Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Wednesday CC on Sun 12 May 2024 at 1.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 58 Runs

Match report Match report by Martin Wright

This was a game of firsts: a first full afternoon game for newly-formed Wednesday CC, a bunch of local lads from Exeter; a first game of cricket altogether for their scarily-talented and rockstar-named Louis Jagger-Cane; and (sticking with the music theme) a first Erratics outing for Dhruba Jyoti Goswami, aka (according to his WhatsApp handle) DJ Goswami.

This should by rights have made him a spinner, but in a disappointing lapse of nominative determinism, he declared himself to be a batter.

Stokeinteignhead were hosting us as our makeshift home ground, and Roger Putnam kindly came by to brief us on a few prep essentials (“See that flag over there? That’s where the mud is. You’ll need that for the rabbit holes. There’s a wheelbarrow and shovels in the shed.”) All quite obvious when you think about it…

Phil ‘The Power’ Power, our Skipper for the day, confirmed his reputation as Devon’s Most Useless Tosser, and Wednesday sent us into bat. (I forgot to ask them, ‘Why Wednesday?’, and whether it was any relation to the Wednesday CC founded in Sheffield in the early 19th century, which took its name from the fact this was early closing day in the city, and so the shopkeepers and others who made up the team were free to play. It was, as you may know, the progenitor of Sheffield Wednesday FC, which all my Yorkshire-heritage relatives support. The cricket club closed down in the 1920s, but was reformed in 2011 by a group of Sheffield Wednesday supporters, and is now thriving again. But, in case you hadn’t noticed, I digress…)

Your correspondent opened with Dhruba, who’d revealed that this was another opening for him: his first game with a stitched ball (as opposed to the tapeballs – tennis balls wrapped in insulating tape -- widely used in India).

Wednesday rang the changes with their bowling attack, giving almost all their players a go; some were more classically crickety than others, but as is the way with Erratics, we contrived to get out to the really good as well as the…less really good. Dhruba was cleaned up by one of the former; Richard Lindsay by a half-tracker which, with unerring accuracy, he pinged straight to Matt Crawford on the midwicket boundary, subbing for a late Wednesday (which presumably made him an early-hours-of-Thursday). “I didn’t want to catch it”, said Matt. But, reader, he did.

Fraser Chave and I briefly made creative uses of the edge of the bat (“the thickest part”, as Fraser rightly pointed out), but soon abandoned that: me, because I clothed a full toss straight to square leg; Fraser, because he soon preferred to use the middle of his bat, and did so to great effect, hitting some lovely drives, powerful flicks behind square and fierce pulls. For a while he was partnered by Chave Senior, who played some strikingly elegant shots, mostly for singles, as if the pink ball was magically attracted to the striking black-and-yellow shorts-and-tshirts kit proudly sported by the Wednesdays. They were generous in their appreciation; by now I was umpiring, and after one particularly polished straight drive, their square leg and I went briefly into raptures over its quality.

Next ball, of course, Duncan was bowled.

Fraser for his part continued serenely on to a fine 50 before retiring, while Lee Grant led one of his characteristically pugnacious late-innings surges, pummelling anything loose to the boundary at a run-a-ball. Jon Perkin kept him company with some strong shots of his own, including a very pleasing cover drive; Anuj Tiwari sent his first ball to the boundary, and we closed on a more than satisfactory (we felt) 193-5.

Wednesdays tucked into the Erratitea, which was perhaps a touch on the sweet side, but so are we, and, suitably weighed down, commenced their reply.

Skipper Phil opened with Anuj and Oscar Cammack, and they soon had Wednesdays reeling: Anuj was testing and accurate from the off; Oscar a little wayward to start but soon zeroing in on the stumps, and the edge of the bat, and was unlucky not to have a couple go to hand. Wednesdays weren’t going to die wondering, though, and it was soon apparent that it wasn’t just their kit which carried a dash of the IPL. Jake Watts and Matt Garner peppered the boundary, but it was Louis Jagger-Cane (remember the name) who was the revelation. In this, his first actual cricket game, he swung his way to an effortless 50, including three soaring sixes; retired; came back in when the final wicket fell, hammered a couple more boundaries, and finished on 61 not out off 41 balls.

It's enough to make you take up golf…

Amid this carnage from one end, Erratics were lethal at the other. Duncan ‘Golden Arm’ Chave came close to cementing his position as a bowling all rounder by cleaning up three Wednesdays, bringing his season’s tally to six wickets at an average of a little over 5. He would have got a hat-trick too, if Oscar’s outstretched arm had been about three feet longer. Matt’s teasing, looping spinners (“DJ MC”, perhaps?) accounted for three more, while Phil, exemplifying the Erratics tradition of Skipper-Hold-Back, allowed himself a single, miserly over.

Anuj and Matt in particular were tigers in the field, and Richard tidy as you-know-who behind the wicket, effecting a neat stumping off Matt with typical understatement. Wednesdays closed 58 runs short, and we strolled (in my case, limped) off the field and into the Passage Inn in the knowledge of a game well won, but above all well played – especially by the Wednesdays, who threw themselves into the spirit of friendly cricket in a way which gives you hope for the future of this finest version of the game.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 27w 8b 5lb 
for 5 wickets
43
193		        
Martin Wright ct L Jagger-Cane 17 34 1 50.0
Dhruba Jyoti Goswami b J O'Callaghan 0 9 0
Richard Lindsay ct K Gill 4 8 1 50.0 1
Fraser Chave Retired Not Out  51 58 8 87.93 3
Duncan Chave b B Lawrence 11 26 42.31 1
Lee Grant Not Out  45 46 7 97.83
Jon Perkin b A Garner 17 27 1 62.96
Anuj Tiwari Not Out  6 5 1 120.0
Matt Crawford  
Oscar Cammack  
Phil Power  

Wednesday CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jacob O'Callaghan6.0019119.003.17
Keith Gill3.0013113.004.33
Louis Jagger-Cane5.0022122.004.40
Adam Garner5.0026126.005.20
Louis Heaver3.002400.008.00
Ben Lawrence4.0015115.003.75
Ryan Willey4.003700.009.25
Jake Watts4.001500.003.75
C Holeman1.001000.0010.00

Wednesday CC Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
10w 1lb 
for 10 wickets
11
135 (21.4 overs)		     
Louis Heaver b A Tiwari 4 6 1 66.67
Ryan Willey lbw A Tiwari 4 5 1 80.0
Jake Watts ct F Chave B. A Tiwari 14 11 3 127.27
W Dechan b O Cammack 9 12 2 75.00
Louis Jagger-Cane Not Out  61 41 5 3 148.78
Matt Garner ct F Chave B. M Crawford 21 17 4 123.53
Keith Gill ct D Chave 2 5 40.0
Adam Garner b D Chave 0 1 0
Jacob O'Callaghan st R Lindsay B. M Crawford 0 1 0
C Holeman ct F Chave B. M Crawford 7 11 63.64
Ben Lawrence b D Chave 2 8 25.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Anuj Tiwari3.001033.333.33
Oscar Cammack5.0037137.007.40
Matt Crawford7.0062320.678.86
Duncan Chave5.402337.674.06
Phil Power1.00300.003.00