Scorecard

Chulmleigh v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 09 Jul 2006 at 2pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 7 wickets

Match report by Captain Chris Cook

After the game, cosily ensconced in the cobbled heart of Chulmleigh, post-mortem had to vie with World Cup Final for erratic attention. Your correspondent oscillated betwixt the two delights on offer & was dismayed to discover that each time he returned to the non-footballers, his name was being taken in vain.

One might have expected as much. I'd recently managed to let a fine total of 250 slip through the fingers at Clyst St George & it seemed incredible that so shortly afterwards a similar opportunity would present itself.

A few points in the captain's defence: having won the toss, the decision to bat was forced upon him due to there being only 7 Erratics present, the remainder stacked in the hills of North Devon awaiting landing clearance. Those that were present expressed a dislike of the limited overs format & so friendly terms were diplomatically negotiated - the proposed overs match would, as it turned out, have yielded a very different result. One of the late arrivals was Toby - a gorgeous honey coloured spaniel (from Spain, appropriately). According to his mistress Antonia, he is much better trained than James, a fact later confirmed by the bowling statistics.


Electing to bat did not go down well with Sid Thomson, who had to face some spiteful bounce, and was forced to sway out of the way of a number of fast risers before swishing in frustration at a straight one. Nick Birbeck went in to keep the pace at bay, which he achieved admirably - his nine runs a poor return on a gutsy innings. By this time Jonathan Kirby had talked his way out of going in number four - something to do with Taiko - so Cook C joined a belligerent Matt & immediately made hay by taking most of the easy bowling whilst Matt ducked dived and drove at the speed merchant. Once he'd seen him off - and passed his half century - there was some between-over family planning - the idea was for the boy to reach his 100 rapidly & then retire to nurse a bothersome sprained wrist. Inevitably, he proceeded to edge the next ball from their useful young left-arm spinner to second slip & now Kirby bounces Tigger-like to the crease wielding his new bat like a mere drumstick (not that kind Sam). After a few empty swishes umpire Pearson comments - in neighbourly fashion - on how ropey Jonathan is looking, whereupon the next ball flies high and handsome into the meadow. There follows a breezy passage of play & when the taikornado is caught for 26 only a few runs are needed from Carpenter to complete the 200, which he manages before holing out as tea approaches, leaving the captain unbeaten on 70 odd.

Tea belonged to the higher echelons of teadom. Only the taste of dog despoiled it - Toby passing his nose over Birbeck's teacup and thus contaminating it (according to Nick) with distemper. Some wondered if there might be oblique references to the recently resolved stump-exhumation incident.

Burrows opened the bowling & for a brief and sunny instant, the Erratics look like a mean cricket machine, an early ripsnorter taking their captain Dave's edge & being snaffled by Cook C in slip. Things then changed, for no apparent reason - let's call it dog flu - although the wicket had certainly calmed significantly. John Pearson, Orpen and Hinds all bowled with considerable guile and movement, beating the bat on numerous occasions, but only Simon managed a breakthrough, which only brought another talented youth to the crease. Many of his shots were aerial, but fell wide or short of our wide and short fielders. It became clear to the captain that another St George moment was looming, and thus he brought McRae and himself on to attempt to staunch the flow of runs (in the post-mortem, the more aggressive tactic of bowling Matt was posited). Both put in a tight spell, but the odd four was still being taken & even after your correspondent removed one half of the hundred partnership, things looked tight. Burrows was brought back in a final throw of the cosmic dice, but the cosmos responded with customary hostility, and a sequence of lofted straight drives produced 16 from the over. Can James use Toby's passport, one wondered? A straight six off my bowling completed the humiliation. Where are we off to James?

The loss was perhaps softened by the discovery that, despite batting first, we had in fact bowled three more overs than the opposition. Matt Cook was the major culprit in this, as searching for his six hits in the next field had used up quite a bit of our allocated time.

Back in The Globe, under similar pressures to Yours Truly, Zinedine was busy orchestrating his own nemesis. Toby spread continental distemper over the discussion, egged on by our own caustic spectator, until a scruffy and hairy white terrier responding to the name of 'Steve' took a liking to the Erratics' joie de vivre. The beleaguered captain planted his tail firmly between his legs and went back to the penalty shoot-out.


Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 11b 4lb 
for 5 wickets
16
201		        
Sid Thomson Bowled  1
Matt Cook Caught  77
Nick Birbeck Bowled  9
Chris Cook Not Out  70
Jonathan Kirby Caught  26
Brian Carpenter Caught  2
Andrew McRae  
Simon Orpen  
Peter Hinds  
John Pearson  
James Burrows  

Chulmleigh Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Chulmleigh Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 3w 4b 1lb 
for 3 wickets
9
202 (38.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Burrows8.0043143.005.37
John Pearson5.012700.005.40
Simon Orpen7.0040140.005.71
Peter Hinds7.003300.004.71
Chris Cook7.0129129.004.14
Andrew McRae4.002800.007.00