It was a long day for Members of the Horizontals
making their way up the A41 to the picturesque Potten End ground
of their friendly rivals Jack O Diamonds. Indeed the team had
to navigate safely through the Potten End carnival which was taking
place next to the ground.
Skipper Willcock, having won the toss, decided to bat on a wicket
that whilst drying was clearly feeling the effects of the heavy
rain on Friday night/ Saturday morning. For the first hour scoring
was difficult, less than 2 runs per over, and the Horizontals
found themselves at 40 for 4 with Bloor, Herlihy, Burgess and
Murray already back in the pavilion. The dismissal of Richard
Burgess was particularly noteworthy by his comment on return to
the pavilion that he had travelled for over 3 hours from South
London by replacement, bus, train and car only to be sawn off
for a duck by the Skipper’s dad. Willcock senior apparently
has previous for giving dubious LBW’s and he certainly was
on the money this time. However it turned out not to be the worst
decision of the day, more later.
After a sticky start, the in-form Stiven Bordin started to find
his feet and ably assistede by Skipper Chris Willcock changed
the game within the next hour - the pair putting on a hundred
and twenty one for the fifth wicket. Bordin was particularly impressive
whilst Willcock enjoyed a couple of early scares but then started
to hit the ball in his usual powerful fashion. The partnership
was ended on 165 when Chris was bowled by Chalsy for 59. The Diamond
bowlers were wilting in the heat following very impressive opening
spells by Gowers and Goddard. Stiven was joined by Simon ‘Bomber’
Bowett and put on thirty two for the sixth wicket before ‘
Bomber ‘was caught on the boundary. Stiven fell agonisingly
close of a successive hundred when he was bowled by Chalsy for
99. Horizontals declared on 203-7.
After a very nice tea, Jack o Diamonds set about responding to
this challenging total although the pitch was now playing a lot
easier. Progress was smooth for the first hour with Diamonds reaching
55-1 despite losing their opener to a beauty bowled by Dave Scally.
Neither Murray nor Carter were making inroads. However the game
turned on a smart piece of wicket keeping by Bowett, taking a
gloved chance from a leg side delivery by Jimmy Carter. The Horizontals
bowlers suddenly upped their performance and this coincided with
the Potten End carnival band striking up some very competent pieces
such as Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie and some 70’s classics.
Diamonds collapsed from 55-2 to 77-9 nine within half an hour
thanks to three wickets from Jimmy Carter and three from the guest
eleventh player Jason Hawkridge, two to smart catchers by Willcock
senior and a regulation catch by Stiven. Diamonds were not helped
by the worst decision of the day given against Chalsy, lbw (bowled
by Craig Murray) to a ball that not only did he hit but that was
also going down leg side and over the top of the stumps. Murray
was the sole appealer. The final act was performed by Richard
Burgess who got some recompense for his earlier duck by bowling
the final batsman.
A comprehensive victory at the end as Diamonds, not for the first
time, collapsed whilst in a challenging position. After a nice
leisurely pint at the excellent club house the Horizontals said
goodbye to their very welcoming hosts and look forward to battle
again next year. The passengers in Herlihy’s car were then
treated to some vintage early 90’s, late 80’s dance
music and their enjoyment was spoiled only by Bomber Bowett’s
lovely dovey conversation with his ‘partner’ which
interrupted Satoshi Tomie’s remix of Paul Rutherford’s,
‘That Moon’. He added insult to injury, after being
informed that this tune had mashed up the south side, thought
this referred to Richmond rather than Chicago. Word up.
