Pinfield, Porton pummell Potters

Sunday 28 April 2013   Winchmore Hill CC

JUDD STREET TIGERS 214-8 beat POTTER STREET CC 160 all out by 54 runs

On days such as this one may question the efficacy of playing cricket matches in the midst of an English winter. The ground conditions were good enough, but the biting polar winds were almost unendurable. With 12 Tigers otherwise engaged (on a variety of pursuits that included patronising Association Football fixtures, plodding around the Lake District, smuggling gramophone records out of the US, running half-marathons and attending the weddings of distant relatives) only seven ventured from their lairs to take on the powerful and talented Potter Street side.

That they secured an unlikely victory was therefore all the more remarkable, although their opponents (well over-subscribed – please note) kindly loaned three of their players out for the day. All three contributed to the victory, though it was the fine batting of Ian Porton (49) and Barnaby Pinfield (72*) that laid the foundation in a useful total of 214 in 40 overs. In the absence of captain, vice-captain, assistant vice-captain and ex-captain, Matt Webster donned the metaphorical armband for the day and did an excellent job husbanding the diverse forces available.

Barnaby contemplates a hard earned post-match sausage

Asked to bat first, the ying and yang opening partnership of Richard Burgess and Ian Porton put up a solid 38 in 8 overs, with Porton the driving force, punching the ball powerfully through the off side and hitting ten fours before unluckily falling one short of a well deserved half-century. There followed a mini-collapse from 73-1 to 78-4, but Pinfield, playing a very different innings from the week before, held things together, adding 64 in 9 overs with a positive Webster (22) and a further 38 in 6 overs with the equally positive Husain (25), all three showing admirable courage and technique against James and Terry, two of the fastest bowlers the side are likely to encounter this summer.

Potter Street are a very competent batting outfit, hitting 272 in the corresponding fixture last September, but a steady opening spell from Dave Scally and Simon Warren induced some kamikaze calling which resulted in two early run-outs. Terry looked capable of winning the match off his own bat until, attempting to pull Warren to leg, unluckily played on, the ball hitting various parts of his anatomy before dislodging a gareth.

James and Panton put a good stand together, but Webster’s 8 over spell of 3-37 broke the back of the innings, dismissing Panton (19) and then the dangerous Khawaja and Khan with successive deliveries. Taran had top man James (54) caught at point, then finished off the innings with 3-24 in addition to a catch and initiating the two earlier run outs.

This was an excellent victory – the second on the bounce – against strong opposition on a good wicket. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Henry V;  ‘And gentlemen of England, now a-bed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here; and hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks, that fought with us upon St.Peter’s day’.

Meanwhile, on the main pitch, a daddy double hundred from former Surrey and Middlesex batsman Scott Newman helped Winchmore Hill rack up 406 in 45 overs against Buckhurst Hill in the ECB National Club Championship.