Broadclyst v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 12 Jul 2026 at 1.30pm

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Broadclyst v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 12 Jul 2026 at 1.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 4 wickets

Match report Mark Hailwood reports...

My report on last year’s visit to Broadclyst – a heartfelt plea for friendly cricket to be played in the right way – triggered quite a bit of discussion. Inevitably, I was asked to report on the game again this time. My reply to JK was ‘I hope it doesn’t just end up as a cut and paste of last year’s report’. Well, those of you who have clicked through in the hope of another impassioned polemic will be disappointed. This was a nice, solid game of friendly cricket of the sort we used to have with Broadclyst until recent years. As such, this will just be a nice, solid match report.

The game was competitive, but crucially in two senses of the word: both teams strove to win, but measures were taken to ensure the game itself was a contest in which both sides retained an interest throughout. It helped that JK had persuaded the Broadclyst skipper Phil Walker Jr that this should be a timed game, and that Phil graciously agreed. This means, of course, that the contest remains alive even if the scores end up some distance apart – the weaker batting side can dig in for the draw, and the team ‘on top’ still needs to work hard to gain all 10 wickets. As it happened, this was one of those timed games that probably would have worked just as well as an overs game, for the simple reason that the sides were well matched. It helped that our usual nemesis, George Daldorph, had a prior engagement opening the bowling for Devon, a more appropriate and surely more rewarding assignment for a player of his quality than flaying our humble attack to all parts.

With George absent, the greatest challenge facing us was the heat. Whether you see this extended spell of high temperatures as ‘glorious’, or as a distressing sign of impending climate breakdown, there is one thing we can all agree on: no one wants to field first when it is 30 degrees. As we gathered in the relative cool and welcome shade of the changing room, Fraser dubbed it the ‘single most important toss of the season’. Winning it, and batting first, would also spare us from any prospect of Broadclyst racking up 300 runs. JK was out in the middle for an age, keeping us waiting for the outcome. When he finally returned with good news, a huge cheer went up in the Erratics side of the pavilion, matched in intensity by the groans coming from the home dressing room.

Now we just needed some runs. It was not easy, on a pitch that has always offered more bounce than most Devon wickets, and some of it quite spicy given Broadclyst’s stock of quicker bowlers. They had a decent spinner too, who opened the bowling and induced Duncan to let one hit his pad without playing a shot – an invitation to finger-raise too tempting for most umpires to refuse. Phil Power had more success, batting like a man who had just taken Opening 101. He left or blocked anything he didn’t like, and dispatched anything he did with aplomb. Martin Wright joined him at the crease, and a fine partnership of 42 ensued, ground out against some testing bowling.

If you were to meet Martin Wright at a dinner party or soiree – and I like to imagine lots of people do – you probably wouldn’t come away with a strong impression of ‘steeliness’. His faintly aristocratic air of easy amiability gives little hint of just how much Martin loves a scrap. In a situation where runs must be ground out, he’s your man. A dinky-do here, and punch into the gap there. A rap on the glove, or a beamer in the ribs, almost seem like deliberate shot choices designed to add gritty glamour to these battling displays. In my mind now, he’s batting in a bloodied head-bandage, a la Terry Butcher or Paul Ince (sorry, couldn’t resist at least one football reference in a World Cup). By the time he was dismissed for a pugnacious 36, and Phil for a classy 24, we had ourselves A Platform.

You had to feel some sympathy for Will ‘Lusty’ Luscombe. Seeking an edge in what is shaping up to be an epic ‘Newcomer of the Year’ race with Bill Gilmour-White, Will had invested in a branded – and even initialled! – Erratics cap, and his first pair of proper, white, cricket shoes. A ‘black trainers’ no longer! He certainly looked the part, but not for long: bowled first ball. Still, his spirits don’t seem to have any flag in them, and he was quickly back on form behind the boundary: ‘I’m not used to spikes, I couldn’t move my feet!’

If you had A Platform at your disposal, which two middle order batters would you most like to see building on it? Lee and Fraser of course. And build they did, though there was something unsettling about proceedings: Lee faced 50 deliveries and hit only two of them to the boundary. It normally takes him two deliveries to hit two boundaries! Still, the ability to score runs on a day when you can’t find your fluency is a key attribute of a top batter, so in an odd sort of way I thought it showed that Lee’s game is getting even better. Fraser, on the other hand, was purring along, and scored 10 fours on his way to a rapid half-century (his 31st for the club. Curiously, he has the same number of ducks. Knowing Fraser, this statistical quirk could be deliberate).

Then came the skipper’s masterstroke. When Fraser reached his milestone, JK called him in at the end of the over. An eyebrow or two was raised by watching Erratics. We had twenty minutes until tea, with two set batters, and a chance to go big with a final push. There had been no agreement about retiring batters at 50. But it is no good talking the talk about how to play friendly cricket if you don’t walk the walk. Retiring Fraser allowed someone else to get in the game, and as we had more or less already reached the target that we thought would set the game up nicely, there was no need to be ultra-aggressive. It signalled to our opposition that we were willing to withdraw our best player if we thought it would both help to keep the game in the balance and get others involved. It would have been very tempting to play as hard as possible in the circumstances, not least because of our lack of success against Broadclyst in recent seasons, and I must admit I probably would have left Fraser out there if I had been skipper. But I would have been wrong to do so. JK’s call was the perfect embodiment of how to play friendly cricket.

As it happened, Roger blasted a quick 10 runs, and we finished on what felt like a nicely competitive total of 191. Tea was exceptional, one of those that makes you regret being an opening bowler. Some bloke called Jon Beverley had turned up to watch – apparently he’s a curling umpire in Colorado or somesuch – and he got very excited about the Frazzles. [As an aside, I think people see me as the villain in my ongoing feud with Jon Bev, but when no one was listening he told me he had come all the way from America in the sole hope of being able to give me out whilst umpiring. He is no saint.]

For all of our glee at avoiding fielding first, it was no cooler when we retook the field. It was a nice moment for myself and Lee, as we were asked to open the bowling on our 100th game together. Unfortunately, our bowling didn’t really live up to the occasion: too many loose deliveries had allowed Broadclyst to advance to 70-odd without loss after 12 overs, and they were off to a flyer that left us with a lot to do to rescue a draw, let alone a victory. Roger, Will, and Duncan all tried their luck, but only Roger managed a breakthrough, and we had taken just one wicket when the 20 overs started to count down.

Then it was Broadclyst’s turn to play a blinder from the friendly cricket playbook. Andrew Daldorph – father of George, and almost as effective against us in recent times – had crashed 8 x 4s and 3 x 6s on his way to a half-century, and looked set to take the game away from us. But then he too was voluntarily retired on reaching 50. It saved the game. With new batters at the crease, and Fraser’s introduction to the attack, we finally gained some control. Returning spells from me and Lee were better than our first, and Phil made things happen as soon as he came on, picking up two quick wickets. Will and myself combined for a sharp run out; Mark Phillips took a neat catch; JK effected a lightening stumping. We were finally getting a foothold. It probably helped that it was finally, if only slightly, cooling down.

As we entered the final stretch, all results were back in play – we needed 4 wickets, they needed about 5 an over, a tight draw was possible. It wasn’t to be though. Phil Walker played a captain’s knock, chancelessly taking 33 from 16 balls to get the hosts over the line with 2 overs to spare.

It didn’t feel too bruising. The game had been a good contest throughout, and Broadclyst’s chase had been a fine team effort. It was another defeat at Killerton, but it felt very different to the last few. We might not have been the winners, but for the first time in a while in this fixture, friendly cricket was. And the post-match ciders tasted all the better for it.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting

Player Name		Runs
extras TOTAL :	for 4 wickets	0 191
Duncan Chave
Fraser Chave
Lee Grant
Mark Hailwood
Jonathan Kirby
Will Luscombe
Mark Phillips
Phil Power
Roger Putman
Martin Weiler
Martin Wright

Broadclyst Bowling

Player name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
No records to display.

Broadclyst Batting

Player name		R
extras TOTAL :	for 6 wickets	0 193 (32.5 overs)

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
No records to display.

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