Haines all-round effort not enough at Hampstead

On Sunday the 28^(th) of April, 10 LNZCC players made their way to Hampstead Cricket Club in North London to do battle - after this fixture had been called off the last two years due to weather. A 40 over match was agreed with play starting at 1pm.

Since our last match Hampstead had installed a camera that is linked to Youtube and this allowed us to send a link out via Whatsapp for people to be able to watch the match unfold live. The benefits of playing a Middlesex Premier level club. The game also saw debuts for Mark Bassett and Henry Winchester.

Hampstead won the toss and put LNZCC in to bat. Andrew Haines took to the crease with Scott Devine, Andrew was soon getting the scoreboard ticking over in an all too familiar fashion on this ground (206 for the South Island). The 50 partnership was soon up and LNZ looking to make a decent score. Soon after Haines passed 50 concentration lapsed and he decided that it was the turn for other players. Debutants Mark Bassett and Henry Winchester looked impressive and were a welcome addition to the LNZ line-up, with Winchester finally falling just short of his maiden 50. Khanbhai, Harper and Wright all made a start and kept the score ticking over before Brooks and Cowie took the LNZCC total through to 245. Although the Hampstead pitch was batter friendly this was a very defendable total in 40 overs.

After another great spread, Leith Cowie and Richard Brooks opened the bowling form each end, with decent line and length, however LNZCC were already down a bowler and having only 10 to spread throughout the field the last thing we needed as for Richard Brooks to break down with injury in only his second over. From here, it was always going to be a hard second innings. Vaughan Robertson and Henry Winchester bowled ably although runs continued to flow without result. Finally the skipper decided that Hampstead had succeeded with the slower bowlers, so brought on Haines and Bennett. This managed to slow down the runs and wickets started to fall. Special note must also go to Andrew Haines for managing to direct the ball back onto the stumps and getting out Hampstead’s MVP runout at the non-strikers end while backing up. This got us back in the game, but sadly we missed the extra bowler, the 11^(th) man in the field, and with Brooksy's injury we were always just behind the game.

Hampstead managed to get our total in the 38^(th) over, although it was a good contest and we put on a strong showing. Andrew Haines was awarded the Man of the Match for a 50, 3 wickets and a run out, and also some solid fielding in cover. We welcomed Henry and Mark to LNZCC. It was a pleasure to play with both of them and I hope they play many more games for the club…..if you play 4 more a cap will be waiting. Thanks must go to Hampstead for their hospitality as always and we look forward to the game next year.