Scorecard

Chagford v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Wed 21 Jul 2021 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 3 Wickets

Match report Mark Hailwood reports…

The Erratics Express

The mercury had risen to 35 degrees in the San Tomas Valley. Is it ever too hot for cricket? Probably not. It was too hot for the B3206 though, my tyres peeling up the molten road surface as I cruised into Chagford in search of the War Memorial Playing Fields.

What a place to play cricket – like a volcanic caldera with a quintessential English village dropped in. Probably as hot as playing atop a volcano too. At least skipper JK won the toss and opted to bat first whilst things cooled off.

Meanwhile, up in that Lundun, the inaugural game of The Hundred was about to begin. Wherever you stand on the new competition, no one can deny that its divisive (what isn’t these days?). Even the Erratics committee were dragged into the great debate when Chagford’s fixture secretary proposed we might give the format a bash. What to do? Take a principled stand against what many of us see as a pernicious development, or do our best to accommodate the wishes of friendly and generous hosts? Thankfully for Jonathan their Captain was less enthusiastic than their fixture sec and wanted to stick to the T20 format anyway. The issue was sidestepped. For now.

Same old format then, but JK still wanted to see a new ‘brand’ of exciting cricket from the Erratics. We were instructed to ‘express ourselves’, in the parlance of our times, in the hope that this might shake us out of our sluggish form in T20s this year.

Duncan certainly put the ‘express’ in expressive cricket, cracking a sumptuous 27 off just 15 balls to get himself quickly back into the shade (not a record – Matt Cook once reached retirement in just 8 balls). At the other end Jon Bev struggled to express himself. Perhaps that second pair of pants stifled his creativity in this heat. Rick Lindsay continued to impress with his hard hits and high elbow (at 6’7” he does have the advantage of having a higher elbow than everyone else to start with…), and he too was quickly retiring to the shade.

If Martin Wright was expressing anything it was mild ennui, which could well have been due to taking yet another beamer into his bike-accident battered ribs. Still, he battled hard, as ever, to keep things ticking, and when Fraser played a late express cameo of his own (not quite as fast as Dad’s) we reached a decent looking total of 130. Jon Bev wasn’t convinced though, with the pace of the outfield persuading him we were ‘10 short’. Rather less than that, it turned out.

How does a bowler ‘express themselves’? For Doctors Youngman and Hailwood it was through a series of mumbled expletives, as Chagford’s aggressive openers dispatched anything loose – and a fair bit that wasn’t – to the boundary rope. A few Erratics – who shall remain nameless – later admitted that at this point they were expecting an early finish. Not Skip. He acted quickly and decisively with a shuffle of his bowling pack, and was rewarded as Fraser, Matt and then Krups all bowled tightly to reign in the run rate. After 10 overs Chagford were not quite halfway home on 63, and the game was very much on. More shuffling, with both Ben and Mark improving in their second spells, and a steady diet of both boundaries and wickets kept the game nicely in the balance throughout the second half.

And so it was that we entered the final over with the perfect equation of 6 needed from 6 balls. You wouldn’t describe Matt Crawford as an expressive cricketer. He’s more in the undemonstrative, take-it-in-your-stride camp. Not a bad temperament for a death bowler, a responsibility Matt had earned with increasingly dependable bowling performances this year. But a run-a-ball is not easy to defend, and despite a steady line-and-length under pressure Chagford’s experienced batsman was able to find some gaps and chip away with 1s and 2s, and the scores were tied with just one ball remaining. Could we manage a rare tie? Not this time, as the gap was found off the final ball to inflict the narrowest of defeats.

Still, as the Apple and Raspberry J2O’s were cracked open in the shadow of the imposing pavilion, we could reflect on a brilliant, hard fought, dramatic, inclusive, friendly game of cricket delivered by the T20 format. If it ain’t broke…

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 10w 3lb 
for 4 wickets
15
130		        
Duncan Chave Retired Not Out  27 6 1 1
Jonathan Beverley Bowled  5
Richard Lindsay Retired Not Out  28 5
Jayakrupakar Nallala Caught  4 1
Martin Wright Bowled  13 2
Matt Crawford Bowled  5 1 1
Fraser Chave Retired Not Out  27 4 1
Jonathan Kirby Not Out  5 1
Ben Youngman Not Out  1
Mark Hailwood  
Andrew Forrester   1

Chagford Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Chagford Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
7w 1lb 
for 7 wickets
8
131 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman4.0046146.0011.50
Mark Hailwood4.0034134.008.50
Fraser Chave4.001829.004.50
Matt Crawford4.0020120.005.00
Jayakrupakar Nallala4.0012112.003.00