Cheriton Fitzpaine v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 24 May 2012 at 6.00 pm

Forgot password?
Register
Login

Scorecard

Cheriton Fitzpaine v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 24 May 2012 at 6.00 pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 68 runs

Match report Match Report by Mark Hailwood, Photos by Jan Heaton:

Visiting the home of the ‘Cherries’ is like stepping into a Hardy novel. Assuming, that is, you can find it in the first place. There was much discussion of what exactly qualifies as a ‘fork in the road’ on a tiny Devon lane, not an entirely uncommon topic of conversation in a dressing room of recently arrived and often tardy Erratics. Thankfully, all the Erratics made it to the ground, though it is debateable as to whether any of us really turned up…

The ground itself oozes rural charm. Set up in the clouds, with sumptuous rolling hills as far as the eye can see in all directions, the boundary is patrolled by grazing sheep, and the air filled with the chattering of birds. That big shiny yellow thing in the sky even made an appearance, casting a pleasant haze across the undulating playing area. The wooden pavilion, the rusty roller, and the two hot air balloons that framed a glorious amber sunset, completed the picture book scene.

You may have noticed that your humble reporter is trying to avoid mention of the cricket. And with good reason…

As our hosts strolled out to bat first, the atmosphere of sedate rusticity was quickly despatched with – like most of our bowling. This was less village green cricket and more IPL (for those who eschew the rapid globalisation of our game, I refer to the Indian Premier League, rather than the Ipplepen Premier League). Anything short, wide, full (or, for that matter, on a good length) sat up nicely for the batsmen, who dealt almost exclusively in boundaries. Cheriton Fitzpaine had requested a slight change to the usual 20 over rules: no forced retirements at a score of 25 for an individual batsman. The optimists might have seen this as an admission that our hosts had a rather top-heavy batting order, and if we could skittle the top order cheaply we could expect to run through the middle order easily. Sadly, we never found out if this was true, and when the Cherries’ opener/skipper reached 50 he generously offered to retire anyway. Their number four was equally charitable to get himself out on 49. Would these acts of pity anger the Erratics into hyper-competitive mode? No.

That said, there were fleeting moments of Erratics control. Jeff’s ever dependable twirlers extracted a couple of wickets: one very calmly caught by a perfectly placed Dan (almost Magner’s advert style), just one ball after skipper Oughton had made the appropriate adjustment to his field placings. Oughton was, as ever, the pick of the bowlers, and managed to find the one spot on the strip that was kinder to bowler than batsman: a patch of moss on a length bowling down the slope, from which the ball invariably shot past the batsman at ankle height outside off as said batsman was left looking foolish executing a cut two foot higher than the ball - where the ball should have been. Not unusually, Gareth didn’t get the luck his bowling deserved, and a number of edges found their way to safety.

With the scoreboard already looking formidable, and two overs still remaining, bowling options were getting a bit thin. The captain enquired whether your humble narrator fancied an over up the slope. Full of early season bravado, I jumped at the chance to get amongst the wickets – especially as I would be bowling at ‘Jemmy’, who was feeling unwell, looked incredibly pale, and despite the balmy conditions had made his way to the crease with a thick blue fleece over his whites. Easy pickings. For him. 5 boundaries off the over later, your humbled humble narrator had played his part in letting Cheriton Fitzpaine amass 174 runs from their 20 overs.

Thankfully the chance to atone came around quickly, as myself and Greg Richmond went out to kick start our 9-an-over run chase. Four overs in and things were progressing nicely, with the scoreboard ticking at a respectable 7 an over, and a few lusty blows to the boundary had got the Cherries on the ropes. Well, not quite, and certainly not when your humble narrator shovelled an easy catch back to the bowler. Wickets fell regularly, with only Greg – in his first knock of the summer – showing that class doesn’t go rusty over the winter months, in compiling 30-odd runs. Most of the batsmen managed one or two heartening boundaries, but without going on to trouble the double figures category. But a complete collapse was averted thanks to Simon Orpen’s determination to enjoy himself (ahead of a 4am start on the trains the next day), and his dashing stroke-play dragged us over the 100 mark. Not a bad total given that the previous week we had won with just 97 (admittedly at a soggy Dunsford.) Despite being comprehensively outplayed in all aspects of the game, the Erratics were unanimous in deciding that it was the excellent catching of the opposition that had allowed them to edge it by just 71 runs.

A quick pint in the Half Moon, and an interesting discussion with Greg on the way home about the relative merits of various types of head of state (an elected Judy Dench being the best option, I think we determined) rounded off another very pleasant Erratics outing – despite the fact the cricket itself wasn’t worth mentioning.

Cheriton Fitzpaine Batting

Player name		Runs
extras TOTAL :	12w 1b 1lb for 3 wickets	14 171 (20.0 overs)
M Foan	Retired Not Out	50
R Hardeman	ct Haynes	0
K Webber	b Haynes	2
N Guscot	b Oughton	49
J Tricks	Not Out	43
P Brierley	Not Out	6
R Milton
S Frost
B English
A Goddard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
Greg Richmond	4.0	0	25	0	0.00	6.25
Jeff Haynes	4.0	1	25	2	12.50	6.25
Simon Orpen	3.0	0	29	0	0.00	9.67
Gareth Oughton	4.0	0	17	1	17.00	4.25
Ollie Creighton	4.0	0	43	0	0.00	10.75
Mark Hailwood	1.0	0	22	0	0.00	22.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting

Player Name		R	B	4s	6s	SR	Catches
extras TOTAL :	2nb 4w 2b 2lb for 10 wickets	10 103
Mark Hailwood	ct Frost	8	13	1		61.54
Greg Richmond	ct Guscot	34	24	4	1	141.67
Jamie Luo	ct Webber	3	11			27.27
Jonathan Kirby	b Guscot	7	8	1		87.50
Ollie Creighton	ct Goddard	10	12	1		83.33
Daniel Thistlethwaite	b Hardeman	0	3			0	1
Mark Phillips	lbw Guscot	1	4			25.00
Simon Orpen	b Goddard	20	26	3		76.92
Gareth Oughton	Run out	5	4	1		125.00
Jeff Haynes	b Brierley	4	8	1		50.0
Penny Price	Not Out	2	2			100

Cheriton Fitzpaine Bowling

Player name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
S Frost	4.0	0	28	1	28.00	7.00
K Webber	4.0	0	22	1	22.00	5.50
R Hardeman	2.0	0	8	1	8.00	4.00
N Guscot	2.0	0	5	3	1.67	2.50
A Goddard	3.5	1	16	2	8.00	4.17
P Brierley	3.0	0	21	1	21.00	7.00

Photos and video of Cheriton Fitzpaine v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Thu 24 May 2012 at 6.00 pm

Scorecard