Scorecard

All Saints v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 26 Sep 2010 at 13.00
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 41 runs

Match report Erratics 149 - 8

All Saints 108 all out


Match Report: Suki Bristow M.A.

Step over the alphabet snake in the doorway, and you are confronted with the sign on the bar: ‘Wash hands after handling the guinea-pigs, please!’ If there was any handling of guinea-pigs on Sunday, it went on behind closed doors. Welcome to All Saints kindergarten, aka cricket club pavilion; a cosy partnership with the bar at one end and heaps of toys at the other. Two not entirely separate worlds, judging by the home team’s method of deciding their batting order. Names out of a hat, despite the fact that – so they said – they really did want to win. It’s playing the game that counts, of course. They teach you that at playgroup.

We won the toss and Ferro elected to bat first. It looked like high summer outside; trees in almost full leaf, swallows skimming the outfield, bright sunshine…and a withering north wind. But they played as though it were 30 degrees out there, languidly, conservatively, as though they had all the time in the world. Andrew Mcrae (29) and Martin Wright (31) put on 61 for the first wicket; they just did it very slowly. Out on the edge, conversation veered off into strange alleyways…

‘I can’t get cricket trousers to fit me. They’re not cut right.’

‘Mine always split at the crotch, because I slide around too much.’

‘You could wear jodhpurs; they don’t have seams underneath.’

‘That’s an idea! I might get some jodhpurs for the next game.’

‘Somehow I think your street cred might suffer a bit…’

‘Surely not. We’re a supportive bunch, we never give each other grief about that sort of thing.

At 41, in the 14th over, Martin suddenly woke up and scored a boundary, but then we all went back to sleep. There were sporadic moments of excitement –

Question: Which major football team has none of the letters in ‘mackerel’ in its name?

Answer: Ask someone who was there…

But as the cold gripped harder and the action didn’t get any more active, conversation languished. McRae and Wright departed, and pulses quickened in anticipation of a more robust approach. But no-one seemed able to score freely on what Wright assured me, with more than a touch of self-justification, was a “sluggish wicket” (whatever that means). Even Ferro’s mathematical bat let him down, leaving his score a very round number indeed. Matt (36) played the most lively innings, but Skipper’s target score kept inching downward, from 200 to 180 to 150, finally coming to rest at 149 for 7, with a last-ditch boundary from James Burrows. Victory looked certain, but not for us.

Cricket, however, is a game of two halves. They couldn’t get off the mark any more than we had, and when Burrows and Webb, warmed by hot tea and sandwiches, bowled two batsmen for 0 in quick succession, things began to look up. After 20 overs they had barely scraped 40, making McRae and Wright’s effort look positively skittish by comparison. The pivotal moment came when Penny took a superb stinging catch off Ferro to dismiss the dangerous Seward at 24, and from then on the game was ours. By the time their usual openers took the field at 10 and 11, it was pretty much all over, with some fiery bowling and zippy fielding to sweeten the victory.

But All Saints didn’t seem to mind too much, after all, and there was good cheer and chat before we headed off into the deepening shadows. Maybe next year they could arrange the lineup from tallest to shortest, or according to the order of their birthdays? We look forward to it.

Erratics: 149-7 (Cook 36, Wright 31, Mcrae 29)

All Saints 108 all out (Webb 3-12, Burrows 3-13, Bibby 3-28, Ferro 1-3)

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 10w 3b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
16
149		        
Andrew McRae Bowled  29
Martin Wright Caught  31
Sid Thomson Bowled  8
Matt Cook Caught  36
Martin Weiler Caught  13
Chris Ferro Bowled  0
Sean Webb Bowled  1
Mark Phillips Caught  5
James Burrows Not Out  11
A.N. Other2 Not Out  1
Penny Price  

All Saints Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

All Saints Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
11nb 6w 3b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
23
108 (33.1 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Burrows6.011334.332.17
Sean Webb7.111234.001.67
Matt Cook5.012300.004.60
Chris Ferro5.03313.000.60
Andrew McRae4.002200.005.50
A.N. Other26.002839.334.67