Walthamstow Horizontals made it 1-all after turning out a much stronger team for the second match-up of the season.

After winning the toss and putting themselves into bat the Horizontals' opening pair saw off the Strollers' opening bowlers, if at a rather stately 5-an-over rate. However Andrew Bates again struck with his first ball when Big Gav secured another fine reflex catch to his right at gully. Cue wild celebrations.

This brought Amit Shanker to the crease, a player whose talents are well known to the Strollers, Shanker having once scored a century playing for the Strollers against Chippenham. Unfortunately his talents were now on display for the opposition, and he set about unhurriedly accumulating runs with a series of punches into the off side. The score got up to 80 for 1 before James Connell bowled out the other opener with a searing, inswinging yorker.

The Horizontals then got tied down as the Strollers let loose Clive Beagles, who in his past life has played representative cricket for Essex and under 19s for England, but now, the crowning achievement, a coveted first cap for the Pimlico Strollers. Beagles sent down 7 straight overs of mesmerising leg spin, virtually every ball on a hairpin, turning, dipping, gripping - a joy to watch. Beagles picked up two wickets with a catch by Graeme in the slips and a sharp stumping by stand-in keeper Vishal Bhatia.

Shanker managed to survive through this period however and had enough support from his team mates to build a decent score, however Graeme finally nailed him with some good fast bowling just as he was looking like he might really unleash. The score accelerated in fits and starts with a few big overs here and there, but wickets also fell with Davies picking up a couple of well-deserved wickets and Bhatia taking a very sharp catch. At tea the Strollers felt that their bowling and fielding performance had been mostly good and that 214 off 35 overs was gettable.

The Strollers' innings started well enough with Gav smacking a couple of fours before a heavy rain shower forced a brief delay. This turned out to be pivotal, as the pitch turned into a mudbath and kept low for the remainder of the game, making scoring difficult and proving the undoing
of a number of their batsmen.

Gav fell quickly after the resumption of play, and Graeme was joined by Beagles, no slouch with the bat either. Graeme was looking typically comfortable and smacked 3 fours and a six to different parts of the park off four consecutive balls to keep the run rate on track, and at 54-1 off 10 overs things were looking more or less on track.

Unfortunately, 5 overs later the score had slumped to 66-5. Graeme went for a big hit but this time missed. Beagles went for a drive and missed to one that kept low. Bhatia, who is also a good bat, got a shocker low ball first up and was out plumb LBW, courtesy of Shanker again who was bowling fast, full and straight. Moorhouse denied Shanker his hat trick, but was dismissed shortly thereafter.

Skipper Sturm was in at the other end watching all of this, and by the time James Connell came to the crease at number 7 it looked like another humiliation might be on the cards. However Sturm set out to see off the
best of the bowling, Shanker in particular, and proceeded to bat in a bloody-minded way, defending doggedly, picking up singles and the odd four off the rare bad balls. Connell took a couple of wild swipes at first but then knuckled down to play a really fine innings, with a surreal mixture of calm defence and extreme violence, as the Mong let loose with a couple of sixes, one of them truly monstrous, and a number of fours.

The partnership built and at 119-5 in the 24th the Strollers might have dared to hope. But then tragedy struck as James miscued a towering skier off the Mong's meaty edge and the difficult catch was held (the dreaded
Shanker at work once again!).

Sturm decided there was only one way to go now and launched his own attack, bashing a couple of sixes and peppering the leg-side boundary. Unfortunately the long-hoped-for pie-chuckers failed to materialise as the Horizontals bowling attack proved to be strong throughout. The Strollers never gave up hope, but the pressure was great and with a couple of run outs their fate was sealed. Sturm was the last wicket to
fall, going for a big heave to a straight one but this time failing to connect.

So, a loss, but dignity mostly retained. A curry followed and much hilarity was had by all.