Scorecard

Yarcombe & Stockland v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 25 Sep 2016 at 1.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 8 runs

Match report Rob Scott reports...

We arrived in the very pretty village of Stockland on a blustery day, following heavy rain the night before with more showers blowing through.

On a pitch that had taken a lot of rain, the Chaves opened the batting. The placid looking pitch turned out to be far trickier than initially expected, with a ball that stopped and bounced accounting for Fraser early in the innings.
The opposition had opened with a quick bowler who exploited the conditions well to account for Jonathon with a fine ball just clipping offstump. This bought Martin to the crease, who assessed the tricky conditions and good bowling and dropped anchor to stabilise the innings with Duncan.

A good partnership was forming with Duncan and Martin, when Duncan glanced a ball off his legs for a single and Martin as alert for a single as ever, was already on his way to the danger end. Seeing Martin already well on his way the fielder gathered and threw the ball to the far end in one motion, a direct hit left Duncan stranded and our innings was wobbling on 3-25.

The outfield had been recently mown but was still thick and lush, with heaps of now very soggy grass cuttings just off the square bogging down the ball. This acted not as a 12th man but also potentially a 13th or 14th man with many fine shots barely making it off the square. The ground did however have very short straight boundaries, which could circumvent all of the challenges presented by the outfield. A fact not missed by Phil as he strode to the wicket. A rapid barrage of shots followed, all taking the aerial route, including a magnificent lofted on drive for six. Unfortunately as things were starting to look brighter a mistimed shot from Phil was well pouched and we were back under pressure.

Paul Mollins was the next man in and after a few balls started to look at ease at the crease. He hammered a pull shot for 4 and decided that cricket was a much easier game than it was two balls ago. Cricket however has a tendency to bring you up short anytime you think you have mastered it and trying to blast the next ball to the boundary Paul was caught in the slips. This bought Matt and Martin together.

Watching our innings, we had decided the outfield was Marldon-esk and deferred to Jonathon's oracle like predictions of scores at Marldon. Jonathon had suggested a par score of 140 and on 62-5 this seemed like a challenging target. What we had not figured into the equation was Marldon's no six rule would not be applied here and Matt had just got to the crease.

Having done the hardwork anchoring the innings Martin started to accelerate hard. Matt having watched Martin play himself in, felt he had done it sufficiently for the two of them and also started to accelerate hard. This was the first time I had seen three balls being searched for simultaneously within one over as Matt dispatched spare ball after spare ball over the boundary.
On an outfield that had yielded so few runs early on, the scoreboard was now struggling to keep up. The opposition needed something special to break this partnership quickly before the game was gone. They promptly retired one of their fielders to make the lunch and on came Jim as their sub fielder.

As he walked onto the pitch, we discussed how long it would be before he was responsible for the next wicket, we didn't have to wait long as that over he took a sharp catch off Martin in the gully. Having taken the wicket Jim was hauled off the pitch, ostensibly to get padded up, but perhaps as we were concerned that he would be responsible for the demise of the rest of innings.

Dan was unlucky to receive a misbehaving ball first up and this left Matt to guide the innings to close, before falling in the penultimate over for a fine 66. Some quick scampered runs and wild swings finished our innings on 184-9. From 70-5 and Jonathon's sage like predictions of 140 being par we felt quite comfortable enjoying an excellent lunch, which took the diplomatic approach of offering cream scones in both Devon and Cornwall style.

As we enjoyed our lunch the final clouds blew through and we were bathed in wonderful late September sunshine. Jeff and your narrator opened the bowling, with Jeff bowling with great control and myself less so, inspite of this the opposition were on a steady 27-0 after 8 overs and things were all going to plan with the run rate climbing. At this point the openers decided to do something about the run rate, giving Jeff the charge and only fine work from Fraser on the boundary stopped it being an expensive over.

Growing in confidence the batsman started to deposit my bowling over the boundaries at an alarming rate and the score shot onto 61 from just three further overs. Matt rung the changes and bought Fraser and Phil into the attack. With Fraser proving hard to get away with his quick spin, Phil was targeted over the short boundaries, with the pitch refusing to misbehave each time the batsman danced down it.

Frasers second over bought a much needed wicket with a beautiful ball which pitched, gripped, turned and feathered the top of the off bail. Our relief that their dangerous batsman was shortlived as the next ball was dispatched for 4, clearly the new guy knew what he was doing.

Having seen his partner fall, the remaining opener took his aggression to new levels and at drinks Y&S were 123-1, having scored 96 in the last 9 overs and only 60 runs left to defend, we were in deep trouble and thoughts were turning to what to do with a sunday afternoon.

Fraser again came to the rescue with a double wicket maiden, with a straight one staying low to claim an lbw and then duncan taking a spiraling top edge - 123-3 and the smallest of glimmers for us.

Matt joined the attack and took a wicket in his second over. The dangerous number opener, with the required run rate now cut to just 3, decided to shut up shop and see off Fraser's spell. Fraser finished on the extremely respectable figures of 15 for 3 against some excellent batsman.

Jim was introduced, his first ball was an excellent ball with on a good line and length and was treated with the respect it deserved. The second ball could only be described as a long hop and the opener took a mighty swing at it, his eyes on distant fields, but only succeeded in splicing the ball into the deep which was taken by Matt with a superb diving catch. With the opener out for 81, the score was 146-5 and the game back on.

Y&S had fielded a few youngsters and while they were (inevitably) technically very competent, they lacked the strength to clear the boundaries. With the outfield still extremely slow, suddenly the run rate was also back into the equation and there was a chance to put pressure on the incoming batsmen.

Jims controlled bowling and the building run rate, inspired a rash charge down the wicket and some sharp work behind the stumps from Paul saw another wicket down 154-6. Two tough catches were missed by Jeff as the batsman tried to hit out but, more tight bowling from Jim taking the 'you miss, I hit', approach in the next over saw another wicket fall a return excellent figures of 9-3. The score was now 159-7 and we were in the box seats but still defending just 25 runs.

Matts last over saw him put a ball down leg side, the batsman swiveled and slammed it to boundary, except it didn't make it to the boundary as Jeff had hurled himself full length to his right, taking the toughest of chances and redeeming himself from earlier.

Discovering that his allocation of overs had been used Matt, called upon a reluctant Duncan. Duncan bowled a maiden before harshly being adjusted to have bowled a wide off the last ball. Revenge for this was extracted from the extra ball, which took the edge of the bat and ricocheted around pads, legs and feet before trickling towards the stumps. The bails wobbled and then almost apologetically one fell off. Having bowled one more over than he was prepared to Duncan, removed himself from the attack leaving Y&S on 161-9.

Dan was bought on and bowled 4 dot balls, before his radar went a little wobbly, but recomposed himself to deliver two more dot balls and close out the game for a narrow victory.

From being in deep trouble at 62-5, we recovered to 184, before falling back into deep trouble with Y&S at 123-1, to then recover again taking 8 wickets for 50 runs and an excellent victory, reminding us all why we enjoy cricket so much.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
12w 1b 1lb 
for 9 wickets
14
183		        
Duncan Chave Run out  14 2 1
Fraser Chave Caught  1
Jonathan Kirby Bowled  2
Martin Wright Caught  47 8 1
Phil Power Caught  17 2 1
Paul Molins Caught  6 1 1
Matt Cook Bowled  66 5 6 1
Daniel Thistlethwaite Caught  0
Rob Scott Not Out  15 1 1
Jim Thomson Caught  0
Jeff Haynes Not Out  1 1

Yarcombe & Stockland Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Yarcombe & Stockland Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 18w 2b  
for 9 wickets
21
175 (35.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Rob Scott6.003600.006.00
Jeff Haynes5.012600.005.20
Fraser Chave7.021535.002.14
Phil Power3.005300.0017.67
Matt Cook7.0025212.503.57
Jim Thomson5.01933.001.80
Daniel Thistlethwaite1.00800.008.00
Duncan Chave1.00111.001.00