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Amersham and London Share Sporting Spoils
During August two of the main sporting showdowns of the Barnett Waddingham year took place - the annual cricket match between the Amersham and London offices and the company-wide 6-a-side football tournament.
Amersham v London Cricket, Newlands Park College, 8th August 1999
Newlands Park provided the venue for the annual cricket match, and it proved to be a particularly good choice as the all-weather wicket saved the day - it rained all morning. The teams gathered around lunchtime on the off-chance that the game would still be played and, after inspecting the astroturf, the wicket was deemed playable. Fortunately for the fielding side the weather picked up almost instantly and after an hour or two some sunshine was poking through the clouds.
London won the toss and sent Amersham in to bat on the greasy wicket. The Amersham top-order coped with it tremendously, at one point looking undefeatable at 73 for 2, before a collapse sent them back to the pavilion at a very attainable 88 all out.
The London innings was pretty much the reverse - they chose to get the collapse out of the way early on before settling down and scoring some runs. A 50-run partnership saw the match swing in London's favour, and when they reached 87 with one wicket remaining they found themselves in the unfamiliar position of being very close to a victory over their home-county rivals. Cruelly though, Ian Ward took a tricky catch off his own bowling leaving the visitors stranded one run short - another Amersham victory leaving them confident for the next week's football tournament.
Well done to those who braved the weather. It was definitely worth getting a bit damp for.
6-a-side Football, Newlands Park College, 12th August 1999
The annual mixed football tournament, the only company-wide sporting event of the year, took place on a reasonably warm Thursday evening in Buckinghamshire. Teams travelled all the way down from Leeds and Cheltenham especially for the event. Of course the usual suspects from Amersham and London were present with some support, and these, along with a team from clients BAT, made up the two groups of four.
Despite being touted as pre-tournament favourites, Amersham Admin/SSAS failed to live up to expectations and were dumped out in the group stage as London Admin/Life, Cheltenham Admin, Amersham Actuarial and Cheltenham Actuarial progressed to the semi-final stage.
In the semis, London and Amersham caused something of an upset by disposing of their Cheltenham colleagues, giving the crowd the final they all wanted to see. London took the lead with a John Jeffery goal, which was cancelled out by a Rob Guthrie effort soon afterwards. Despite being an end-to-end encounter, great goal-keeping kept the score at 1-1 and the game went to penalties. Unfortunately (for Amersham) London Admin/Life ran out winners 2-1 on penalties, breaking a long poor run in sporting events. Everyone got together afterwards for some drinks and a barbecue. Organisers (especially Paul Latimer) - thanks for a great evening.
Rob Guthrie, September 1999.