Scorecard

Chulmleigh v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sat 07 Sep 2024 at 1.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 4 Wickets

Match report I heard somewhere that, sometime towards the end of the last century, Chris Cook was quoted in Pseud’s Corner of the fabled Private Eye magazine: “A game of cricket is like a blank canvas upon which the two captains create a work of art.”

There’s definitely a ring of truth to that, but it has to be set against Richie Benaud’s famous quote: “Cricket is 90% luck and only 10% skill. But don’t do it without the 10%”

Does this mean that Chris Cook’s proverbial captains are more Jackson Pollock than Paul Cézanne? Who knows? And am I heading for Pseud’s Corner myself? The point is that I had been designated captain for the day, and was driving to Chulmleigh pondering what to do:

In order to get the game on, we had recruited 4 friendly non-Erratics – two father & son combinations to go with our very own Chaves. Three fathers and three sons on the same teamsheet. Is this a statistical record? But I digress once again.

Rain was forecast for about 3pm, so despite playing on an artificial strip, the chances of playing a whole game seemed slim. How would I get everyone a game? Chulmleigh is a bit of mission for everyone, so prioritising our guests over the any of the 7 Erratics who’d made themselves available didn’t seem right; but we do always look after our guests. Batting first wouldn’t feel right either. We might travel all the way there, and nine of us might sit and enjoy two of our own run up an opening partnership in excess of 150 just before the rain came in. Such opening partnerships are not unheard of at Chulmleigh: https://erratics.hitssports.com/scorecard/fixtureID_788476/Erratics-v-Chulmleigh-13-Jun-2021.aspx .

By the time we’d arrived at Chulmleigh, I had decided to be guided by the Hailwood Principle: “it’s best to field first, so that you can get everyone into the game before having to worry about the batting order.” However, given the flak that Captain Hailwood had got for doing this on a sunny afternoon in Oxford, I decided to say that I had lost the toss. In fact, Daivd Pannet would have chosen to bat, and me to bowl, so there was no toss at all, just friendly agreement. Lovely.

For Annie’s sake ("joke"), each side would bowl only 6 sets of 5. But don’t sweat, this meant a set of 5 overs bowled from one end, followed by 5 from the other, repeated for a total of 30 overs. The idea was that this would save time between overs and reduce overall game time, increasing the chances of the game being finished before the rain would inevitably blow in.

It does save time, provided you don’t tinker constantly with the field. It also messes with the captain’s brain: 5 overs from one end, which makes 3 for bowler A and 2 for bowler B. Of course, the captain can even that out 5 overs later, when bowler B has 3 overs and bowler A has just 2. And neither bowler would have to change ends. Hooray!

But that’s only 5 overs per bowler, and if you only have 5 bowlers who each need to bowl 6 overs, it gets complicated. I’m a bear of only very little brain and it took me some time to work out that bowler number 5 would have to bowl from both ends and there’d need to be some extra jiggery-pokery in order to avoid having to find a sixth bowler.

I find captaincy mentally exhausting. There's a lot of thinking involved. You’ll notice that I haven’t reported on a single ball being bowled yet.

Fielding first meant everyone was on the field at the start, which was a good thing. Dropping catches wasn’t such a good thing, and our old friend and adversary Martn Campling was soon thumping the ball to all quarters. Eventually, the catches did start to stick, but the thumping didn’t stop throughout the Chulmleigh innings. Maybe I should call it “splatter art” instead? Someone might be able to tell us the percentage of their runs that was scored in boundaries; I’m sure it was unusually high. There were also a lot of dot balls. Kudos to our fifth bowler, Duncan “3 wickets” Chave, who not only had to bowl from both ends at short notice, but also continued to bowl despite injury to his hands. I was truly grateful.

I was also grateful for tea, which was as “legendary” as promised by those who had led the player recruitment drive. It’s true: we always get a good tea at Chulmleigh.

But then we had to bat.

Chulmleigh had finished on 187. This meant that we would have to go at more than 6 runs per over. It looked like a tough ask, but not impossible. And so to the batting order. How to give people a go, but also keep the run-chase in mind?

I decided to open with Dave Thayre (our friend from Tipton St John) and son. Neither had bowled, and who doesn’t love a father-son opening partnership? Dave warned me that his son was a very “correct” batter, slow and steady, more inclined to forward-defence than slogging, but I decided to ignore this and do what I considered to be the “right thing”. In they both went.

Cricket. 90% luck. Including bad luck. Dave was out fourth ball.

Thayre Jnr followed not long afterwards, which meant that another of our guests, James Keates went out to join Fraser. This part of the captain’s plan worked out as I’d hoped. Definitely part of the 10%. Fraser and Jamie both scored at a brisk pace and retired when they’d made 50. We were definitely in the game. The chase was on!

Is it good luck versus bad luck, or is it just unpredictability? Anuj and Tim, contributed, but were unable to get stuck in and press on. The only good thing about this was that it meant Jamie’s father, Ollie Keates arrived at the crease in time for a meaningful bat (including a couple of sixes) in partnership with Duncan and subsequently with Chris Ferro.

Chris had told me that he’d be happy “not to do too much”, which is why I’d ask him to run the scorebook for us, and bat at number 9. Paul Molins, who had kept wicket, was at number 11 because, due to significant bruising of his hand, he was not keen to bat at all. This left me with the number 10 spot. I was fine with that, partly because when I’m captain I regard it as my priority to try to manage the game (that 10% again), partly to make sure that everyone else gets a game, and partly because with all this going on, there’s just too much happening in my head to be able to focus properly on batting.

The net of this is that, when I joined Chris at the crease, we needed 28 runs from 3.1 overs.

I’m sure I’m not alone in finding batting with Chris a very reassuring experience. Chris is the only person who has ever called “3” to me, as we crossed on the first of those runs: https://erratics.hitssports.com/scorecard/fixtureID_631698/Erratics-v-Ipplepen--06-Jun-2018.aspx We also used to open the batting regularly in the Indoor League at Tiverton, a game ideally suited to my “quick, get-on-with-it”, panic-laden style of batting), and we also shared a longer, successful run-chase at about 7 per over at Clyst St George: https://erratics.hitssports.com/scorecard/fixtureID_520291/Erratics-v-Clyst-St-George-27-Apr-2013.aspx And I had witnessed Chris’ astonishing attempt single-handedly to overthrow Tipton St John https://erratics.hitssports.com/scorecard/fixtureID_517397/Erratics-v-Tipton-St-John-09-May-2009.aspx

That assault at Tipton had fallen just short, but it taught me that even the improbable is possible in certain circumstances. After a single off the first ball I faced, we needed 27 from 3 overs. Dear reader, you might want to find me guilty of nostalgia, but experience can lead to confidence, and I felt we could do it...

Well, Chris could do it! I remember running a lot, but it was Chris who hit the boundaries. I remember having the novel experience of a fielding captain reinforcing the offside for me (not everything goes behind square on the legside!) and I remember being on my knees after running another couple of runs. And then, suddenly, I was facing the last ball of our innings, with just a single needed for victory.

Maybe it would be nice to report that a straight drive for 4 had sealed the deal. Maybe that’ll happen another day. (Dream on, Jonathan!) With the fielders close in all round, I simply resolved to belt the ball and run. But instead of the ball wide of off-stump that I’d come to expect, I got a straight one that bounced up and I failed to lay even a glove on it. I ran anyway, because that’s what I knew I’d have to do.

There ensued a lot of noise. Everyone was smiling – after all, it had been a really exciting finish, with all results possible at the start of the final over. It felt great. It had turned into the perfect game, with fully 95% luck to add to the 5%. But then it got even better…

“I suppose you didn’t make it?” I said to Chris as we headed back to the pavilion, oblivious and careless of the final result. “Oh, but I did!” he replied. Of course he’d made it.

Later, in the pub, I went to join the Chulmleigh team and found them teasing Martin Campling very good-humouredly for having lost them the game. As wicket-keeper, he had fumbled the take of that final ball, allowing Chris time to run an improbable bye, and me to complete the run to the bowler’s end. This was obviously harsh, because without Martin’s runs, we’d probably have had a lower total to chase, and he had saved countless runs with his supremely tidy wicket-keeping. No individual loses a game for anyone, and nobody can win a game entirely on their own, either.

I suppose the scorebook will show that this was a win for the Erratics. I’m just grateful for the huge privilege of being part of a game like this.

And I would describe it as:

Total Victory for Friendly Cricket

Chulmleigh Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1w 9b  
for 6 wickets
10
187 (30.0 overs)		     
Martin Campling ct  T Fawcett 47 42 8 1 111.90
David Pannett ct  F Chave 31 50 1 3 62.00
Alex Bushall ct  D Chave 30 41 5 73.17
Joe Evans b  D Chave 37 22 4 3 168.18
Ron Scott ct  D Chave 2 6 33.33
Liam Gillard Not Out  28 15 4 1 186.67
C Parker run out  (J Keats) 2 4 50.0
Paul Gordon  
Josh Curtis  
Matt Brown  
W Brown  

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Anuj Tiwari6.011600.002.67
Tim Fawcett6.0047147.007.83
Fraser Chave6.0032132.005.33
A.N. Other6.012700.004.50
Duncan Chave6.0056318.679.33

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
5b 3lb 
for 6 wickets
8
188		        
A.N. Other lbw  D Pannett 0 4 0
A.N. Other ct  D Pannett 2 12 16.67
Fraser Chave Retired Not Out  52 45 7 115.56
A.N. Other Retired Not Out  51 39 7 2 130.77 1 1
Anuj Tiwari b  D Pannett 1 10 10.0
Tim Fawcett b  D Pannett 8 8 1 100
Duncan Chave b  L Gilbert 14 17 1 1 82.35 1
A.N. Other b  J Evans 19 19 2 100 1
Chris Ferro Not Out  25 16 156.25
Jonathan Kirby Not Out  8 10 80.0 1
Paul Molins  

Chulmleigh Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
David Pannett6.021844.503.00
Alex Bushall6.003300.005.50
Matt Brown6.003000.005.00
Paul Gordon2.002000.0010.00
Joe Evans6.0055155.009.17
Liam Gillard4.0024124.006.00