After putting the Valley of Peace cricket team in on a good pitch the London NZ Cricket XI bowled very well early on and had us reeling at 38/6 after 15 overs when Tommy Music, who had provided the only real resistance up to that point, was out for a good 22.
Then we were 77/8 at drinks after 25 overs. So at that stage an early lunch and finish was well on the cards, but Ben Larter (70) and Joey Edgerton-Till (35*) then put on 62 for the 9th wicket, and Joey and the Valley no 11 put on a further 28* for the last wicket, to help us bat out our 50 overs and reach a competitive and very welcome total of 167/9.
Best of their bowlers were Reido, who took the first 3 wickets and ended up with 3-15 off 8 overs, and Mark MacGoldrick, who had 2-0 off his first 3 overs during the early carnage and finished with 3-14 off 8 overs. While Tony Gray certainly wasn’t flattered by his final figures of 1-20.
In reply Joey (2-29) and David Lau (3-14) bowled very well to knock the strong top off their line-up and at 3-15 it was their turn to struggle. Three of their batsmen got into the 20’s but each time they threatened we managed to get a wicket, with Nick Thomas (2-20) and Hamish Anderson (2-16) both backing up the openers very well, with 2 clean bowleds each. So the London NZ XI eventually finished with 126 (their captain Graham being left high and dry on 22*), giving us a win by 41 runs – which looked totally unlikely at the half way stage of our innings!
And it was an excellent day with lovely hot weather, great catering and hospitality from Barry Frost and Richard Edgerton-Till, while all 22 players got a bat and 15 had a bowl.
Bert Walker
Captain for the Day
