Scorecard

Ide v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Fri 06 Jun 2025 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won

Match report
Reporting by Matt Crawford.

The first coincidence of the game against Ide this year, the Gregorian 2025, is that it happened to fall on Eid, the 2nd most important festival in the Islamic calendar. To those not familiar with the celebration, or indeed civil parishes surrounding Exeter, they are both pronounced /ˈiːd/, or for us mere mortals "eed".

By my calculations, the next time we play Ide on Eid, won't be for at least another 50 years or more likely 75 or 100 years despite there being two different Eids each year, and assuming we keep playing on Fridays at the beginning of June.

The second coincidence of the game against Ide is that as well as our hosts having a fresh new ground for us to demonstrate our talents on, we also had a fresh new scorebook for us to demonstrate our talents on.

By my calculations, although it is possible that we start a new scorebook at Ide next year as we could conceivably play 49 more games before then, it is extremely unlikely that this would also coincide with Ide relocating to a new ground. In fact, we will probably never have such a coincidence again, certainly in our lifetimes, as we could assess that in whatever year Ide do relocate again, if at all, there is only a 1 in 50 (say) chance of us starting a new scorebook, on that particular game.

The third coincidence of the game against Ide is that Lee was captain for the second time in a week, which wasn't really a coincidence at all as selector Ben must have orchestrated that, but not only was Lee captain again, he also won the toss on both occasions. This really is a minor coincidence in itself, but there can't have been too many captains winning twice in a week, with our two most regular captains being Fraser, who seemingly rarely wins the toss, and Mark, who doesn't play as many games.

I didn't do any calculations on that one.

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So, we arrived at Ide, a familiar commute and a familiar pavilion, a few familiar faces but a new bouncy green artificial wicket. It was really bouncy. Like REALLY bouncy.

Brad opened, Fraser opened. Us scorers selected Brad to face first, so we could fill in aforementioned new scorebook before his arrival onto the field (18:01 ). We're not sure if he knew about this plan but he did face the first ball.

Andrew played a really tidy punch through midwicket which flew to the boundary for 4. On another occasion an opposition child did a very savvy bit of fielding to prevent a 4, and the home support offered comparisons to the IPL to which Martin Weiler quipped "Is that the Ide premier league", which I believed to be the joke of the day.

Jonathan batted very well, you can imagine all of the shots that he played, and played them he did. Rolling back the years together with Martin who also timed one sweetly to the rope.

Anuj's first words at the crease were something like "ready to run a 3?", and we did manage to - it was a slow outfield. But Ide became quite friendly with their bowling, or maybe they believed "pace off" to be the order of the day, but in any case we began to cash in towards the end of our innings and reached 138.

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The old Ide ground was particularly quirky, one of the most unusually shaped grounds you're likely to stumble upon, a fielder standing at an ordinary mid-wicket position probably has their feet wet from standing in the leat. The new ground was not especially interesting, but the mixture of the new artificial strip and the weather, which was almost constant drizzle in our fielding innings, made it interesting, but not the sort of interesting you'd necessarily want.

Anuj showed us all how difficult bowling was, like holding on to a bar of soap, one delivery went 22 yards upwards and landed at Point for me to collect. But more of the silliness was in the bounce of the wicket. It made every ball an event, the fielder throwing in the ball and the ball either zipping over or through the bowler, or maybe bouncing nowhere like Brad managed, seemingly defeating physics with one that hit the edge of the strip and just ground to a halt.

Amidst the chaos, there were run out opportunities galore, dropped catches, a stumping off a shin rebound, two suspected instances of "one short" and slipping and sliding no end. Imagine Bambi on ice.

As the rain continued to come down, we celebrated Anuj, Fraser, Lee and Ben's wickets, some good bits of fielding all round, our spirits never dampened even if our whites were. Damp but victorious, we scampered down to the pub and had a serving of nachos and chilli (or 3).

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It was one of those games where orthodox cricket didn't really work. Erratics such as Brad Causey and Jon Perkin, who play league cricket and could be considered to play in an orthodox fashion didn't do especially well, whereas myself and Jonathan (I hope he doesn't mind me saying so) are not so orthodox and both retired. But maybe that was just a coincidence.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
138		        
Bradley Causey  
Duncan Chave  
Fraser Chave  
Matt Crawford  
Andrew Forrester  
Lee Grant  
Jonathan Kirby  
Jon Perkin  
Anuj Tiwari  
Martin Weiler  
Ben Youngman  

Ide Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Ide Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
113 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.