2nd XI v Princes Head, friendly, Richmond Green, 5 May

St Lukes 2nd XI

James Somers

Gopi Desai

Richard Somers

Dave Jones

Ollie Heath

Jason Custance

Mitsi Patel (wk)

Saul Charlwood

Gothum Kandavelu

Evan Huyerman

Dieter Grutzner

So the setting was set on a glorious spring day in Richmond, on The Green the St Lukes players took to the field after the toss was lost. Playing on a pitch which had 4 paths running through the outfield and in front of a record crowd for St Lukes (at least 200) the players knew this was going to be an interesting game.

Princes Head batted first and made an impressive 197-5 in 35 overs on a dodgy track.  Excellent bowling from Evan, 7 overs for only 12 runs, kept Princes Head in check early on, and at the other end Jason picked up a couple of wickets.  The opening batsman (Moore) who played and missed many times early on, stayed around and went on to score 76 before debutant Ollie Heath got his first wicket for the club.  The score could have been lower but for the wish to give some of the newcomers a chance to shine with the ball.  The highlight of the fielding was a catch that James took off his own bowling, which he plucked out of the air with one hand at full stretch. Fielding was made difficult by the pathways and the people that kept using them with no regard for the game that was being played.

The St Lukes batsmen never really got on top of the bowling losing wickets at regular intervals when a good stand was needed.  Richard started with a bright 17 and Mitsi followed with 32.  At 114-7 with 18 overs remaining it was a difficult ask but an eighth wicket unbroken partnership of 51 between Evan (59) and David Jones (6) restored some respectability before the large and enthusiastic crowd (most of them sat on the outfield).  Final score was 165-7 and a defeat by 32 runs.

We later found out that the people were not there to watch us play cricket but because it was a very nice day and 'The Green' was near a pub.

Man of the Match – Evan Huyerman