Scorecard

Stokeinteignhead v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 19 Apr 2015 at 2.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 7 wickets

Match report A five-fer and a half-century: is this the Erratics of 2015?

Erratics' opening fixture took us to Stokeinteignhead's hill-top ground with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky. On arrival, the unsuspecting Philips was greeted with news that he would be keeping wicket, while Ferro's attention was drawn to an abundance of daisies gracing the field. It emerged that Stokeinteignhead's grass cutter was on the blink, resulting in rather long grass in the outfield. Fortunately the wicket was in fine shape, which let Captain Hailwood see that he'd won the toss. Stokeinteignhead offered a timed game, recalling Erractics' penchant for the format, and were put in to bat.

Nine Erratics took to the field, joined by a kindly-leant fielder from Stokeinteignhead. Opening the bowling from the North end, Oughton was straight on the mark, bowling accurate line and full length. The second over saw the fashionably late Rutherford, after a tour of Newton Abbot, complete the Erratics line-up, while Youngman opened the bowling at the other end. Stokeinteignhead were restricted to 29 runs from the first eleven overs without loss of wicket, helped by F. Chave continually giving chase out in the field, while Philips possessed barrier-like qualities behind the stumps. A few rather bouncy spots on the wicket also clearly wanted to give Erratics a helping hand. The breakthrough came with Youngman bowling Stokeinteignhead's number 2 batsmen.

A bowling change saw Rutherford replace Oughton and Newbury replace Youngman. Rutherford's opening over took the wicket of the remaining opener, with a shot looping to Cox at second slip.
The Rutherford-Newbury attack limited Stokeinteignhead to few runs, and was rewarded in over 23 with Rutherford bowling Stokeinteignhead's number 3 and with Newbury taking their number 5's wicket (caught Youngman at mid-wicket) next over. Meanwhile our borrowed fielder seemed a magnet to Stokeinteignhead's number 4's off-side drives. Bowling Stokeinteignhead's number 6 brought Rutherford's third wicked, and Newbury soon caught up, with another catch going to mid-wicket highlighting Hailwood's astute field placement.

Rutherford and Newbury continued, until the cherry on the top of Rutherford's spell: Stokeinteignhead's number 7 succumbing lbw and then their number 10 succumbing to his slower ball, leaving Rutherford 5 for 14, while Stokeinteignhead were 70 for 9. Their last wicket was a resilient one. It fought off the final bowling change, which saw Wilson replace Rutherford and Hailwood replace Newbury. Wilson's spin gave Stokeinteignhead few opportunities to score runs, while Hailwood was left wishing the edge's on their bats were just a millimetre thicker. 44 overs completed left Erratics chasing 118 to win.

Selector Price had lured us with the promise of a good tea, and we were not left disappointed. Various sandwiches and cakes were on offer. Ferro clearly a fan of the cheese and onion sandwiches, while one of the cakes – which I believe was Horlicks-based and from someone's grandmother's recipe – was a particular favourite.

Cox and F. Chave opened the batting. Stokeinteignhead's closing batting pair then formed their opening bowling pair. Consistent bowling gave few run opportunities, but nonetheless Cox and Chave hoisted shots over the field and found boundaries, until both succumbed caught with Erratics on 27. This started the Ferro-Hailwood partnership, freshly warmed up from demonstrating umpire actions, including the one for the event that a ferret chases a rabbit on to the pitch.

The long and daisy-ridden grass was no match for Ferro's daisy-cutting shot repertoire. If the shots didn't find the boundary they gave him chance to try and lap Hailwood while running threes. The pair amassed 45 before Hailwood became victim to one of the wicket's dead spots: lbw to one that kept `very' low. With Erratics on 72, Rutherford came in to bat, acclimatised himself to the wicket as a batsmen, and soon joined Ferro with some boundary finding, lofting two classy sixes back over the bowler. The run-rate had upped and Ferro passed 50 before Rutherford hit the winning runs. 118 reached in 30 overs with Ferro and Rutherford unbeaten on 52 and 27 respectively.

We left the ground for the Wild Goose in Combeinteignhead where our debrief was watched over by some form of mustelid that had met a taxidermist. Fully aware of the Erratics' 100% record for 2015, we gazed into the future with optimism looking to maintain the record: Oughton remarking that we might want to ignore 20-20 matches, which was compounded by Hailwood's suggestion to omit the losses too.

Wonderful weather, great hosts and opponents, and cricketing contributions across the board from Erratics made for a marvellous day's cricket, and may it continue into the rest of the season...

Ben Youngman
Erratics News 24

Stokeinteignhead Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
11w 4b 2lb 
for 9 wickets
17
117 (44.0 overs)		     
P. Russell ct  Cox, bowled Rutherford 14
J. Burton b  Youngman 7
N. Harvey b  Rutherford 8
A. Clarke ct  Youngman, bowled Newbury 17
T. Treeby ct  Youngman, bowled Newbury 0
W. Salmon b  Rutherford 2
R. Rutman lbw  Rutherford 2
D. Barnes b  Newbury 0
C. Prestt Not Out  23
H. Longrigg b  Rutherford 0
M. Russell Not Out  27

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Gareth Oughton6.021500.002.50
Ben Youngman7.0016116.002.29
Nigel Rutherford10.011452.801.40
Mark Hailwood7.003000.004.29
Bernie Wilson6.001500.002.50
Scott Newberry8.011334.331.62

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 1w 1b 1lb 
for 3 wickets
4
118		        
Sam Cox ct  bowled M. Russell 16
Fraser Chave ct  bowled M. Russell 11
Chris Ferro Not Out  52
Mark Hailwood lbw  bowled Longrigg 8
Nigel Rutherford Not Out  27
Ben Youngman  
Scott Newberry  
Mark Phillips  
Gareth Oughton  
Bernie Wilson  
N.O. One  

Stokeinteignhead Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
M. Russell9.0223211.502.56
C. Prestt9.012000.002.22
H. Longrigg4.0020120.005.00
L. Russell7.012900.004.14
J. Burton3.002400.008.00