Scorecard

Bodleian Library v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sat 25 Jul 2026 at 1.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 2 wickets

Match report Match report by Martin Wright.

What sort of people, do you imagine, would work within ‘one of Europe’s oldest and most respected libraries’?

Bookish, certainly. Learned, undoubtedly. More given to refining the mind than honing the physique? Of course. Tall, toned, athletic and dangerous? Not so much,

Such, though, were the representatives of this august institution that, ball in hand, greeted Duncan Chave and I as we opened the batting for Erratics, after losing the toss and being invited to do so by our visitors, at the ground generously loaned to us by Chulmleigh for this distant ‘home’ fixture.

Making full use of the combination of their height, speed and a wicket that had steepling bounce at times and at others none whatsoever, Bodleian’s youthful spearhead of Daniel Shaw and Arthur Contera Olsen ensured a start that was decidedly gritty. At one point, it was definitely Extras, in the form of byes scudding under the keeper’s gloves over Chulmleigh’s scorched outfield, that showed the most flair. Duncan, for his part, started to loosen the shackles, striking boundaries, including a magnificent towering straight six, that brought a whoop of approval from Annie at the scorer’s table. (She was to whoop quite a bit later at Duncan’s efforts, but for entirely different reasons.)

I largely failed to loosen my shackles, and then suffered the fate of the Gritty Opener, all too aware that he seemed to have been batting since the Early Bronze Age for precious little other than dots in the scorebook. The inevitable ensues: change bowler comes on, floats up juicy full toss, Gritty Opener sees Chance for Redemption, aims Massive Swipe, which merely sends ball looping neatly into safe hands of midwicket.

Duncan perished soon after, but as the Bodleians rang through an array of change bowlers, Erratics started to go through the gears. It was far from plain motoring. The Odysseus and Achilles of the Bods’ opening attack might be rested, but there were plenty of other decent twirlers in the ranks. Among them, a welcome return to Devon for David ‘Shakatak’ Shackleton, surely both the nicest and deadliest of ex-Erratics we encounter among our opponents. He fielded smartly, bowled beautifully, and picked up three wickets. And that was before he had a bat in his hands…

Among our ranks were two very welcome last-minute stand-ins, the Rowdens, father and son. Henry Rowden, who looked every inch the competent cricketer at the tender age of 15, was particularly unlucky to ping a rare full toss from David straight to mid-off. Meanwhile (relative) newcomer Jonathan Snicker resisted bravely for a while, before being smartly stumped off (inevitably) Shakatak, who also had Duncan caught just as he looked set for a serious score.

The Bodleians generously gave most of their side a bowl, some more effective than others, but none that a batter could wholly relax against. So it was to the credit of our middle order, Andrew Forrester (a welcome return on a visit from his new abode in Brighton) and especially Lee Grant, robust as ever, that our scoreboard kept moving.

This was despite sharp fielding, notably from the athlete Arthur, who managed to place himself unerringly between Lee Grant’s powerful off hammers and the boundary which looked at the point of impact to be theirs by right.

Lee gracefully retired after a finely struck 63, leaving Matt Crawford, with a quickfire 20, and Andrew with a confident 33, to take us to tea on a par (we felt) score of 197.

It looked a lot less like par once the Bodleian openers, Neely and Shakatak, got under way, finding Duncan in particular – who had a rare outing as opening bowler – rather to their liking. George Mather managed to keep things a little tighter, and saw Neely nicely held by Lee. Shakatak was still there, though, and it was soon clear that the Oxford air had done nothing to blunt his batting prowess. He formed a powerful partnership with A. Shaw, both striking the ball sweetly, sometimes brutally. Sharp fielding from the likes of Matt, Lee and in particular Henry, ever alert whether in the covers or sweeping, could do little to stem the tide. All our bowlers had their moments – Duncan producing the occasional jaffa; George, off his misleadingly short run, on the money most of the time; Lee testing as ever; and Henry, who soon found his rhythm with some lovely flighted leg breaks and googlies – did their best, but Bodleian were starting to look unstoppable.

Several brutally struck shots zeroed in on Duncan: two of them in the air long enough to technically count as chances, provoking loud chortles of….sympathy?...from Annie as the balls recoiled from his hands and onto the grass. Another rocket led to a heroic save on the boundary, only for the ball, after nearly crushing Duncan’s fingers, to trickle into the fence. Cue more sympathetic shrieks of laughter from our scorer.

The partnership was broken by perhaps the pick, along with George, of our bowlers, Ben Yarde-Buller, using subtle changes of pace and some sharp turn (“he’s a proper spinner”, remarked one batter to his partner). He lured Shakatak into a shot too far, sending one skying into the hands of Lee on the square leg boundary. “I don’t think I’d have forgiven myself if I’d dropped it”, said Lee. “I don’t think I’d have forgiven you either”, Ben replied.

This almost opened the floodgates. As Shaw continued on his brutal way at one end, wickets started to tumble at the other. Ben picked up another couple, one from a quickfire stumping courtesy of Andrew, the salt air of Sussex-By-The-Sea having clearly kept his reactions in good order. Henry achieved his maiden Erratic scalp courtesy of a fine catch by Rowden Pere, and George clean bowled two more Bods.

But Shaw was still there, and with a handful of runs required, had his hundred in his sights. Watching from the covers, I thought he’d nailed it when he launched George back over his head – only to see the ball rocket straight into the safe-as-houses hands of Matt, and Shaw walk disappointed to the pavilion. But he has every reason to be proud of a dominant, commanding innings, full of mercilessly clean hitting.

That gave Erratics several sniffs of a chance, and with Skipper Jonathan Kirby astutely marshalling his troops, we duly crowded round the later Bodleian bats. The scoring rate slowed to a trickle as we searched for those elusive breakthroughs. One chance came agonisingly close to me at silly mid-on, and if I hadn’t been suffering from an advanced state of crockedness (and indeed, years), I might have snaffled it. Lee and George both came within whiskers of bowleds, too, but eventually Busby sliced George past point, and the Bods were home with two wickets and two overs to spare.

A lovely close game, then, with every Erratic playing their part, in a friendly atmosphere against a friendly and generous-spirited opposition. We reconvened at the Imperial, where Jonathan awarded his Bodleain counterpart with the ultimate prix de victoire:: a copy of Unicorns Rampant.







Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 9w 20b 2lb 
for 4 wickets
35
197		        
Duncan Chave ct Shackleton 33 41 5 1 80.49
Martin Wright ct J Shaw 10 40 1 25.00
Jonathan Snicker st Shackleton 3 25 12.00
A.N. Other1 ct Shackleton 0 4 0
Lee Grant Retired Not Out  63 57 7 3 110.53 2
Andrew Forrester Not Out  33 60 4 55.00 1
Matt Crawford Not Out  20 22 4 90.91 2
Ben Yarde-Buller  
George Mather  
A.N. Other2   1
Jonathan Kirby  

Bodleian Library Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
D Shaw6.001400.002.33
A Contera Olsen10.013500.003.50
J Shaw8.0220120.002.50
D Shackleton5.012438.004.80
Hewitt5.002700.005.40
Milner4.003000.007.50
Ackland2.00900.004.50
Busby2.001700.008.50

Bodleian Library Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 8w 12b 1lb 
for 8 wickets
22
198 (37.5 overs)		     
M Neely ct Grant / Mather 15
D Shackleton ct Grant / Y-Buller 45
A Shaw ct Crawford / Mather 96
D Hewett ct Rowden / Rowden 9
T Philipson ct Crawford / Y-Buller 0
J Shaw st Forrester / Y-Buller 0
A Contera Olsen b Mather 6
G Jones b Mather 3
A Milner Not Out  0
D Busby Not Out  1
S Ackland  

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Duncan Chave4.013300.008.25
George Mather9.523749.253.76
Lee Grant10.004200.004.20
Ben Yarde-Buller9.0131310.333.44
A.N. Other15.0042142.008.40