Scorecard

Crediton Inn v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 30 Jul 2015 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 15 runs

Match report Match report by Jonathan Kirby.

"There's definitely a steely resilience to the New Erratics", opined Martin Weiler, delighted but also somewhat bemused by our newly-acquired habit of winning. This from a man whose own resilience is beyond doubt, having just returned from walking the 600 mile Pilgrim's Way in northern Spain.

Yes, dear reader, I am happy to report that the Erratics won at Newton Cyres, ending a seemingly interminable run of defeats there.

And there were but 9 of us, set against the 11 of the Crediton Inn.

We batted first, at the sporting invitation of Joel, the Crediton captain, after I had told him of our shortage of players. I set the team the target of 140 runs, which I would guess is about par on this ground. Retirement at 30 had also been agreed.

Lucky and Chris were sent in to open the batting, and in not too much time both had returned to the pavilion after elegant and chanceless innings. The Erratics who followed all did their job. In a game like this, it's not about occupying the crease, it's all about the run-rate; although wickets fell, we stayed on track - 7 runs an over.

It might be said that the match turned on a mis-field by Crediton Inn, allowing what should have been a single to Nigel to turn into a boundary. Nigel remained on strike and the next 2 balls were clouted over the boundary for a total of 12 runs. In an exciting, competitive game, the runs from those 3 balls were to make the difference. We hadn't scored 140, we had only reached 139. "But I thought you said SET them 140, skip", complained Mark Hailwood when I remonstrated with the team. That explained it.

As at the Coaver Club, the setting sun more or less blinds the batsman at one end, and the bowler at the other. Some teams agree to play from one end only while this is the case, but Joel had declined my offer to do this before the game had started. That's fair enough... it's true that both sides are somewhat disadvantaged by the situation, and it does risk getting boring for the fielders, who are not required to change their perspective on the game every over.

However, there were grumblings about their captain's decision after 2 early wickets had been picked up by Nigel, spearing the ball in out of the sun. I should say that later, in the pub, there was praise from Crediton players for Nigel's bowling and no-one was saying that he owed his success to the sun. This is why we have kept this fixture - friendly opponents.

Indeed, thanks go to Mike and Julian from the Crediton Inn, who joined us in the field, fresh from fielding for 20 overs for their own side. And they both fielded rather well for us too. That said, as wickets fell, and the odds started to move in our favour, neither substitute fielder was replaced when they were called to the pavilion to pad up. This meant that we were reduced first to 10 in the field, and then to just 9 for the last 6 overs.

That we restricted their scoring was a credit to all our bowlers. Again, this is something that was commented on in the pub. Maybe we were also lucky with field placement... 3 weeks ago, I complained that no catch had come my way all season. In this match, no fewer than 4 chances presented themselves, none of them particularly difficult. Maybe I was a bit miserly in refusing the calls to buy a jug...

With about 25 needed from the last 2 overs, there was still, perhaps an outside chance of a Crediton win. But Lucky and Ben finished with another couple of tight overs and a final wicket apiece.

Chris Ferro collected subs for us after venturing a foolish "why?" when I asked him to move in from the boundary "to save 1." (I left him on the boundary.)

And Danny Williamson can be left to wonder whether our victory would have been more easy had he not had to drop out at the last minute. We can all hope that his house purchase with Lucy goes through successfully - in the overall scheme of things, he was probably right to resist cricket for once.


Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
139		        
Lucky Bandhu Retired Not Out  32
Chris Ferro Retired Not Out  32
Martin Wright Caught  13
Martin Weiler Stumped  11
Mark Hailwood Caught  7
Nigel Rutherford Not Out  26
Jonathan Kirby Caught  6 4
Andrew Forrester Not Out  2
Ben Youngman  
N.O. One  
N.O. One  

Crediton Inn Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Crediton Inn Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
13w 4b 7lb 
for 10 wickets
24
124 (19.4 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman3.4029214.507.91
Nigel Rutherford4.002036.675.00
Lucky Bandhu4.0022211.005.50
Mark Hailwood4.011427.003.50
Martin Weiler2.001200.006.00
Chris Ferro1.00414.004.00
Jonathan Kirby1.00600.006.00