Scorecard

Chulmleigh v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 17 Jun 2021 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 30 runs

Match report Today, of the six Erratics batters who made it to the crease, four announced themselves with a boundary off their first or second ball received. This displayed commendable attacking intent – a far cry from the era of the “Kirby report” (date?) in which the author wondered if we were a side that was at all suited to this short form of the game. Maybe this is, in fact, our game?

Martin Wright was unlucky to nibble an outswinger and fall to an outstanding diving catch by the Chulmleigh keeper. “Proper cricket”, he declared, through gritted teeth that couldn’t quite conceal his disappointment. He was a hero, in any case, to have played with cracked ribs, having been knocked off his bike by a passing car just a few weeks ago, and to have set the pace with a boundary off the first ball of our innings. Tim McMath was also unfortunate, unable to see the beamer that came out of the low sun and which struck him on the forearm. Retired, hurt. Jonathan Beverley and Fraser Chave both contributed well before falling to steepling catches, but the bulk of our runs came from a partnership of 78 between Siva Subramanian and Jonathan Kirby, and we finished with a thoroughly respectable total of 153 for 4. A proper T20 score, you might say.

The problem was what had happened earlier.

By earlier, I refer to Sunday 13th June. The bards may still be in the process of composing the songs that will tell of the record-breaking opening partnership between Father Chave and Son Chave. 189 scored off just 23 overs had taken us to a 10-wicket win over Chulmleigh, but this had evidently caused our hosts some pain, and today they rather seemed to want revenge.

The first ten overs of the Chulmleigh innings took an hour, with the Erratics frequently having to visit the long grass in adjacent fields to search for balls that had been deposited there. As Fraser Chave noted after our defeat at Spreyton in April, “normally, if you have three or more batters who retire, you have a good chance of winning”. This was in reference to games where batters retire not out having reached 25 or 30. Chulmleigh’s first three batters all retired, but in today’s game retirement came at 50.

Retribution was being exacted of Fraser, our captain. How do you set a field to an onslaught like this? We had only ten players (as did Chulmleigh), and were short of regular bowlers – though not courageous ones. In fact, special mention should go to our opening bowlers, Ben Youngman and Ben Yarde-Buller both of whom were unlucky… we dropped catches left, right and centre, including at least two in one of Ben’s overs, as I recall. “Fielding, schmielding”, commented John Curtis. And the normally unflappable Fraser did seem a bit frazzled at times, or maybe just fazed, as if in a waking nightmare. “Is this really happening?” he wondered out loud at one point. "Am I really here?" (Yes...)

But I digress. Two catches dropped in one of Ben’s overs. Which Ben? Disambiguation is proposed by one of them who suggested that Ben Y-B be nicknamed “Yardie – he packs heat”. I think maybe “Yardie”, for short. Let’s see if it sticks, unlike our catches. Both Bens bowled well, but it was Yardie who was perhaps the more persistently unfortunate.

It was 7:45pm by the time the Chulmleigh innings was over. We’d had some success near the end, with a couple of batters bowled and a couple of run-outs. And in the 18th over, they failed to score a boundary, for the first time. Their total was 183, just three runs short of what they’d achieved in 35 overs on Sunday. And, in fairness to us, our 153 from 20 overs was only 33 runs short of what we’d achieved in 23 overs that same fateful day.

Finally, although challenging for us in the field at times, this was a game played with good, friendly spirit all-round. We are very grateful to Chulmleigh for having put together a team to play us at such short notice, to our valiant fixtures secretary, Mark Phillips, for having organised this replacement fixture in about 24 hours, and to Ben (Youngman) our North Devon Tour Manager and selector for the month who organised our team.

Report by Jonathan Kirby

Chulmleigh Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
9w 1b  
for 4 wickets
10
183 (20.0 overs)		     
S Clarke Retired Not Out  55
D Pannett Retired Not Out  51
R Scott Retired Not Out  50
M Memom Bowled  4
J Glenister Run out  9
P Gordon Not Out  1
J Goodman Run out  2
J Dallin Bowled  0
A Not Out  1
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman4.0022122.005.50
Ben Yarde-Buller4.002600.006.50
Fraser Chave4.004100.0010.25
Kyle Wedgwood2.003800.0019.00
Sivaraman Subramanian3.0026126.008.67
John Curtis2.002200.0011.00
Jonathan Beverley1.00700.007.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 8w 1lb 
for 4 wickets
15
153		        
Martin Wright Caught  6 1
Jonathan Beverley Caught  18 2 1
Tim McMath Retired Not Out  15 3
Fraser Chave Caught  19 1 1
Jonathan Kirby Not Out  41 5
Sivaraman Subramanian Caught  38 3 2
Ben Youngman Not Out  0
Kyle Wedgwood  
Ben Yarde-Buller  
John Curtis  
A.N. Other  

Chulmleigh Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.