Scorecard

Tedburn St Mary v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 11 Oct 2015 at 1.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report Match report by Martin Wright, with interjections by Suki Bristow - a writer of fiction, unlike your correspondent, who is a journalist of unimpeachable integrity. Ahem.

“The price of life is the price of death.”

The gnomic quote on the back of Annie’s latest Vast Tome seemed ominous at the start of this season’s curtain faller.

The second week of Tedburntober, and beneath familiar grey skies – oblivious to the Met Office’s promise that it would ‘brighten up later’ – we huddled on the concrete terrace of the pavilion. Tedburn themselves had every reason to be in confident mood, having despatched us ruthlessly last week.

Would today be any different? Skipper Hailwood lost the toss, and we were invited to field.

Openers Sweet and Leach began with intent; Leach in particular quick to power some fours down the ground, and an early six over long-on set out a marker for what was to be a brisk and at times brutal innings. Youngman, struggling to control the swing of the white ball, was a little less miserly than usual, and Haynes, too, was subject to some fierce hitting. Both bowled some fine, testing deliveries, and were unlucky to see catches go to hand – but then straight to turf.

‘Turf’ in places: quagmire in others. With the going soft-to-soggy, and spikes banned because of the artificial track, it was always bound to be tough for the fielders. Inevitably, perhaps, there were more than a few moments when we were less panthers on grass, more Shrek on Ice. But once the ball went in the air, we became positively generous. It soon became clear that this autumn was, as the poet almost said, the season of misses and mellow fruitlessness. Of 11 clear chances, only three were taken, and the Tedburn strikers made us pay. The price of a life, indeed.

Change bowlers Hailwood and Oughton sought to bring things under control, and again, tested the batsmen with some tight bowling – but in between, the onslaught continued. Sweet by name, sweet by timing, the Tedburn opener flicked three of Gareth’s first six deliveries into the trees over mid-wicket. Smarting, perhaps, Oughton tightened up admirably, pitching the ball fuller, clean bowling Sweet as he aimed another flick, and stifling the runs to the extent that his last five overs went for just 16.

Leach was joined by Barlow, and together they powered on, with Barlow in particular playing some elegantly powerful drives: one glorious straight six, soaring into the field, was the shot of the innings. Seventeen came off the 20th over, and another 17 off the 28th, as Leach, Barlow and, at the close, Allison, tucked in.

Behind the stumps, Forrester was tidy as ever, undemonstratively efficient. In fairness, he fluffed a very tricky legside stumping, but pulled off a sharp run-out from a tricky low throw by Wright, and his quick reactions saved what could have been numerous legside byes.

All of our bowlers tried hard, and on a ‘normal’ track, and with surer hands in the field, would certainly have been both less expensive and more successful. Fraser Chave deceived with some fine, floating deliveries, but was punished brutally when a fraction short or overpitched.
Even Rutherford went for an uncharacteristic 7.5 an over – but he also snaffled three wickets, each of them caught as, belatedly, Erratics discovered the use of their hands.
Ferro took an excellent running catch at deep extra cover to put an end to Leach’s hugely impressive 80; Wright snaffled Coran at point; and, off the final ball of the innings, Youngman did well to hold on to a tricky chance at fine leg to end dismiss Barlow for a gracefully destructive 52.

Tedburn had amassed an intimidating 208 off their 30 overs.

Our President, watching with Annie and Suki, saw it all, and was seen to leave before tea – perhaps to catch the rugby, perhaps in despair at Erratics poised on the edge of doom. What happened next might just have surprised him.

Erratics opened with Chave and Forrester, and they began circumspectly against some tight bowling from Barlow in particular. Fraser looked in good touch, but then feathered one behind and had the grace promptly to walk. “I didn’t hear an edge”, said Wright, watching from the pavilion. “I did”, said Suki and Annie simultaneously, and Wright added ‘hearing’ to the list of faculties rapidly deserting him.

Krupakar joined Forrester, and together they proceeded watchfully, sensing the pace of the track, seeing off the tight opening bowlers. They were 9 off 3; 22 off 5; and then they started to open up: Forrester, swift on anything short, striking a series of power-pulls to the legside boundary, and Krupakar flowing into some of his searing straight and on-drives. Just as we were worrying about the rate, he launched a mighty six over long-on, and we were truly away. 70 off 11; 100 came up in the 15th.

Forrester, more accustomed to cautious opening, looked confident and busy, pushing singles and continuing to find the boundary. Krupakar was increasingly imperious, launching himself at anything full. The field scattered, catches started to go down – one to a rank refusal at deep mid-wicket - and at drinks we were well on track. By the time Forrester was out for a fine 40, brilliantly caught low down by Leach against the run of play, they had added 106 off 16 overs.

A tremendous platform. Wright – who had been pacing nervously along the terrace, worried by Skipper’s quiet intensity as he instructed, “I want you as Imperious No. 4, not Stodgy Opener, today, please” – joined Krupakar, who shortly after fell to a truly brilliant, leaping catch by Barlow on the long-on boundary. He had made an excellent 68, crowning a tremendous season with the bat. It was a potential match-winning innings – as long as the middle order could keep up the momentum.

Ferro joined Wright. From the start Chris was at his silky best, using his feet to cream the ball to the rope, and in between placing it between the fielders with aplomb. His skip down the track is an object lesson in how to do it – quick, decisive, keeping the head still and bringing the bat through at the last minute, so the ball is hit late, and stays hit.

Keen to defend the boundaries, Tedburn failed to cut off the singles, and with the track true enough to pull and cut straight balls off the stumps, we came close to playing tip and run. Dot balls were a rare surprise (only the yorker seemed a true run-starver), and with at least one boundary per over, we kept the rate hovering around an achievable 7 or 8.

For once, your correspondent found his mojo – which must have spent most of the season nestled in his kitbag somewhere between the spare box and the dubious jock strap – and was able to keep the score rotating, even managing a few sixes, though failing in the challenge set earlier to plant a wee cricket ball-shaped kiss on the pristine whiteness of the new Chavemobile.

In between the overs, Ferro was all calm reassurance. Clearly still a little concerned that his partner might lose his mojo again (mojos, being metaphorical, are small and easily mislaid), he issued the instruction: “Just make sure we do it with an over to spare. Remember, we’ve still got Nigel to come”. And added, “So if you can’t hack it, I know a man who can.” Actually he didn’t say that last bit, but it was there in the steely glare. And it was indeed very reassuring to see Rocket Rutherford, padded up on the pavilion terrace, ready to rumble.

Suki interjects: “‘Rocket Rutherford’ was in fact conspicuous by his absence, and as we gnawed our fingernails and waited for the sudden, cruel dismissal (or even runout, dare I say?), we realised that no-one had seen our next batsman for some time. In the end, Annie discovered him asleep in his car, and woke him up in time to see Wright and Ferro take it safely home. If fines were being levied, he might have had to take out a mortgage…”

A couple of times the rate climbed above 8, but was quickly dragged down by a couple of big, six-strewn overs, and suddenly we were down to four needed from the last two. Ferro dealt the coup de grace with a crisp blow over mid-on, and so the Erratinaut rolled over the line with eight balls to spare. Ferro finished on 39* and Wright on 56*; their stand worth 92 from 10 overs.

Even on a flat track, chasing down seven an over from the off is never easy, and it needed a brisk, committed batting performance all round. Huge credit is due to Forrester and Krupakar for their springy foundation, moving up through the gears without undue risks, to leave the middle order with something wholly achievable, and plenty of wickets in hand. A run chase to savour.

Suki adds: “For the record, Annie never even opened her Vast Tome. This was a perfect spectator’s game, apart from the sneaking north wind. A game of two halves: both sides hit some tremendous shots, bowled keenly, and provided us with plenty of comedy moments. From wardrobe malfunctions (Gareth had clearly borrowed his off-the-shoulder sweater from a sumo wrestler, while one of the opposition demonstrated that applying fashion to cricket trousers, which were so low-slung that they fell down every time he attempted to run, might not be such a clever idea), to mudslides and pratfalls in the treacherous outfield, to a pretty even score of missed catches. And a wonderful run-chase that kept us watching all the way through.”

And so…. another strong season ends on a high. And now we can look forward to the wintry delights of Tuesday evening Badminton, and the end-of-year dinner, and next year’s summer culminating in our invasion of France. Not to mention the sheer pleasure of being part of what is surely the warmest and friendliest, and reassuringly least predictable, cricket team in Devon and beyond.

Tedburn St Mary Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
208 (30.0 overs)		     
Sweet b  Oughton 31
Leach ct  Ferro, b. Rutherford 80
Gilbert run out  (Wright/Forrester) 0
Barlow ct  Youngman, b. Rutherford 52
Coran ct  Wright, b. Rutherford 12
Allison Not Out  22
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman5.003600.007.20
Jeff Haynes6.003700.006.17
Gareth Oughton6.0035135.005.83
Mark Hailwood5.003600.007.20
Fraser Chave4.003300.008.25
Nigel Rutherford4.0030310.007.50

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
211		        
Andrew Forrester ct  Leach, b. Cork 40
Fraser Chave ct  Barr, b. Barlow 3
Jayakrupakar Nallala ct  Barlow, b. Leach 68
Martin Wright Not Out  56
Chris Ferro Not Out  39
Nigel Rutherford  
Mark Hailwood  
Jeff Haynes  
Gareth Oughton  
Mark Phillips  
Ben Youngman  

Tedburn St Mary Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.