Scorecard

Clyst Hydon v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Wed 07 Aug 2024 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 45 Runs

Match report Mark Hailwood reports…

I like a trip to Clyst Hydon. On arrival it can all seem disconcertingly leaguey – covers, an electronic scoreboard, a fast outfield, broad shoulders, light-up stumps! – the sort of place where the Erratics might be on a hydon to nothing… sorry. Anyway, such fears would be unfounded, as the hosts are always very friendly on the field and off, and we have held our own here in recent years.

It is also a lovely setting for a game of cricket. To me there always seems something (very faintly) exotic about a trip to East Devon – a welcome variation from our more common trips to the West. The landscape is flatter, and gentler, and the drooping willows and lazy rivers evoke the southern England of E.M. Forster. A calm, drowsy, dreamy world – in contrast to the brooding hilltops and wooded slopes of the more rugged West Devon – perfect for a summer evening visit. Graceful swallows and the ringing of church bells drifted across the ground under open, light grey skies. There's also something about this time of year: post-Mystics game it always feels to me like the ‘dying of summer’ phase of the season, a period of wistfulness, but also one of cherishing every game, every sunset, every post-match tinny.

Readers eager for me to move on from pretentious literary scene-setting and talk about the cricket are reminded here that the club was founded by a member of the English Department at the University of Exeter, John Lloyd, and that literary pretensions are as much a part of the club’s history as cricket itself. And on the subject of history, this year the Erratics turn 90, something we’ll celebrate on President’s Day.

Anyway, whilst I was daydreaming about the surroundings, cricket did break out, with Mr Smart and Mr Wright heading out to open for the Erratics. ‘Makings of a good quiz team’ I quipped. ‘Yes, especially if they could recruit ex-military man General Knowledge to join them’, Fraser chimed in. It was one of those games – aren’t they all? – with plenty of 'wit' and 'bants' served up on the boundary edge.

The pitch seemed to be a touch ‘stoppy’, so timing wasn’t all that easy, but the lightning outfield was an ally to any shots that were middled, and we made steady progress for the first few overs. James was struggling a bit with the weight of his bat, having decided that his regular bat – mostly used when batting for Clyst 2nds these days – was too heavy. But like the bowler who follows a full toss with a half tracker, he overcompensated, and went to bat with a wafty wand that looked too light. His Goldilocks bat still awaits him. Martin Wright executed some imperious thumps down the ground, and so too did Rick Lindsay, before being stopped in his tracks by a bizarre lbw decision that was so bad even the umpire apologised for it as Rick walked back to the pavilion.

When Anuj’s turn came he couldn’t resist arming himself with James’ discarded heavy bat, which Duncan speculated might have weighed as much as Anuj himself. Unsurprisingly it proved too heavy, and it wasn’t long before he was lugging it back to the pavilion. All of the above had chipped in, but as we passed the halfway point of our innings a competitive score – minimum of 120 – looked a long way off. But two of the heroes of the previous weekend were at it again. When Lee Grant first came out to bat something very odd happened – he couldn’t quite time it, and actually looked a bit awkward at the crease, like some sort of average village cricketer. But he soon got his eye in, and two f’ing massive sixes into neighbouring fields saw him on his way to another 30+ retirement.

But we still needed another contribution from elsewhere, and so it was time for a game of ‘Hugh’s Hugh?’ (TM: Martin Wright) i.e. which Hugh Sheridan would show up? The man who had dispatched a straight six on this ground last year? Or the man who had ground out a slow (but valuable) 23 from 84 balls against Clyst just a few days earlier? This time it was the former, as the good doctor unfurled an impressive range of cuts and pulls, and some hard running to test out that recently recovered achilles, on his way to a retirement score of 30. He had tried to retire early, on reaching 25, but got a taste of what it is like to be a millennial when told that the retirement target had been raised. He dragged himself back to the middle and finished the job, but only on the final ball of the innings, leaving him no time to enjoy his retirement: precisely the kind of retirement any Erratic under the age of 50 is likely to experience.

Putting such thoughts of intergenerational inequality to one side, we took to the field with 126 to defend – not a lot on a ground where we chased 146 last season – but at least we had reached that crucial 120 mark. As it happened we bowled very well, but caught even better. Tiwari and Hailwood opened, and continued their good record when bowling in tandem – something to do with pace differentials I suspect – and Smart, Grant, Chave, and Weiler were all in good rhythm too when their turns came. But it was one those days where every chance seemed to stick, and we were treated to some classic Anuj (covering a lot of ground in the outfield before clutching the ball to his chest whilst almost lying down); a fine leg-side keeper-catch from Rick, gloved behind from a Grant bouncer; and Grant himself taking an over the shoulder one-handed circus catch, like he was casually catching an apple falling from a tree. We also managed to light up those fancy stumps a few times.

Clyst Hydon mounted some lower order resistance – Tom Pettitt showing off some very strong sweeps, and Neil Collins striking the ball extremely hard to several boundaries whilst grumbling to himself about not timing it – but the wickets kept tumbling. Since dismissing Matt Cook in the Mystics game on Saturday, the Erratics bowlers have been scything through opposition line-ups. Before we could blink we had won by a comfortable margin.

After a surprisingly good shower and a celebratory cider, I got to thinking about the manner of this, and several other, Erratics victories this season, which have had their roots in overly aggressive batting on the part of our opponents. Sure, it is the spirit of the age – Bazball, endless T20s, switch hits, powerplays, and all that – and there is nothing wrong with a bit of attacking cricket. But if there is a time and place for aggression in cricket, it isn’t all the time and on every wicket. Those with calmer heads, who know when to attack, and when to respect the conditions or the bowling, are still the cricketers we should be trying to emulate. On this beautifully calm East Devon evening – a stark contrast to events in our cities this past week – it seemed to me self-evident that aggression is not the only quality we should value.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 5w 1b  
for 5 wickets
8
126		        
James Smart b L Milton 14 22 2 63.64
Martin Wright ct N Collins 15 10 3 150.0 1
Matt Crawford ct N Collins 4 6 1 66.67
Hugh Sheridan Not Out  33 41 4 80.49
Richard Lindsay lbw N Collins 14 16 2 87.50 1
Anuj Tiwari ct N Collins 5 6 1 83.33 2
Lee Grant Retired Not Out  32 19 2 2 168.42 2
Fraser Chave Not Out  1 2 50.0 1
Duncan Chave  
Martin Weiler  
Mark Hailwood  

Clyst Hydon Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Alex Newman4.001600.004.00
Matt Land4.001400.003.50
Neil Collins4.002947.257.25
Luke Milton4.0031131.007.75
D Walker4.003500.008.75

Clyst Hydon Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1w 1b  
for 10 wickets
2
81 (17.1 overs)		     
Josh Murkin b M Hailwood 6 13 1 46.15
Sam Cutler ct L Grant 7 18 1 38.89
T Scholes ct M Hailwood 8 5 2 160.0
Tom Pettitt ct M Weiler 21 15 4 140.0
D Walker ct L Grant 0 4 0
Simon Cox ct J Smart 0 2 0
T Wooff ct M Weiler 1 6 16.67
Alex Newman ct F Chave 6 10 1 60.0
Neil Collins b F Chave 25 16 3 156.25
Matt Land b F Chave 3 6 50.0
Luke Milton Not Out  2 8 25.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mark Hailwood4.001929.504.75
Anuj Tiwari2.00500.002.50
James Smart3.0017117.005.67
Lee Grant1.01020.000.00
Martin Weiler4.0124212.006.00
Fraser Chave3.101535.004.74