Scorecard

Teign Valley v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Mon 26 Aug 2013 at 11am
Match was Drawn

Match report Teign Valley 75 for 8 (20 overs) and 99 for 8
Erratics 98 for 7 (20 overs) and 208 for 4 (declared)

Peter Thompson reports first

It was already hot when Act One of the annual four-act drama opened shortly after 11 o’clock – slightly too early for Prakash, who may have confused the Ganges Delta and the Hooghly River with Teign Valley and the River Teign (easily done) and far too early for Penny Price, who works on the Plymouth side of the International Date Line. As a result, our team for the twenty-over game was selected according to times of arrival. Duncan Chave conducted his six bowlers like a maestro: first violin, Gareth Oughton (penetrative glissando); second violin, Mark Hailwood (some sophisticated pizzicato); French horn (you know how unpredictable they are), Jeff Haynes; oboe (not as straightforward as it looks), Duncan himself; tanpura (it’s all in the fingers, once you’ve taken account of the neck), Prakash; bagpipes (pibrochs and other formal variations), Chris Ferro. The orchestral achievement was to hold Teign Valley to less than four per over, despite a late assault on the bagpipes by young Robert Dunn. The wickets, which punctuated the score like key-shifts, were shared between the instruments. We held most of our catches, and there was only one moment of improvised comedy. This came when one of the Teign Valley batsmen lofted a ball just to the left of Martin Wright at mid-on. From behind the wicket, it looked as if Martin clutched at it like Macbeth at the chimera of his murderous dagger, and Dan Thistlethwaite, backing up from mid-off with his unique enthusiasm, executed a superfluous pratfall in order to distract our attention, like Chico Marx covering up for one of Groucho’s faux pas.

For most of our innings, we, too, found it hard to score, although Martin Weiler did some useful rehearsal for his starring role in Act Three. Wickets fell regularly enough for me to feel it would be improvident, despite my proper positioning at number eleven in the batting order, to remove my boots. We owed our lead, and a scoring rate of nearly five per over, to a late rally from Duncan Chave (one memorable towering six which forced the sunbathing woman in the neighbouring camp-site to re-assemble her bra in a hurry) and Chris Ferro (performing for the eighth time in ten days on his concert tour of the south-west). Gradually before lunch and relentlessly after it, the tribe of Parkers assembled. Bill Parker in taciturn contemplation, that looping left arm still twitching, and Dotto with her detached retinue: Tamsin’s three and then Natalie’s four. It took me back to this fixture in, say, 1980, when the four Parker children (both the girls here again) and the four Thomson children (both the girls here again) frolicked as inventively as their own kids were frolicking now. The sun shone on while Oscar wove Scooby the whole circuit of the cricket ground under hypnosis from his football, cows munched over the fence and that magical hill of trees looked darkly down at the sprinkle of white figures disporting themselves on the lighter green below. On a day like this, in a place like this, no wonder Helen Ballantyne discovered she was a nun.

Jeff Haynes continues

Returning from lunch at the Manor House Inn, Duncan decided to press home the advantage gained in the pre-lunch session. With a useful lead of 23 runs already banked, he chose to keep the Teign Valley players out in the field, during the warmest part of the day (and it was really warm!). The opening partnership of Martin Weiler and Prakash Kripakaran continued the 5-an-over scoring rate of the first innings with Weiler dominating, hitting the ball sweetly in all directions, and employing the late cut to perfection. Kripakaran was just getting into his stride, beautifully timing a leg glance for four when, on 16, he was unlucky to be given out ‘caught behind’, bringing an opening partnership of 66 to a close. Dan Thistlethwaite’s camera microphone, doubling up as a snickometer, clearly picked up the sound of the ball brushing Kripakaran’s sleeve as it sailed past to the keeper. Mark Hailwood’s umpiring ‘slip’ led to his immediate withdrawal, to be replaced by Gareth Oughton who himself provided a moment of excitement for any I-Spy enthusiast who will have scored 25 points for spotting him signal a wide ball!

Martin Wright, for once, went cheaply, bringing Chris Ferro to the crease. Another large partnership ensued with Weiler continuing to score freely, and Ferro typically scampering runs off virtually every ball. His fresh legs were outrunning the by now rather tired legs of Weiler by about two-to-one … I swear that on one occasion Ferro completed his second run before Weiler had completed his first. Weiler’s delightful innings eventually closed with him on a superb personal best of 87. His departure was the cue for Ferro to open up, having played second fiddle up to now, and to cruise to his own half-century. Jonathan Kirby chipped in with 15, Thistlethwaite made 7 not out, and Ferro remained 55 not out when Chave called the Erratics in for an early tea. A total of 208-4 (off just 36 overs) gave the Erratics a commanding lead of 231 and the extra 15 minutes afforded by the early declaration maximised the Erratics’ chances of bowling out the Teign Valley side.

A generous tea, for players and supporters, was hugely appreciated by all. But would the extra helpings of cake provide the Erratics with an energy boost, or weigh them down in the field?

Chave chose the begin with Oughton and Haynes, describing them, on the way out to the square, as a combination of ‘pace and guile’ … Haynes joked that he hoped it wouldn’t be ‘grace and bile’, but he wasn’t far out. Oughton bowled a nine over spell (with much grace), taking out one of the openers and conceding only 20 runs. However, Haynes’ pre-lunch guile deserted him! He lasted just five overs, and despite a hard chance to Chave at slip, he failed to ‘buy’ a wicket … and gave Teign Valley enough runs to make them think they might yet be in with a chance, especially with Mason carving out 40.

Chave brought himself on and started to pin the batsmen down from one end and then, as wickets began to fall, he brought on “Harberton” Hailwood to tie down the other end. Several catches went smartly to hand, the most spectacular being a blinder hit through the covers, but taken out of the air by Thistlethwaite on the run from mid off. Chave’s 3 for 22 might have been 4 had Haynes held on to a relatively easy lobbed catch, (at either his first or second attempt!). Now playing for the draw, Teign Valley began to look safe with the last 20 overs dwindling away. However, a clinical ‘run out’ throw from Ferro, followed the next ball by a simple slip catch, to give Hailwood excellent figures of 4 for 18, left a tense few overs for Teign Valley to survive. But survive they did, ending on 99-8, still 132 runs short. The Erratics’ fielding throughout the day had been impressively good, but they were themselves left just two wickets short of victory. I fear that Trevor (“catches win matches”) Bailey would have reflected upon the two missed opportunities which could have made the difference.

This draw, following on from a rained-off fixture in 2012, must mean, I guess, that the Stephen Fisher Trophy stays with Teign Valley, as they were winners in 2011, but the Erratics have given good notice that they intend to recapture it at the next opportunity.

With victories in every previous match this August, (which I put down almost entirely to the skill of the guest selector); and some pretty good all-round performances by the Erratics with the bat, with the ball, and in the field; the Tour Party should leave for Gloucestershire full of confidence.

Team: D Chave (capt), C Ferro, M Hailwood, J Haynes, J Kirby, P Kripakaran, G Oughton, P Price, D Thistlethwaite, P Thomson, M Weiler, M Wright. Umpire: Jan Heaton (thanks!)

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting - 1st innings
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
98		        
Martin Wright Bowled  7
Martin Weiler Bowled  18
Jonathan Kirby Bowled  1
Daniel Thistlethwaite ct & b. 3
Duncan Chave Not Out  32
Mark Hailwood Bowled  2
Prakash Kripakaran Caught  2
Chris Ferro Caught  20
Jeff Haynes  
Gareth Oughton  
Peter Thomson  

Teign Valley Bowling - 1st innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Teign Valley Batting - 1st innings
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
75 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling - 1st innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Gareth Oughton4.0021121.005.25
Mark Hailwood4.0112112.003.00
Jeff Haynes4.01623.001.50
Duncan Chave4.0016116.004.00
Prakash Kripakaran2.0011111.005.50
Chris Ferro2.00723.503.50
Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting - 2nd innings
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
208		        
Prakash Kripakaran Caught  16
Martin Weiler Bowled  87
Martin Wright Caught  3
Chris Ferro Not Out  55
Jonathan Kirby Caught  15
Daniel Thistlethwaite Not Out  7
Duncan Chave  
Mark Hailwood  
Jeff Haynes  
Gareth Oughton  
Penny Price  

Teign Valley Bowling - 2nd innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Teign Valley Batting - 2nd innings
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
99 (36.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling - 2nd innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Gareth Oughton9.0120120.002.22
Jeff Haynes5.003600.007.20
Duncan Chave11.052237.332.00
Mark Hailwood11.041844.501.64