The Park players made the trip to the East End to play the young Hawks at Walthamstow and opened the batting with Kenny Robotham and Alan Horton. These two made a solid start putting on 36 for the first wicket when Kenny was given out LBW just as he was getting into his stride with a knock of 14. Alan was to follow soon after with 21 to his name as he was bowled by Jones. Park 41 for 2. Simon Ewin and Tim Gannon then put on 12 before Gannon skied a beamer to the keeper to be caught for 6. Park 53 for 3. With Jim Flood joining Simon at the crease, order was restored to the Park innings as these two put on 49, with some hard hitting from Simon and classy stroke play from Big Jim. Eventually Simon was caught out for an excellent 28, to leave Park on 104 for 4 and in a good position for a heave ho from the lower order batsmen. Skip Fowdy came out at no.6 and another 21 were added before Jim was bowled for a terrific 32. Park 125 for 5. There followed the traditional PPCC collapse as Darran was caught for 5 (127 for 6), Craig Partridge was bowled for 2 (128 for 7), Terry Shannon was stumped for 3 (132 for 8) and Bill was bowled for 5 (137 for 9). When Alan Whaley was LBW for 3, Prospect Park had crawled to 145 All Out, a very mediocre score against the young opposition.
Bill and dave Partridge opened the bowling and soon had the Hawks in trouble, with Skip Fowdy taking a good catch to dismiss Iqbal off Bills bowling in the first over. Dave caught Mahmood off his own bowling in the following over, to have the oppo on 2 for 2. Bill then clean bowled Bishop (18 for 3), and had Yasin caught by Alan Whaley (19 for 4). When Dave caught Umer off his own bowling, Hawks were 19 for 5. Terry Shannon and Alan Whaley came into the bowling attack and Terry struck very early, with Gannon behind the sticks, stumping Butt (20 for 6). Two balls later and Tel trapped Afzal plumb LBW and Hawks were all over the show at 20 for 7. The youngs Hawks made a good recovery from thereon with Jones in particular a star for the future. Craig Partridge was brought into the attack to finish the game off and three wickets from him (one caught by Gannon, one by Flood) including the last wicket in the last over of the game wrapped up the win for the Park, with Hawks all out for 90.
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | Runs | Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Partridge | 7 | 2 | 10 | 3 |
| Dave Partridge | 8 | 1 | 16 | 2 |
| Terry Shannon | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Alan Whaley | 4 | 0 | 16 | 0 |
| Craig Partridge | 7.4 | 0 | 34 | 3 |
| Darran Fowdy | 7 | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Alan Horton | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
A tricky game to judge this as Hawks consisted mainly of Colts, including a couple of very promising youngsters, but we should have been able to bowl them out very easily and struggled to get the last couple of wickets.
A tricky one to call, with Al Horton, Si Ewin and Jim Flood getting most of the runs and the Terry and the Partridges sharing all the wickets. But I think that it was Bill's initial spell of bowling that set us on the way to victory and so he leaves East London with the MOM.