Crediton Inn v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 02 Aug 2012 at 6.00 pm

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Crediton Inn v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 02 Aug 2012 at 6.00 pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 9 wickets

Match report Match Report by Chris Ferro:

The parting advice from one of my former professors, a very eminent statistician still teaching well into his eighties, was ‘read less, think more’. Well-aimed advice at the time, and it came to mind again when I heard that Jeff Haynes had prepared for his first match as Erratics captain by reading Mike Brearley’s ‘The Art of Captaincy’.
Brearley has some useful insights, but would Jeff learn how to fashion victory in a twenty-over match against nine men from Crediton Inn, on an artificial pitch where the sun sets directly behind the wicket, with a team boasting members with an age range of almost fifty years, and when his extra-cover fielder insists on wearing a thick, brown jumper to keep off the persistent rain? Whatever the seat of his inspiration, Jeff took
to leadership well and hit on a formula that produced a comfortable nine-wicket win for the Erratics in a match that was suffused with the Olympic spirit in more ways than one.

Pre-match talk was of cakes. Dominic and I compared notes on the five home-made cakes on offer at Denbury last Sunday, while Gareth and Martin wondered what they might be asked to produce for the Mystics at the weekend. Weiler: ‘Give me something simple will you – I won’t have much time on Saturday morning.’ Kirby: ‘Baked Alaska then?’ Meanwhile, Jeff was conferring with his opposite number and gearing up for his first official duty at the toss. I don’t know if Jeff called correctly, but we were to field first and this precipitated Jeff’s most notable innovation of the day: a team huddle. I’m afraid that I missed any motivating words that Jeff had prepared as I was still discussing cakes with Dominic, but I did arrive in time to be introduced to our debutante, Sophie, young teenage daughter of Guy (‘at least, we think I’m the father’) Clarke. The real meaning of Guy’s remark became apparent with the excellence of Sophie’s ground fielding throughout the Crediton Inn innings.

The Crediton openers chanced their arms against some good swing bowling from Gareth and Harry, who did well to counter the difficult conditions brought about by the rain. Both passed the bat repeatedly. Eventually, one skied drive off Harry skewed to Ed at extra cover and he held on to a wet, spinning ball after a brief display of juggling. Harry’s second wicket came clean bowled with the last ball of his spell. Dominic and Ed
kept a lid on the run rate in the middle overs, Paul did some excellent work in the field, and then Jeff and I completed the innings with a flurry of wickets, mostly bowled, and the innings ended at 105 for 6.

What then of the Olympic spirit? The match was sprinkled with plenty of mirthful exchanges within and between the teams. One incident stands out in the memory. A Crediton batsman, whose name I forget but who looks a bit like an elongated version of Daniel Thistlethwaite, was particularly keen on running quick singles. To this end, he would often advance almost half way up the pitch before making up his mind whether or not to call his partner through. On one such occasion, Guy, wise to the tactic, fielded the ball at mid-on and lobbed it shot-put style at the wickets. The grinning batsman hopped, skipped and jumped back into his ground just before the ball dislodge a bail. But then, the ball having deflected no more than ten yards past Jonathan behind the stumps, the batsman advanced once more up the pitch, a teasing gesture that kindled
smiles all round.

Erratics also tried their hands at a few Olympic sports while they were in the field. There was the Clarke relay, where Sophie chased a well-struck ball to the boundary and flicked it back to her father who returned it to the middle, and there were several entries in the diving competition. Ed showed the most elegance and control in his visits to the turf, Jonathan made a half-hearted attempt at something similar, but the clear winner was Gareth who executed the high-tariff dive known as ‘chase the ball to the boundary but just as you get to the rope let both feet go from under you and land heavily on your bottom’. A perfect 10.

At the interval, two arrivals: Ken Horne and the sun. One of these was welcomed with pleasure, the other with dismay and foreboding. Ken it was who occasioned the warm greetings and he agreed to stand as umpire in our innings. The sun, however, was a problem. Those Erratics who played this fixture last year will remember unfondly the farcical situation brought about by the then Crediton Inn captain’s refusal to bowl from
only one end, which meant that our batsmen had to spot deliveries coming out of a glaring sun. Credit to Crediton for relenting this year and helping the match to continue in good spirits. Of course, bowling into the sun is difficult for the bowlers, and return catches have the potential to cause injury, so one wonders if there are alternative
mitigating solutions to misaligned pitches. Would sight-screens help? Should players and umpires be issued with sunglasses? Answers on a postcard to Newton St Cyres Cricket Club and the Coaver Club.

Highlights of our innings included a couple of lofted drives for four from Martin, some athletic fielding from Sophie and Harry in their roles of substitute fielders for Crediton, and then an unbroken stand of over eighty between Jonathan and me with much helter-skelter running to seal the win. In the Crediton Inn after the match, we feasted on egg
sandwiches and roast potatoes, Paul reminisced with the elongated Daniel Thistlethwaite about one-time Erratic Geoff Fox (who is still known in these parts amongst either the table-tennis playing fraternity or the theatrical community, I forget which), and Jeff awarded the second of his gold medals to Ed for his will-he-won’t-he catch that started us on our way to victory over a very friendly and sporting Crediton side.

Crediton Inn Batting

Player name		Runs
extras TOTAL :	4nb 9w 5b for 6 wickets	18 105 (20.0 overs)
Mike	ct H Molins	11
Dean	b H Molins	9
Nial	b C Ferro	33
Ben	Run out	0
Pete	b C Ferro	17
Chris	Not Out	16
Jack	b C Ferro	2
Tom	Not Out	2
Julian

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Gareth Oughton	3.0	9	0	0.00	3.00
Harry Molins	3.0	26	2	13.00	8.67
Dominic Prosser	3.0	22	0	0.00	7.33
Ed Keedwell	3.0	20	0	0.00	6.67
Chris Ferro	4.0	11	3	3.67	2.75
Jeff Haynes	4.0	13	0	0.00	3.25

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting

Player Name		R	B	4s	SR	Catches
extras TOTAL :	4w 3b 3lb for 1 wickets	10 109
Chris Ferro	Not Out	55	64	4	85.94
Martin Weiler	ct Dommett	18	15	1	120.0
Jonathan Kirby	Not Out	26	32		81.25
Ed Keedwell						1
Dominic Prosser
Jeff Haynes
Gareth Oughton
Harry Molins
Paul Molins
Guy Clarke
Sophie Florides

Crediton Inn Bowling

Player name	Overs	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Tom	4.0	17	0	0.00	4.25
Dommett	4.0	12	1	12.00	3.00
Dean	3.0	20	0	0.00	6.67
Julian	3.0	19	0	0.00	6.33
Forest	2.3	17	0	0.00	6.80
Mike	2.0	12	0	0.00	6.00

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