Scorecard

Sophie's XI v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Fri 26 Jul 2019 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 12 Runs

Match report Sophie's XI. Who is Sophie, Sophie Florides? Most Erratics will know that Sophie is Guy Clarke's daughter, but some may not know either Sophie or Guy Clarke. Let me quote our club president, Peter Thomson, from his "Erratic Cricket Prints":

"I taught Guy Clarke for three years without finding out that he played cricket - and played it well... Both his skill level and taciturnity took me by surprise. He can bat in contrasting styles, aggressive or defensive according to the state of the game... and his brisk medium-paced seamers were reliable assets..."
There's more, but you'll need to buy a copy from Peter, or borrow from another Erratic if you want to read it. I will simply add that I met Guy when I joined the Erratics in 1999, and have first-hand experience of the high quality of his cricket. If only I could bat or bowl like him!

And so to Sophie:
"What Guy can't do right now, his daughter makes up for. Sophie Florides was voted Under Fifteens Cricketer of the Year 2015 in Devon. She bowls at much the same pace as Guy in his prime, and no less accurately. Not unlike Anna Shrubsole in her approach to the wicket and delivery stride, Sophie may well be heading for representative honours... It's a lovely thing to see Guy's delight in his daughter's prowess. She's been spotted by the Clyst St George scouting team that developed the England Under 19 player, Ben Green. That may be a better option for her than the Erratics in the cut-throat world of competitive cricket."

Peter was right. Sophie has continued to develop as a cricketer with Clyst St George, Devon, and she also joined the England party who went to South Africa a year ago. No surprise, then, that "Sophie's XI" were a somewhat formidable team.

This cricket match was a fund-raiser for the Exeter Leukaemia Fund (ELF), with which Guy and his family have developed a close association over the last eighteen months or so. It was delightfully well-attended, Chris Ferro telling me that he had never seen so many cars parked in the Clyst St George field. And it proved to be quite a game of cricket too...

Our T20 experiences tend to range from the somewhat haphazard to brutal slog-fests. I can't remember one which was marked by the sheer quality of the cricket played here. That Chris Ferro and Fraser Chave were sent out to opening the batting was a gesture of respect for the quality of the bowling of Sophie's XI, quality confirmed by Fraser's quick return to the proverbial hutch. Nonetheless, Chris, Ben Abrahams and Duncan Chave all contrived to score useful runs, and Ben Youngman scored impressively at the end. Our total was 114 for 6, a score that we have become accustomed to thinking would be about 20-30 shy of a competitive total.

But the two sides were well-matched. Dominic Prosser led the wicket-taking, with three in three overs, Mark Hailwood followed with two from a frugal four overs, Fraser chipped in with one, as did Ben Abrahams. Sophie's XI did not, however, need to score at a particularly quick rate and progressed steadily towards our total. The final pair at the crease were Sophie herself partnered by Bernie Wilson. We know Bernie through the Sunsets, but he also played with Guy's personal team, The Radicals, at the turn of the century. For a while, it looked as though we might have a fairytale ending, with Sophie hitting the winning runs, but Ben Abrahams then intervened.

Ben had already taken three catches, one of which had looked ludicrously difficult, so there has no way that he could drop the dolly offered to him at mid-wicket by Bernie. So it was that Sophie's XI fell 12 runs short, but it had been a great game.

The evening was rounded off with BBQ, drink, excellent company, and some memories shared by Guy of his formative cricket years in Trinidad. These included stories from the England Women's tour of the West Indies and the showing of some priceless memorabilia.

Report by Jonathan Kirby.

Addendum by Dominic Prosser...

Seen those Trivento wine ads on TV? Where a bunch of smug, self-satisfied 30-something blokes are having a dinner party and all recounting their tales of 'derring-do’, manly adventures or sporting 'prowess'; cresting Everest; wrestling tigers; free jumping out at 12,000ft with just a silk hanky for a parachute; skinning Messi, Suarez and Busquets then flipping the ball overhead before scoring with a scissor kick into the top right corner to take South Brent 2nd XI into the Champions’ League final; etc. etc...

So my Trivento moment came the other evening when I played cricket for the Erratics in a T20 Exeter Leukaemia Fund charity game in front of around 100 spectators. In the 3rd over the ball comes flying past me at square leg, so I start to give chase to stop it going for 4 and protect our slender total.

Running downhill towards the boundary I visualise myself sprinting like Ben Stokes and doing one of those sliding stops just inside the rope, keeping them down to a mere single. It was at this point that my trouser drawstring pings loose and my whites start to slip down. What’s a worse injury to your cricketing pride? Your trousers falling down or conceding a 4? Team or trousers?

So... desperately holding on to the whites I try to carry on hobbling after the ball, inevitably ending up falling, but, somehow, luckily onto the ball, saving the boundary, but turning round to find the rest of my teammates falling about laughing as the batsmen complete their third run.

A bold Trivento discovery that maybe my best cricketing days are behind me... and that Slazenger whites are not what they were when I were a lad.

Dominic Prosser

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 6w 1lb 
for 6 wickets
10
114		        
Fraser Chave Caught  0
Chris Ferro Retired Not Out  25 5 2
Jayakrupakar Nallala Run out  11 2
Alex Thomas Run out  5 1
Ben Abrahams Stumped  21 3 4
Dominic Prosser Caught  6 1
Duncan Chave Not Out  19 3
Paul Molins Bowled  1 1
Ben Youngman Not Out  16 3
Mark Hailwood  
Jonathan Kirby  

Sophie's XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Sophie's XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 5w 7b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
14
102 (18.3 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman4.002200.005.50
Mark Hailwood4.02824.002.00
Dominic Prosser3.002137.007.00
Ben Abrahams4.0031131.007.75
Fraser Chave3.311025.002.86