Match Report by Tom Bloor

Sunday 17th June. A typical English summer’s day, fine and warm with a good breeze, but rain never entirely out of the question. Under stately cloud stacks and fragments of blue sky, the Horizontals went to Borehamwood to play cricket. The opposition was the London Saints C.C., a team whose good humour and palpable enjoyment of the game make them welcome opponents.
Richard Burgess was captaining the Horizontals. He won the toss and elected to bat. Arif Qawi and Alistair Gaskell opened. The pitch was slow, but curiously bouncy, while the damp outfield brought seemingly sure-fire boundaries juddering to a halt before they reached the rope. Arif and Al had to work hard to take the total up to forty from the first 13 overs of this 35 over game. Al’s was the first wicket to fall when he was run out for 23. Now Tom Bloor arrived for what would be, by his standards, an unusually extended and productive stay at the crease. Arif was out for 18 but Tom remained, surviving throughout a middle order collapse, brought about when the batting side tried to force the pace of the scoring. The decisive moment of the game arrived in the 22nd over, however. With the Horizontals tottering on 62 for 5, Amit Shanker strode out to bat. His unbeaten 63, in partnership firstly with Tom, who was eventually run out for 21, and then, for the last 8 overs of the innings, with Justin Roy (a rapid 22 not out) took the Horizontals’ score beyond the merely respectable and on to a potentially match-winning total of 174 for 6. Amit’s innings was a combination of classy stroke play and uninhabited aggression. One memorable shot saw him charge down the pitch and leg glance the ball on the run, dispatching it post-haste to the boundary. His total included four 4s and four huge blows for 6. If eyebrows had been raised in some quarters by the captain’s chosen batting order then any such scepticism was proved unfounded. In fact, the Horizontals managed an innings built on the classic model, laying down a good platform, with wickets in hand, before accelerating the scoring and moving into a position of dominance over the field.
After a fine tea, which included scones with fresh crème and blackberry conserve, the London Saints began their reply. Amit opened the bowling, along with David Scally. The Saints batsmen held firm and made a solid start. Justin bowled first change, in tandem with the irrepressible Raul Samma. When Justin bowled Saints’ opener Griffiths for 24 it proved to be a vital breakthrough. As the game proceeded, wickets continued to fall. Indeed, the Saints’ demise might have been quicker still but for some unfortunate dropped catches and run-out denying fumbles. In the field, the Horizontals are currently suffering a prolonged collective case of the yips. This season saw the introduction of fines for dropped catches, ever since which, in the words of the vice-captain, the team has been “shelling them like peas”. Thankfully, the bowling has remained incisive, and Saints spirited efforts to chase down the total continued to be an uphill struggle. Roger Skipper had an l.b.w. decision upheld with his first ball, and then later dismissed the dangerous Dewhurst, bowled for 23. When Amit returned for a second spell, he and Raul accounted for the subsequent five wickets between them. Both ended with excellent figures, Raul with 2 for 13 off 7 overs, Amit with a remarkable 4 for 10, also off 7. He topped an all-round match-winning performance with a wicket from the last ball of the day, which pitched on top of the stumps with such force it split one of the bails in two. The Horizontals won the match by 34 runs.