Scorecard

Heads & Tails v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Wed 23 Apr 2025 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won By 2 Runs

Match report The toss. That most traditional start to a cricket game. But what to do when the team you are playing are called Heads and Tails. That seems an unfair advantage. Erratics skipper Martin Wright certainly couldn’t make head nor tail of it. He called tails but heads it was. Well it would be wouldn’t it? We were invited to bat first.

The conditions at the Newton St Cyres Recreation Ground were glorious but it is still only April so with one eye on losing light later on an 18 over match was agreed. It’s good to have a mathematician in the side. Chris Ferro immediately announced that this meant innings of 108 balls. He forgot about extras!

It certainly helped that the Erratics had a couple of England players in the side. First up in that category was opener Rich Lindsay who announced his intentions for the season with a glorious straight drive for 4 off the second ball. A home supporter described the moment as “Crawley like”. Rich kept up this momentum, soon adding a brutal 6 variously described as a “hoick” and more kindly a “front foot pull”. With retirements required at 30 he was soon back in the pavilion with 31 off 22 balls.

One of the issues with the ground is that the low setting sun can blind batters. The Erratics managed to squint their way through this challenge even when John Quicke bowled his looping leg spin high into the shining sun. Chris Ferro was his usual patient self endlessly accumulating to keep the scoreboard moving. He retired with 32 including 16 singles in 29 balls.
A late surge was required and thankfully this is where the second England player came in. Anuj Tiwari was a man in a hurry. He brought up the 100 with a sweep drive to gain the accolade of being “Josh Buttler like” from Chris Ferro. The next ball went for 6. Aided by “pinch hitter” Andrew Forester our fifth wicket partnership added 35 crucial runs – Anuj scoring 18 off 9 balls and Andrew 17 off 11. Erratics closing on 119-4.

With the sun now doing its worst the Heads and Tails innings was all played from one end, giving the chasing team the advantage of a shorter straight boundary. Opener Pete Moisan certainly had eyes on it but mistimed Tim Fawcett’s second ball hitting it high but not long. Tim like all good bowlers didn’t trust any of his teammates and made sure of a very good caught and bowled.

From then on it was very cat and mouse (well cat and white rabbit judging by the local wildlife visitors to the ground) Whaling and Salter both retired as the score mounted but so did the overs bowled. Jonathan Kirby bowled two overs of miserly spin and a run out and a clean bowled by Lee Grant slowed a late charge. Generous to a fault extras nearly needed to retire on 29.

It all came down to the last over bowled by the nerveless Anuj. 12 runs to win. Scrambled singles and a wide kept things interesting but by the final ball 7 were still needed. Carpenter went big but the ball dropped just short of the boundary for a 4. A six and it would have been a tie. The Erratics had won by two runs. A home supporter bemoaned the fact that the boundary markers were further out than usual.

Such small margins were discussed at length in the nearby Beer Engine over a sumptuous meal provided by the pub. All was good in the world. Annie Chave sold copies of her new book (‘Cricket Changed My Life: Eleven Personal Journeys’) and the Erratics had their first win of the season.

Martin Weiler

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
119		        
Martin Wright  
Martin Weiler  
Andrew Forrester  
Fraser Chave  
Matt Crawford  
Chris Ferro  
Tim Fawcett  
Lee Grant  
Jonathan Kirby  
Richard Lindsay  
Anuj Tiwari  

Heads & Tails Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Heads & Tails Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
117 (18.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.