Scorecard

Lustleigh v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 14 Jun 2015 at 2.30pm
Match was Drawn

Match report Match report by Andrew Forrester

[Editor's note: Our correspondent has made several references to a certain 'M. Wright'. For the avoidance of confusion, it must be stressed that this refers to Lustleigh stalwart Mike Wright, and bears no relation to Erratic's own Martin Wright ("Martin", throughout). Which should be obvious, really, once you get to the bit about M. Wright coming onto bowl. This did result in the possibly unprecedented instance of M.Wright bowling to M.Wright...]

This was an exceptional match on a number of counts. On a personal note my wife and dog were amongst the cheerful band of spectators – if you were a dog and wished to attend you had to be a golden retriever – thankfully Harvey is and enjoyed in his mild patrician way the company. Again – final personal note – it was remarkable in that my wife told me at the end of the match that it was the only match she had enjoyed since Ian Botham!

Turning to matters on the field of play…… Martin lost the toss and we were in the field on a day that started out muggy and brightened into a beautiful summer’s evening sans breeze. Ben soon was taking advantage of the conditions and produced a superb spell of controlled swing bowling. Their top order – 2 wrights and a wright lookalike – all treated him with respect and were unable to make use of the short leg side boundary. However wickets were hard to come by. Fraser opened from the other end and had to use flight to pose any threat as there was no spin. Wrightlookalike (WLA) began to get the measure of him playing confidently through mid-on. Ben got his reward with S.Wright caught lofting a drive bringing M.Wright to the wicket. He and WLA were finding the boundaries and the total was looking ominous.

Spin was replaced by spin with Bernie coming on to bowl – and using flight and change of pace kept the runs in check and through persistence finally got the wicket of WLA. Chris came on to replace Ben and when Wright M was out the young Turks who followed had difficulty retaining the momentum. Bernie and Chris were applying the screws and heaves went in the air sometimes to sometimes through fielders. Excellent catches were taken in the deep – Krupakar at long on, Chris at deep extra cover and best of all a sub fielder at long off. The final target of 206 looked gettable as the sun came out and the pitch levelled out.

Tea was excellent and yours truly could tuck in as skipper had decided it I had had enough exertions keeping wicket and I had plenty of time to digest several sandwiches and scones before I might be called on to bat.

Dan went out to bat with Duncan who decided the bowling and the short leg side boundary were to his liking. Bringing a rich vein of form into this fixture Duncan hoisted a six over long on in the first over and my favourite shot of the day – a swivel pull rifled into the greenery beyond the leg side boundary. He repeated the feat a few overs later but unfortunately tried the same shot to a new bowler of sharper pace and was bowled. By this time Dan had perished – in two minds between a defensive shot and a push which went straight to gully. Krupakar came to the wicket and before long we realised we were in for a treat. This was a special innings combining power and wristiness.Peter showed little signs of rustiness but was snaffled at slip.

Whilst Krupakar and Chris were at the wicket the ground seemed very small and boundaries came if not at will with pleasing regularity. Their captain replaced one quick bowler with another young quick – far from intimidating our batters the ball flew off the bat with echoing cracks as another gap in the field was found.

The turning point in our innings was the introduction of spin at both ends from M.Wright and ANother. Krupakar’s superb innings came to an end skying a drive. The run rate had stayed at 6 an over and with Martin coming to the wicket to join Chris it still looked doable. Runs came off the slower bowlers but a little more scratchily. Martin’s useful knock came to an end like Krupakar’s not getting to the pitch of a ball. But there were still wickets to come and the captain’s orders were to keep chasing – this was timed match so closing up shop was an option that thankfully was rejected by Martin. Wickets fell – Fraser and myself – chipping in and perishing in the cause as the overs ran down. When we got to the start of the last over we needed 7 to win with Ben on strike. A single brought Chris on strike. Ball 4 was hit firmly to the deep cover fielder – Chris refused the single. Ball 5 Chris went down the wicket and the keeper missed the stumping. Last ball and Chris could not find the winning shot and a brilliant day finished with a draw.

Footnote: Has a family taken responsibility for scoring throughout a match before now? Many thanks to Annie in particular and to her menfolk for the recording of this outstanding occasion.

After the match Peter presented the cup which has been fought over for 33 years to Lustleigh as they are holders of it from last year. And all – men, women and retrievers – retired to the Cleave.

Lustleigh Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
206 (42.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman12.0140313.333.33
Fraser Chave6.004300.007.17
Bernie Wilson13.0271323.675.46
Chris Ferro11.0249316.334.45

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
201		        
Duncan Chave Bowled  30
Daniel Thistlethwaite Caught  0
Peter Colclough Caught  6
Jayakrupakar Nallala Caught  82
Chris Ferro Not Out  37
Martin Wright Caught  17
Fraser Chave Caught  3
Andrew Forrester Stumped  7
Ben Youngman Not Out  1
Bernie Wilson  
N.O. One  

Lustleigh Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.