vs Victoria Park Juniors
Victoria Park, Pitch 1. 29th April 2008, 18:00
Torrential rain welcomed the Tigers to their first game of the season. The excitment of a new season meant that a severely restricted match went ahead.
vs Goodmayes
Victoria Park, Pitch 2. 8th May 2008, 18:00
A marked contrast to the previous game, with sunny skies and the pleasure of the WAGs watching the Tigers lose. The Tigers simply failed to match the cricketing skills of the superior side.
vs Pacific C.C.
Victoria Park, Pitch 3. 12th May 2008, 18:00
Another sunny day met the under-strength Tigers who did their best to defend an under-par total.
vs London Fields
Victoria Park, Pitch 1. 21 May 2008, 18:00
On a bright and sunny evening in Victoria Park, the Tigers turned up predictably late but delighted that they had finally got the hang of bringing teas to the match - these have evolved over the first four games from nothing, to a single bottle of diet coke, to two bottles of Evian and two packets of Maryland cookies, to 12 pork pies, 80 cocktail sausages, three bags of crisps, two cans of Guiness and a roast beef sandwich. Notwithstanding the abundance of meaty treats and arguably our strongest bowling line-up of the season, we started poorly with both Cox and Pattle struggling for rhythm in their first couple of overs allowing the London Fields openers and the extras tally to push the run rate up above ten. Coxy’s third over produced the breakthrough though with a good length delivery forcing the batsman into a false drive that was feathered through and taken by Cook tumbling to his right. Pattle also found his line and length to produce two excellent overs that pulled the run-rate back into check and would have earned him a first Tigers’ wicket if it hadn’t been for the first of six dropped catches in field.
There had been much excitement about the first appearance of Darren Bennett for the Tigers and they weren’t disappointed as his first delivery fizzed past the outside edge of the unsuspecting London Fields No.4. “Dazzler” (or “Sparkler” as Coxy seems to have named him) produced a great spell that, were it not for Cook’s poor effort behind the stumps (dropping two regulation catches) and some comedicaly poor fielding, would have resulted in far better figures than the 1-28 that he earned thanks to a cracking last delivery that crashed into the middle of off-stump. From the other end, East’s box of tricks was preventing the batsmen from settling – one over produced a beamer, two excellent medium paced deliveries, a double bounce wide, a slower ball reminiscent of Harmison to Clarke in 2005 and two dollie off-spinners that were dispatched for four. The next produced another dropped catch followed by the Tigers’ third wicket with Cook taking a simple caught behind for East’s maiden Tigers’ wicket. With their spirits raised, the Tigers upped their game to keep a lid on the run-rate in the last few overs (thanks in no small part to some decent fielding in the deep by Lambert) and restrict London Fields to 150 (or 151, or 152 depending on which bit of Sparky’s scorebook you read) with East and Cox bowling tidily at the death.
RB and Rob, charged with getting us off to a flyer, didn’t disappoint. Some uncharacteristically aggressive batting from George, including the finest straight drive that will be seen at Victoria Park this season, propelled the Tigers to 50-0 inside six overs against a decent bowling attack. Rob’s steadfast resilience proved an excellent foil to George’s more expansive game and the pair had strolled to comfortably the highest partnership of the year before Rob was finally run out for a season’s best 17 with the score on 71. The wicket brought a fired up Coxy to the crease and he promptly dispatched his first ball for four and helped the partnership to race to 30 before RB was given out LBW to a delivery which he will tell you was going over the top, having made a mercurial 43. Cook kept the run-rate up briefly with a couple of fours taking him to 11 but soon fell to his second self-inflicted dismissal of the season misjudging the outcome of his lack of pace against the best arm in the London Fields team to be comfortably run out with the score on 135 with 3 overs remaining. The giant Kiwi, Pattle, swaggered to the crease to accompany Coxy and the two of them batted aggressively but sensibly with Andy’s seventh four followed by Niall’s first taking the Tigers into the last over needing 6 (or maybe 5, or maybe 4) to win. After a couple of nervous deliveries, a single and a two were followed by a delightful on-drive for 4 to take the Tigers to a historic and well deserved first victory and Coxy to a match-winning 43 not out off 28 balls.
Still some work to be done on the fielding but otherwise it was an excellent performance all round and we should go into the next game against bottom of the league, Old Fallopians, with very realistic aspirations for a second victory.
vs Old Fallopians
Victoria Park, Pitch 3. 28th May 2008, 18:00
Tight Bengal Tigers bowling and an undermanned Fallopians side restricted them to a below-par 51. Zac Curtis scoring an innings defining 43 before Tim George (1W, 3R, 2O) bowled him with an unlikely looking delivery. All 5 tigers bowlers took wickets and many of the bowling statistics are now looking a lot healthier as a result.
The Tigers' run chase got off to a calamitous start with Turtle run-out for 0, his bat somewhere over midwicket. After the early jutters were out of the way, the Tigers soon sound form. MacDonald (16) and Imison (24*) combining well to take them close. Frisby was the pick of the Fallopians bowling attack taking the wickets of MacDonald and Giggs. Coxy arrived with the Tigers needing 3 to win and duly scored the winning runs.
The Tigers, having won the last two on the trot, will need another result next week to secure themselves second division cricket for the second half of the season.
vs Norfolk Martians
Victoria Park, Pitch 1. 04 June 2008, 18:00
A match report will be written soon, please check back here later for details of the match. Please try the links below for more information.
Notes on the scoring
Posted by Mark Summerville, 20th April 2008
Please accept my apologies if there are any errors in the scorecards of statistics that have been created. Please use the contact form to get in touch and I will update them as soon as possible. As the season progresses the accuracy of recording the statistics will improve and become more accurate. Please bear with us until that point.
