Harlow v Gidea Park & Romford CC Saturday 3rd X1 on Sat 19 Jun 2004 at 1.30pm
Gidea Park & Romford CC Won 56 runs
What a pleasant, friendly affair this was!! Losing the toss for the second year running and being put in indicated that Harlow were going to be positive in their quest for much needed points. Oh dear!! Once again the only team interested in playing positive cricket after losing the toss and being put in was ourselves. Scoring 225-7 on a nightmare of a wicket off 45 overs thus giving ourselves a maximum of 55 overs to bowl the opposition out was proof of that. The ball either shot along the ground giving the keepers no chance or it popped off a perfectly good length, stopped or went sideways!! Jason batted superbly on such a surface and provided the backbone of our innings with a fine 82. Once again Ian Gordon (40) provided a much needed impetus when we had slumped to 107-5 and an 80 run partnership between these 2 plus some hard hitting from Paul Windebank (21 no) got us off the field at 4.18 pm.
Harlow's reply started badly when Paul Winmill dismissed one of the openers in the 3rd over. However it was some time until we were able to capitalise on this breakthrough as apart from Paul, the bowlers struggled to get the ball in the right areas with far too much going down the legside. It was obvious that Harlow had very little intention of achieving their target so persistence was the key and we eventually, with the help of some good catching, we began to make inroads even if we were deprived of wickets by some deplorable umpiring by their players who clearly did not have a clue with regard to the rules. Wickets were shared and Paul Winmill (3-47) and Ian Gordon (2-13) claimed the last 4 and Harlow were eventually all out with 3 overs to spare. In the end the atmosphere was not pleasant with plenty of chat coming from the boundary during the last few overs. Pity those reponsible disappeared before we left the field.
Gidea Park & Romford CC Saturday 3rd X1 Batting
225 for 7
Harlow Bowling
Harlow Batting
169 for 10
Gidea Park & Romford CC Saturday 3rd X1 Bowling