Ley Hill U'14s vs Beaconsfield U'14s, 9th July 2004

Ian Walter

Under 14’s slay Beaconsfield in backlash to league disappointment!  

Following the unfortunate withdrawal of one of the Beaconsfield sides from the league this fixture assumed a ‘friendly’status and we found ourselves playing something approaching Beaconsfield’s ‘A’ team rather than their ‘B’.

Shrewdly, Ley Hill management were aware of the opposition’s potential batting strength so it was agreed that batsmen should retire at 25 to give everybody a game. Hill won the toss inserting Beaconsfield, watched by a good Friday night crowd at the club eagerly awaiting Denis McCarthy’s ‘Around the World in Drink’ quiz (or so we thought)!

Without the retirement rule Beaconsfield’s openers would still be out there but after their enforced stoppage with a combined score of 50 the run rate slowed dramatically and Hill were canny enough not to take too many wickets and therefore let them back in again!

The pick of the bowlers was Felix Chamberlain with 2 for 11 in four pacy overs (and 10 of these came from one over). Stephen also bowled very tightly at the end and Beaconsfield were restricted to only 20 from the last seven overs in reaching 98 for 5. Other highlights were a well taken catch by Chris Ghazarian and a run out from Craig.

Hill switched their batting order around and Ollie Mace (sensationally retired on 25), Felix (sensationally 18 not out) and Alex Wallis (12) took full advantage as we raced to our target with 5 overs left. A terrific win against a prestigious club with some great performances form Ollie and Felix in particular. All that winter nets practice is starting to pay dividends!

Those of us staying at the club afterwards (not many of the ‘crowd’ as it turned out) then enjoyed a marathon quiz (all 157 rounds of it) compiled by Denis. Meanwhile Melanie had cooked enough chicken to put KFC out of business and it was fatigue (and a touch of chicken poisoning) that eventually brought matters to a conclusion some time after midnight with a further 134 rounds remaining. A great night Denis and Melanie and a shame that more weren’t there to enjoy it.