noon. I believe this is only the second time that this has happened in Horizontal history, the first being a misguided attempt to play a full day game in Dartmouth back in the last century. On that occasion we hadn’t taken into account the effect of the mist on the pitch and were soon 5 down for not very much, all batsmen were bruised all over so we took an early lunch in an attempt to make the game last until the pubs opened. Spookily the early collapse was about to be repeated.

For those not familiar with Potter Street they play on a large flat ground with some toy town like eco houses in the distance. On Sunday the field was brown and basically anything past the fielder was likely to be 4 so we started thinking 250 ish would be a good score. Mike and Richard opened the batting and were faced with an accurate opening spell, The pitch was reminiscent of a Low Hall pitch in that some were lifting off a length and some were skidding along the floor. Mike showed the rest how to play by waiting for the ball and either leaving it or dabbing it in the direction of third man. Richard at the other end was struggling to get bat on ball but wasn’t looking like he would get out. Then in the 9th over Gavin (more of him later) got one to dart in and more or less roll along the ground and Mike was out LBW for 22 out of 25 for 1.
In came Amit and out he went first ball pushing forward and brilliantly caught at short mid off by a young athletic non cricketer who was only subbing for somebody who was late. 25 for 2 and Amit trudged off to consider his first ever Horizontal duck. In came Simon Bowett and out he went after scoring a single. 28 for 3. Next making a first appearance of the season came Simon Warren who celebrated by belting a boundary and running Richard out for 7. Actually that’s a bit harsh. Travis, a genuine West Indian from Montserrat ran him out with a direct hit. It was then we realized we were in deep trouble (35 for 4), the pitch was dodgy and that Potter Street had excellent bowlers, two of whom were actually from the Saturday Firsts.

Not an ideal time for Barry to come in, not having batted for more than 10 minutes for about 5 years. Luckily he had been umpiring when Mike was batting and decided to copy him by leaving everything he could and dabbing the rest through backward point. At the same time Simon was hitting the ball cleanly until he decided to dab a rising ball to the wicketkeeper. Out for a breezy 22 and 63 for 5. Meanwhile the quality of the bowling was getting better as they decided to bring their first teamers on. In came Jimmy who tried to hit his first ball over mid wicket. Then he tried to hit the next 5 over mid wicket. Barry told him to hit the bad ones and leave the good ones. Jimmy still tried to hit them all over mid wicket. Mike, by now umpiring, even lectured him on playing each ball on his merit. However the attempts to hit over mid wicket continued and eventually he was gone for 4. Captain Chris came in, Barry was out for a very patient (slow) 13 which left us at 91 for 7 with about 14 overs to bat. Glenn and Chris then put on a marvelous 44 before Chris was bowled for 30. Rob joined Glenn and in after a flurry of boundaries we ended on a creditable 171 for 9 with Glenn on 30 not out, Rob 16 and Roger with a cameo inside edged 4. At one stage it had looked like we would be home to watch the British Grand Prix let alone the World Cup but we used up the 40 overs in the end.

So on to Potter Street who opened with two of their best players Nasser and Surath. Amit still smarting for his first ever duck, was looking forward to bowling on a pitch where the lift was still considerable. And what followed was just about the most hostile spell of bowling I have seen from a Horizontal. The ball wasn’t just coming fast, it was hitting Simon Bowett's gloves very hard as it flew through off the pitch. After a wayward first few balls, Amit switched to around the wicket and bowled short of a length at the batsman - looking for the ball to rise and catch a glove. And almost immediately it did as Nasser gloved the ball to gully where Jimmy took an excellent diving catch. At the other end, Simon opened and did what he always does managing to make the ball roll along the ground. However this failed to get a wicket so he went to his other tactic offering first team player Suraj a long hop which he hit straight to Glenn at midwicket. Amit then got their captain Chris to fend off a rising ball and our captain Chris moved forward from short leg to take the catch. In came the other first team player AJ who from his first ball looked a few classes above anybody else on either side. He moved quickly to 16 without any trouble and then driving through vacant mid wicket he inside edged Amit onto his stumps and he was gone. George joined Gavin and was immediately bowled by Amit and Potter Street were 25 for 5 and Amit had 4 for 12 off 5 overs.
Gavin is an interesting batsman. He is the only one I have ever seen who holds the bat right handed but uses a left handed grip i.e his stance is right handed but his left hand is below his right on the bat. However he hit the ball hard and made a useful 18 before being bowled by Chris. Roger at the other end gave a few boundaries away but did what Roger does best. He confused the batsmen so much by his flight and pace (or lack of) that he bowled one and caught and bowled Kelvin. Chris bowled another one and finally their opening bowler Peter came in hit 3 boundaries and then tried to hit Rob for 6 only to be caught by the excellent Jimmy on the mid wicket boundary. Potter Street 73 all out off 17.2 overs. Horizontals win by 98 runs.
Amit 4 for 12, Chris 2 for 8, Roger 2 for 26, Rob 1 for 5, Simon 4 for 12.

All done in plenty of time to get back in time for the world cup final though there was time to drink the Potter Street bar dry of lager and cider. Actually it’s a fridge not a bar but we did drink all of it. Bizarrely Simon Warren didn’t really want to go home to watch the football as he had a pass and was looking for a night out. I dropped him at Potters Bar station to get the train at 6. Maybe he did get the train or maybe he just went in the local pub and found a lonely barman to get hammered with and give him a lift home. Who knows.
And finally a note about the opposition. Having been in a strong position Potter Street ended up losing heavily when at one time I am sure they thought they would win comfortably. Many teams would have ended up moaning but they were very gracious in defeat and proved once again to be very likeable and sporting opposition.