Scorecard

Harberton v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 06 May 2018 at 1.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 125 runs

Match report Match report by Martin Wright.

What do you call it…? You know, that thing up there…No, not a cloud, I know what clouds look like! Seen quite enough of them to be going on with. No, the shiny thing – SUN! Yes!

And those sticks in the field, and the blokes waving those bits of wood about and then other blokes waving their arms, and… CRICKET! Yes!

Well let’s face it, it had been a long time. You’d have been forgiven for thinking that maybe we’d never get out there again. Or that by the time we did, the ECB would have signed a deal with Sky by which ‘cricket’ meant a contest of 10 balls a side played in full NFL kit by teams with names like Athletico Warwickshire or Somerset Cider Kings, interspersed with a dozen Ad breaks featuring Ray Winstone urging us to bat responsibly. When the fun stops, stop…

So it was something of a surprise to find ourselves up on the heights of Harberton on a shimmering blue spring Sunday, marking out run-ups and remembering long-lost phrases like, “well tried, Peter” and “bad luck, Ben” and “it’s all right, it just means you get another ball”…

Two questions came to mind: a) were we really here, playing actual cricket? And, b) would we remember how to?

Six hours later, and we could confidently respond: a) Yes, and b) Well…up to a point.

Match manager Kirby had pulled off the mighty task (I would say Herculean in a nod to the classicists, but as times it must have felt more Sisyphean, as various potential Erratics succumbed to injuries, work calls and – take the walk of shame, Walding, N. – academic endeavour) of assembling 11 good men and true, drawing them in from far (Cornwall) and wide (London) to make up the numbers.

Someone won the toss, and Skipper Mark Hailwood led us onto the field, some lean and toned after a winter’s training, others a little more…bleary around the edges (photographic evidence cruelly supplied by Kirby). But for a bunch that hadn’t raised a bat in anger for seven months, we were pretty impressive. To start with, at any rate. Ben Youngman and Krupakar opened with intent, bowling nice tight lines and keeping the batsmen honest, and control was retained by the initial spells of Skipper Hailwood and Phil ‘The Power’ Power. They were much helped by an impressive inner ring of Matt Crawford, George Greaves, Chris Ferro, Siva and Krups himself, who regularly turned potential fours into nones.

What none of us were able to do, though, was turn chances into catches. Depending how generous you’re feeling, we fluffed somewhere between two and eight of them (your correspondent missing two, both off the long suffering Ben). And we were made to pay. Harberton’s opening pair, both experienced league cricketers, weren’t about to let us off lightly. After 10 overs, things were nicely balanced on 35 for 0; by the 25th, they’d racked up an impressive 150 partnership.

That said, the wheels never came off the Erratibus completely. We continued to field tidily; George’s maiden spell for the club, accelerating gradually from gentle “just get it down the other end” dobblers to brisk seam-up showed a huge amount of promise, and Siva held the batsmen in check with his nicely flighted deliveries just as they were seeking to cut loose.
George eventually ended the opening stand with a rare Erratics dose of pure athleticism, snatching a searing drive out of the air to end an impressive knock by Fulner (67). Soon after, Ben unleashed a fine, fuller ball to clean up opening partner, McClement, for an excellent 87. But that mammoth opening stand had knocked some of the stuffing out of us, and Harberton’s number 3, Thompson, took toll with some brutal hitting in a brisk fifty.

We were a weary lot trudging off for tea, facing a daunting 260 to win. Your correspondent tried to look on the bright side, repeatedly assuring team mates (and himself) that this “is only six an over, and it’s a fast outfield, so one four and a couple of singles and we can do this…”. Skipper Hailwood must have overheard, as he promptly promoted me from ‘Imperious’ (ha!) No. 4 to Stodgy Opener on the strength of it, accompanied by the more reassuring presence of Ferro.

We started cautiously, but without too many alarms, against some tight (but not too alarming) bowling. I nearly perished to an attempted straight swat which looped hideously off the toe of the bat just out of reach of mid-off, but had better luck with a second try a few balls later. Meanwhile Ferro was looking serenely untroubled, keeping out the good balls and threading the hittable ones through the field, and after 10 overs we were 44 without loss. Then the cricket gods took against us. I slashed an edge to slip which was finally snaffled at the fourth attempt; Siva and Matt both fell soon after without, sad to say, troubling the scorers, and Peter Colclough, after some solid defence, went for five. When Ferro (18) was bowled by one that kept shamefully low, we were five down, and the run rate was rearing towards nine an over.

Krups joined George, and together restored some order to proceedings, defending comfortably and unfurling some fine drives through the covers – one particularly powerful, silky version flew off the face of George’s bat past mid-off: surely the Erratishot of the day.
But the Harberton bowlers were just too tight, too canny, to let us get away, and by the time George perished, we were playing for pride rather than any hope of victory.

Krupakar battled on, attacking anything loose, and, had we a man of the match award, his 38, coupled with 0-18 off five overs, would have landed it in his lap. Phil, Jonathan, Mark and Ben proved that we don’t really have a tail, more an extended spine, by hanging on doggedly for a while: it made me wish we were playing time rather than overs, as it could have made for a wonderfully tense finish.

As it is, we were all out for 134: a defeat by a hefty 125 runs then, but by no means a disgrace, as we’d stayed in the game throughout, even when it was slipping away. “It was always a contest”, commented one Harberton player over restorative beers at the Church House Inn down in the village, and I couldn’t have put it better myself. So I won’t.



Harberton Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 2 wickets
0
259 (4.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman8.0165165.008.13
Jayakrupakar Nallala5.001800.003.60
Mark Hailwood8.015300.006.63
Phil Power8.004400.005.50
George Greaves8.0045145.005.63
Sivaraman Subramanian3.003100.0010.33

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
134		        
Chris Ferro Bowled  18
Martin Wright Caught  24 1 1
Sivaraman Subramanian Bowled  0
Matt Crawford Bowled  0
Peter Colclough Bowled  5
George Greaves Run out  10 2 1
Jayakrupakar Nallala Bowled  38 4
Jonathan Kirby Lbw  3
Phil Power Bowled  7
Mark Hailwood Not Out  2
Ben Youngman Bowled  0

Harberton Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Norris6.0025125.004.17
Eastow5.001300.002.60
Whitlock8.0019119.002.37
Ogelvy6.0026126.004.33
Tobias7.0020120.002.86
Tregellis7.001234.001.71
Thompson1.00515.005.00