Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Mystics and Magicians on Sun 03 Aug 2008 at Unknown

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Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Mystics and Magicians on Sun 03 Aug 2008 at Unknown
Match was Tied

Match report Erratics 137 for 9 declared (40 Overs) (C.Ferro 57)

Mystics and Magicians 137 (39.4.Overs) (J.Burrows 5-42)

Match Tied

(Scorebook pages missing)

This was the 24th staging of this fixture, and probably the best of all the games. After a biblically awful week of weather in Cornwall, the Mystics were short of cricket. Jim Thomson (visiting captain and author of this report) persuaded Chris Ferro (home captain and to my mind man of the match) to allow the Mystics to add super-sub Fraser Chave to the team. And anyway it seemed fair that the Mystics should have 12, since the Erratics also appeared to have an extra man - who was this James Griffiths that looked so like Jonathan Davies?

Ferro won the toss and walked out to bat with Andrew McRae (for a man who opened the batting and the bowling, Andrew was strangely anonymous ... when he fielded a ball on the fine-leg boundary in the 37th over, it came as a surprise that he was still at the ground).

The Mystics new ball was taken by the returning Oliver Gardiner and the stalwart Martin Sharland. Gardiner began with a rash of wides, but the ball was definitely swinging. He beat Ferro outside off stump, and then banana-ed one around McRae's narrow back to clip the leg stump. Jonathan Davies was more conventionally bowled by a full delivery, and the Erratics were 32 for two. Jim Thomson and Duncan Chave came into the attack, and Martin Wright helped his captain to put on 40 for the third wicket at about four an over. Then Wright overbalanced trying to flick a leg-side delivery from Chave through midwicket. He looked appalled as Sid Thomson removed the bails: surely leg-side stumpings aren't allowed at this level of cricket, especially ones so calmly and competently carried out.

A seven-run cameo marked Jonathan Kirby's return to Erratics cricket after heart surgery. 80 for four quickly became 90 for six, as Nick Healey persuaded Oliver Kirby and then, crucially, Chris Ferro to hit catches. The latter was an excellently judged running catch at deep midwicket, comfortably taken by Duncan Chave despite a half step towards the boundary. Ferro's 57 was to be the game's top score, almost double the second highest.

The game had changed. Fraser Chave and Chris Squire were bowling to Matt Turner and Ed Keedwell. The scoring-rate slowed and a couple of half chances were missed as the frustrated batsmen attempted to hit out. Keedwell only really middled two of his swings: and hit both in the air to Duncan. The second of these, off Fraser, was held, and last year's horror moment (when Duncan dropped John Pearson off his son) wasn't repeated. Turner biffed a few full tosses for four before missing a straight ball from Squire. 123 for eight. John Pearson came in bristling with intent and quickly ran out James Burrows (an excellent pick-up and throw by Duncan Chave ... who else?). Three fours later, the Erratics declared at 137 for nine off 40 overs.

After a lavish and tasty tea, Burrows and McRae took the still-hard old ball, with Chris Healey and Martin Sharland opening the Mystics innings. Burrows got the occasional ball to bounce, and Healey called for his helmet after he had to duck one particularly lively delivery. Another short ball popped at Sharland, and he was only able to lob his attempted pull to Ferro at midwicket. Healey played well off the back foot and, with Adrian Borley, took the score almost fifty before Burrows swung a full one past an attempted drive. Borley was joined by Squire, and at 65 for two the Mystics were looking most of the way home. Squire was particularly unforgiving on anything short, legside and rubbish from Pearson, and Borley was batting watchfully. Nine overs later, however, it was 91 for seven, and the pendulum hadn't so much swung as fallen out of the clock and rolled down the stairs and out of the front door before being picked up by a passing rag-and-bone man. Squire and then Borley had shaped inelegantly at straight balls from Burrows (who took the first four wickets to fall); Matravers had suffered the indignity of letting a stray middle-stump delivery from Pearson beat his bat; after six gallant overs, Fraser Chave had popped up a catch to give Keedwell his revenge; and Nick Healey, the Mystics bowling hero, had lifted an off drive to Burrows (one of those third-umpire replays might have cast doubt on this unorthodox elbow-to-gut catch, but the on-field umpire - me - was happy that it was cleanly taken). Luckily for the Mystics and for the game of cricket, Duncan Chave is an above-average number nine, and a good man for a crisis. He and Sid Thomson managed to compile a near-flawless partnership in testing conditions. The fielding was enthusiastic (in particular, Matt Turner pulled off a couple of excellent stops at extra cover), the bowling accurate (Davies bowled a good spell, perhaps egged on in a Nel-like way by his alter ego, James Griffiths) and the pitch uncertain (it held up well considering the amount of rain that had fallen on it, but several balls did stop and pop, and a few kept low). The eighth wicket partnership of 42 was a Chairman's Cup record for that wicket, and during it Sid and Duncan passed 800 runs together becoming in the process the Mystics' most prolific partnership.

The Mystics needed only five to win with four of the last 20 overs left, and then Sid failed to control a pull shot. He was a caught at midwicket by a jubilant (and soon to be despondent) Wright. The next over saw two runs and the priceless wicket of Chave. Burrows had his fifth wicket, and Sean Webb joined Oliver Gardiner to try to eke three runs off the last three overs. No thought of a draw entered Gardiner's head, and "ow it hurts" seemed to be the only thought that entered Webb's. Off the last ball of Ferro's penultimate over, Gardiner finally pierced the in-field and a single was scampered. Off the second ball of the next over, Burrows's last, Gardiner aimed a pull. Like three others that day, he mistimed the shot and saw the ball loop gently towards midwicket. Again the gods smiled on the Mystics and on the game of cricket as Martin Wright misjudged the flight of the ball: it dropped behind him and ran far enough away for the batsmen to run a single and level the scores. Webb dead-batted the rest of the over, and Burrows finished with the excellent figures of five for 42 off a dozen tireless overs. The last over, the fortieth of the innings, started: Ferro to Gardiner, who tried all he could to scrape the ball away for the winning single. Behind the stumps, Peter Thomson issued the Nelsonesque call to arms, "Whichever of you gives away a single will be shot." No one was sure if he was joking, but everyone (except perhaps Jonathan Davies and James Griffiths) moved a couple of places closer. The fourth ball was the match. Gardiner aimed a drive at a wide ball that wasn't quite full enough for the shot. It stopped, popped and looped, hanging agonisingly in the air just long enough for the athletic Ferro to sprint in and complete a caught and bowled.

A tie. A bloody marvellous fantastic tie. As if to taunt the rain-bruised Mystics, a match had been played to remind us all why we love friendly cricket so much; why we willingly give up our weekends, our summers and our marriages for this all-consuming game. Like the ready-to-reform gambler whose one last punt romps home at 100-1 in the 2:30 at Newton Abbot, our addiction had been refreshed. Another weekend, another tour, another season...

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting

Player Name		Runs	Ct
extras TOTAL :	for 9 wickets	0 137
Chris Ferro	Caught	57	1
Andrew McRae	Bowled	5
Jonathan Davies	Bowled	2
Martin Wright	Stumped	10	1
Jonathan Kirby	Bowled	7	1
Oliver Kirby	Caught	1
Matt Turner	Bowled	20
Ed Keedwell	Caught	6
John Pearson	Not Out	13
James Burrows	Run out	1	1
Peter Thomson	Not Out	0	1

Mystics and Magicians Bowling

Player name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
No records to display.

Mystics and Magicians Batting

Player name		R
extras TOTAL :	for 10 wickets	0 137 (39.4 overs)

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Andrew McRae	4.0	0	14	0	0.00	3.50
John Pearson	7.0	0	25	1	25.00	3.57
Chris Ferro	6.4	1	12	2	6.00	1.80
James Burrows	12.0	1	42	5	8.40	3.50
Ed Keedwell	2.0	0	8	2	4.00	4.00
Jonathan Davies	8.0	0	26	0	0.00	3.25

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