Scorecard

Lustleigh v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 15 Jun 2014 at 2.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 4 wickets

Match report 'We were trying to work out who this John Lloyd person is' said Martin Wright, our skipper for the day, as we drove through Dunsford. 'The only ones we could think of were the former Labour MP for Exeter, the tennis player, and the BBC comedy producer.' If an MCC member had turned to me in St John's Wood and asked if Thomas Lord was the famous American refrigerator magnate, I wouldn’t have been more flabbergasted. After six years playing for the Erratics, Martin had never heard of our founder: English scholar, demon bowler, blazered captain from the 1930s until he retired in 1969, and in whose memory we play this annual fixture at Lustleigh.

Martin would have known all this if he had read the two Erratics books. Had he read the books, he would also have learned of his namesakes, the Lustleigh Wrights, of 'the indelible impression left on one's cricketing sensibility by the fifty in nineteen balls scored by Courtney Wright', and of Courtney's three sons, Steve, Sean and Mike, who took eight wickets between them in 1994 and each of whom, I think, has scored a century against us in recent years. Fortunately for us, there was only one Wright playing for Lustleigh this year: John, Mike's teenage son and hockey international. It makes one wonder if this perfect (too perfect?) Devon village is not all a front for some top-secret Sport England breeding programme. (The behaviour of some of the locals whom we met on our arrival in the village did nothing to dispel such suspicions. One Erratic, trying to manoeuvre his car down the short track to the ground, was told 'I don’t know what you think you're doing – there's nothing down there'. And a passing couple whom I chatted to briefly on the boundary – a Mr and Mrs Cleave, believe it or not – claimed to have lived just two miles up the road for the last 75 years and 'never knew this were 'ere'.)

Martin's record of having only ever lost at Lustleigh is, I'm happy to report, no longer true, for today he won the toss and, with one of the stronger Erratics batting orders at his disposal, took the first innings. 'We'll field then' said his opposite number, young Marcus Manners-Chapman, reassuring us that the National Park had not imposed a radical change on the laws of cricket played within its boundaries. Duncan Chave accompanied the skipper to the middle to face the medium-fast Paul Foot from the low-bouncing pavilion end and the fast-medium Duncan Manners-Chapman from the high-bouncing village end. Both bowlers induced edges, but these flew between the fielders, and with the occasional loose delivery the Erratics moved briskly to about 30 before Martin was dismissed, caught I think. (I'm writing this report without the scorebook to hand, so don't expect anything too accurate; we statisticians are experts in uncertainty, after all.) There followed an excellent stand between Chave and rookie Rob Hayes, who fell in with us after coaching the University's MBA students in public speaking. Pulls and drives (slapped through the air by Chave, drilled along the ground by Hayes) took the score past 100 for the further loss of only Duncan's bat, which splintered and was replaced by his son's newish blade. How Fraser winced each time his father mis-timed a stroke! A beauty from Lustleigh's Australian import nipped off the seam to bowl Hayes just before the drinks break, and then Chris Ferro joined Chave to try to build on our strong start. Up to this point, Duncan had placed and weighted his shots so nicely that, even though he had scored many boundaries, the ball had never found itself submerged in the brook or lost in the nettle patches beyond the fence. The applause for his 50, however, may have caused the blood to course quicker through his veins and soon the match was interrupted by the deployment of search parties armed with the Lustleigh ball-scoop. I can't remember how Duncan was out, but he was, and this brought the formidable Chris Cook to the crease. He was soon in to his stride, cutting, driving and clipping his way to a quick half-century while Ferro patted the ball around, happy to rotate the strike. As for John Wright, he kept wicket in the first half of our innings but also bowled towards the end. He hurled the ball down at fast-medium until he became bored by his lack of success and, declining the long walk back to his mark, ended his spell with a solitary, throw-away leg-break. At tea, we felt comfortable declaring with a total of 261 runs for 4 wickets down.

The teas at Lustleigh are perfectly balanced for my taste – a fine selection of tasty sandwiches, refreshing fruit and delicious homemade cakes. An added bonus this year was the barrel of Brimblecombe cider that Mike Brewer had managed to smuggle away from Moor Merriment, some sort of inaugural mid-Devon eisteddfod that, as far as I could tell, the local organizers were finding to be more trouble than it was worth. ('Never again' said one; 'I've got to go – the choir are supposed to be singing something' muttered another.) Peter Thomson also graced us with his presence at around this time, provoking the following dialogue between Rob Hayes and Annie Chave: Rob – 'Good heavens, that's my neighbour, I wonder what he's doing here.' Annie – 'Oh him, that's my father, he's President of the Erratics.' Welcome to the Club, Rob!

In its own good time, play resumed, and the spectators had their first view of the rest of the Erratics XI: Varun Kothamachu and Dominic Prosser swinging their arms in preparation for the opening overs, Fraser Chave and Danny Williamson sharpening their reflexes with a game of catch, Jonathan Kirby clapping his gauntlets, and Phil Power performing inscrutable calculations behind his fancy sunglasses. Prosser looked on form (he's been playing with his son for the re-formed South Brent this season) and bowled Lustleigh's captain second ball with a trimmer that took the off bail. But then, ah, then came the burly John Wright. I think he missed his first delivery, and he did offer a chance with a top edge a few balls later, but almost everything else was hit with clean and brutal force either to or, more often, over the boundary. He reached 50 off 18 balls as Courtney watched on with a broad grin from the pavilion. By now, our skipper had called up his spin attack, the off-breaks of Fraser Chave and the leg-break/googlies of Phil Power. Both showed great courage under fire, Phil having flashbacks to when Gordon Greenidge scored 200 against his Marchmont side in a 30-over contest. In that Edinburgh match twenty years ago, Phil eventually claimed Greenidge’s wicket, and this experience told again as Phil slipped a flatter one through an advancing Wright to bowl him for 86.

Despite the Wright onslaught, the rate required by Lustleigh was still, by dint of the slightly lop-sided hours of play and the time lost fishing Wright's sixes out of the water, about eight runs per over, and Erratics confidence grew as a series of Lustleigh colts showed good technique but nevertheless failed to find the boundary quite so frequently as before. Paul Foot, however, was playing a brilliant hand. Once Wright was out, Foot took over, lofting the ball over mid-wicket and long-on just often enough to keep the required run rate in single figures. If only we could dismiss Foot, we felt that we would at least secure a draw and retain the John Lloyd trophy for another year. With just under 100 needed off the last ten overs, Foot became the sixth Lustleigh wicket to fall (bowled by a deserving Fraser or a returning Dominic, I think) and we were almost safe. Lustleigh's last chance took the form of Duncan Manners-Chapman, who had just failed to see his side home when faced with a slightly smaller target a few years ago. Driving with a full follow-through at anything pitched up, his first attempts saw the ball narrowly miss both the stumps and the edge of his bat. But then, suddenly, his eye was in and now the ball flew to the boundary much too quickly for any Erratic to intercept it. There was nothing that we could do. The score rattled up at a hopeless rate and, before we knew it, Lustleigh had won with a couple of overs to spare.

This was a wonderful match, won by Lustleigh thanks to three, almost chanceless innings of superb striking from Wright, Foot and Manners-Chapman. No-one could recall another occasion on which an Erratics score exceeding 260 had been overhauled, and the result is all the more remarkable because Lustleigh faced about ten overs fewer than the Erratics received. Chris Cook presented the John Lloyd trophy to a well-deserving Lustleigh for safe-keeping until next year.

As for Courtney, he had left the match before its climax, but joined us in the garden of the Cleave afterwards. Courtney first played for Lustleigh in about 1954, he reckons, and I was eager to hear his memories of playing against our founder. 'What was John Lloyd like to face?' I asked. 'Oh,' replied Courtney, 'I didn't bother with that. I just hit the ball.' As John Rudlin had it in his report of the 1984 fixture, Courtney's 'philosophy of batsmanship is to hit every ball as hard and as far as possible'. It's an approach that he's passed on successfully to two generations so far.

Chris Ferro

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
261		        
Duncan Chave Hit Wicket  60
Martin Wright Caught  18
Rob Hayes Bowled  26
Chris Ferro Not Out  42
Chris Cook Caught  72
Jonathan Kirby Not Out  2
Danny Williamson  
Dominic Prosser  
Phil Power  
Fraser Chave  
Varun Kothamachu  

Lustleigh Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Lustleigh Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
266 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Varun Kothamachu8.0067167.008.38
Dominic Prosser9.0085328.339.44
Fraser Chave7.0056156.008.00
Phil Power9.0147223.505.22