Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Clyst St George on Sun 07 Aug 2005 at 2pm
Match was Drawn

Match report by Brian Carpenter.

NB This is match consisted of 2 innings per side - 16 overs and then 40 overs. Clyst batted first, and were overtaken on the first innings by the Erratics to the tune of 17 runs. This gave the Erratics the option to bat first in the afternoon session, which they did. Clyst St George finished 21 runs short of the Erratics total, but still had 2 wickets standing. The result was therefore a Draw.

A sunny Sunday in August, 2005. The eyes of the cricket world are fixed on one of the game’s most historic venues, where two of its oldest and most passionate opponents are contesting a match which could help to shape the destiny of the sport for years to come.

And, at Edgbaston, England are playing Australia.

The participants in the day’s main contest are tense. They search for any excuse to delay the start of a match which will have a profound effect on their cricket careers.

Due to some unaccountable scheduling error Channel 4 have decided to ignore the match which has brought the whole of Devon to fever pitch and transmit live coverage of the Test match, and both Erratics and Clyst players are happy to gather to watch the first few overs of a day which clearly means a lot to those taking part. For men such as Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff and Michael Vaughan it is a rare opportunity to appear on television and it is clear that the pressure is showing. After all, for these people, cricket is just a game. Something they play at weekends as a means of leaving the cares of their working week behind. For us, it is serious.

Eventually though, with the international match delicately poised - Australia require some 80 runs to win with their last pair together - it is decided that we can keep the rapidly assembling crowd waiting no longer. Clyst St.George will bat first and the Erratics take to the field...

The home side are rapidly in trouble as Adam Thomas moves one away from one of the openers and Chris Cook pouches the low slip catch with his customary lithe athleticism. Soon afterwards his eldest son Matthew runs out another hapless Clyst batsman with a direct hit from mid-off. The Erratics are dangerously close to looking like a proper cricket team.

It can’t last, though, and it doesn’t, with a brace of dropped catches off the unlucky David Pearson (the guilty men being Kember and Carpenter, who's becoming so used to dropping catches that he barely wobbles) releasing some of the pressure and allowing Clyst to reach a respectable 77 for 6 off their allotted 16 overs.

As the Clyst innings draws to a close there is a loud and prolonged cheer from the pavilion. Edgbaston has been plunged into scenes of wild celebration, the like of which have not been seen on the ground since 1981. It transpires that the Clyst score has been announced to the crowd, most of whom, such is their excitement, fail to notice that England have just completed victory over Australia by two runs.

Everyone is pleased, and with the vivid aromas of what will surely be a magnificent lunch beginning to waft over the ground, and the rapidly expanding crowd of Vice-Presidents and their spouses salivating, the Erratics openers, Sam Cook and Adam Thomas, take to the field and give the innings the impetus it requires. Sam’s first scoring stroke is a towering six and he quickly follows it with another, while Adam sends a deceptively casual flick off his legs into the small huddle of cars and tents at deep square leg, the disappearing ball being followed by the unmistakeable sound of leather on metal as it thuds into a vulnerable vehicle.

The ball cannot be found so the innings progresses with a replacement while we wait for the irate camper to stomp over and demand recompense.

This, however, is not the end of the day’s controversy. Oh no.

An Erratic batsman - one’s memory has already faded but it was either Adam Thomas or Matt Cook - deposits another huge six over midwicket, but, almost before it has landed, Richard Hitchcock, who is umpiring at the bowler’s end, calls and signals ’dead ball’ on account of the fact that certain fielders had not taken up their positions before the ball was bowled. Whether or not this was the correct thing to do (and one can’t escape the feeling that the Clyst bowler ought to have been paying more attention to what his fielders were doing) it has the effect of sending the Erratics innings into freefall, only Matt resisting to the tune of a punchy 25 before he is required to retire. Remarkably, the Clyst skipper, Paul Laverick, rips through the middle order, bagging Martin Weiler lbw for a second ball duck and, even better, Chris Cook, well caught down the leg-side by the Clyst keeper off his first delivery. Laverick’s celebrations are extravagant, and rightly so. Any failure is a rare experience for Chris, let alone a golden duck against the side for whom he has graced many Devon League summers. Eventually Matt is allowed to resume and sees the Erratics first innings through to a conclusion on 94 for 9 off 16 overs; Laverick’s figures are a scarcely-credible 6 for 9 off just 3 overs.

Lunch turns out to be as good as anticipated, but the Erratics are soon batting again. This time the dropped catch culprits of the morning, Joe Kember and Brian Carpenter, open the innings. Unfortunately Carpenter, perhaps sub-consciously intimidated by the presence at lunch of one of his adolescent heroes, the Clyst Vice-President and former Middlesex wicket-keeper Keith Brown, falls early after electing to play no stroke to a booming inswinger and hearing it cannon into his stumps. Kember sticks around though, and, with Jonathan Kirby next in, the score starts to tick over. Kember makes a solid and stylish 18, Kirby a more flamboyant 32, and with those two out, a vividly contrasting partnership takes shape between the Erratics’ two most experienced players.

Chris Cook, determined to atone for his morning lapse, is the very paradigm of immaculate acquisitive batsmanship, while Martin Weiler nudges and nurdles, swishes and swipes like the mutant progeny of two of his great cricket heroes, Owais Shah and Peter Parfitt. Weiler eventually falls for 21, but Chris goes on to make an elegant 78, a knock which acts as the fulcrum of the second Erratics innings. Cook’s masterful hand is not without its travails, however. When Matt comes to the wicket for the second time, father and son manage to combine for several overs of touching familial harmony. Can it last? Can it heck.

After one or two misunderstandings straight from the Denis Compton/Geoff Boycott/Graeme Wood school of running, Matt is run out for a mere 4. For a player of Matt’s burgeoning class this is a meagre score indeed, and he stomps off looking for all the world like someone who is about to wreak vengeance on the defenceless Clyst pavilion. However, realising that if he does so he will become a contender for the 2005 Wobble Trophy Matt thinks better of it and slumps philosophically in front of the scorers’ table to see the Erratics innings conclude on 191 for 8 when tea is taken. Clyst require 209 to win.

Batting for the second time as the evening shadows begin to lengthen, Clyst lose a couple of early wickets and are forced to retrench. Steve May relies on naked aggression to turn the tables and he briefly succeeds, hitting a succession of boundaries on his way to a powerful 66. He would have scored 72 if it hadn’t been for a further strange incident which (surprise, surprise) again involves Adam Thomas. Thomas is fielding on the deep midwicket boundary when May picks the ball up off his legs and it sails into the air looking for all the world like another six. Adam positions himself under the ball and manages to catch it, although the power of the stroke and the velocity of the ball carry him over the boundary.
Although by this stage your scribe is watching from the scorers’ table, having retired from the fray with a minor hamstring strain, he manages to get a reasonably clear view of what ensues. It looks as though Adam manages to let go of the ball as he is flying through the air, releasing it back into the field of play. Adam protests that it isn’t a six, May protests that it is, and, because nobody present knows the law (or perhaps because they do), no runs are awarded, and this (as per Law 19.3) subsequently appears to have been the correct decision. Once May has gone it is clear that Clyst are going to find it very difficult to stay up with the required run rate, and, despite good contributions from Ollie Whitton and Nick Dubuisson and a huge first-ball six by Laverick off Cook Senior, Clyst are left to fight for the draw.

Chris decides that his best option is to bring on the rarely-used off-spin of Martin Weiler, who sees an opportunity to try to emulate another of his heroes, the one and only Fred Titmus. Sadly the reality does not live up to Weiler’s expectant fantasy, and a fine game ends with Steve May’s eight year-old son James creaming him through the covers for two, to see the Clyst innings to a close on 187 for 8 and the match to a draw.

It is a beautiful evening and most of the players stay for the usual round of reminiscence and recrimination, the evening’s best tale surrounding a village cup tie in which Clyst were all out for 6 after a last wicket recovery from the depths of 0 for 9. Various senior Erratics counter with the memorable tale of the time Bickleigh were bowled out for 7 at Gras Lawn. And so on and so on…

It’s been a great day for cricket. England have beaten Australia, and, more importantly, the Erratics and Clyst St.George have drawn.

I wonder if Freddie Flintoff would like a game at Teign Valley next week?

Clyst St George Batting - 1st innings
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 5w 11b 3lb 
for 6 wickets
20
77 (16.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling - 1st innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting - 1st innings
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 3w 6b 2lb 
for 9 wickets
14
94		        
Jonathan Kirby Bowled  1
Sam Cook Bowled  20
Matt Cook Not Out  25
Adam Thomas Caught  16
Martin Weiler Lbw  0
Chris Cook Caught  0
Joe Kember Caught  0
Peter Hinds Lbw  2
Simon Topping Bowled  2
David Pearson Bowled  1
Brian Carpenter Not Out  2

Clyst St George Bowling - 1st innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.
Clyst St George Batting - 2nd innings
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
187 (34.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling - 2nd innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Peter Hinds5.0022122.004.40
Adam Thomas9.0133216.503.67
Joe Kember2.001200.006.00
Matt Cook3.0024124.008.00
Sam Cook4.003700.009.25
David Pearson4.0129129.007.25
Chris Cook5.001628.003.20
Martin Weiler2.00900.004.50

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting - 2nd innings
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
191		        
Joe Kember Lbw  18
Brian Carpenter Bowled  0
Jonathan Kirby Bowled  32
Chris Cook Caught  78
Martin Weiler Caught  21
Matt Cook Run out  4
Nick Birbeck Bowled  8
Peter Hinds Stumped  1
Adam Thomas Not Out  10
David Pearson  
Simon Topping  

Clyst St George Bowling - 2nd innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.