Scorecard

Teign Valley v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Mon 29 Aug 2011 at 11 AM
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 3 wickets

Match report by Martin Weiler

Teign Valley retained The Stephen Fisher Memorial trophy but after gaining a far too large first innings lead they were given a run for their money as the Erratics fought back in what turned out a very closely matched finale.

The annual August bank holiday all day game at the stunningly beautiful Lower Ashton ground is a reminder to all that the season is nearing the end. So the two innings format gives players a double chance to perform before they start thinking about having to hang their boxes up for the winter.

The match is played in memory of Stephen Fisher (1930-2002), late of the Teign Valley parish, veteran Erratic slow (did it ever spin?) bowler, club President, organiser of the Isles of Scilly tour (1991) and for many years provider of breakfast for players camping at the ground before the big match.

The base of the trophy contains a sod cut from the cricket square of our long time home, Gras Lawn. It was during the very last game (1998) at Gras Lawn that, with Peter and Jim Thomson at the crease, news came that a Thomson Grandson had been born to Duncan and Annie. Fraser (what a great cricketing reference) was on the scene!

And now 13 years later here was Fraser out in the middle, playing alongside said Duncan, with various Thomsons looking on. All part of the wonderful Erratic family continuum.

Matt Cook was down to captain but he was skippered out (his Clyst St George having been relegated earlier in the weekend) so he persuaded Jan Heaton to do the morning’s honours with James Burrows taking over for the afternoon. Jan had enjoyed a better weekend leading Sandford Ladies (including Penny Price) to a big league win over Axminster Ladies.

We batted first and found the pace and bounce difficult to cope with. We stuttered along with Weiler, Matt Cook and Curtis all reaching double figures and Fraser outscoring his Dad. But 94-6 of 20 overs didn’t seem enough and it wasn’t.

Teign Valley tore into us with Clark (83) and Humphries (54) putting on a pretty savage 123 for the first wicket. We had lost any momentum and the home side raced on to 173-3 in their allotted overs. Only Duncan Chave with a double wicket maiden did any serious damage.

So a gloomy lunch knowing we already 79 behind and being asked to bat first in the afternoon. But our response was much better with Duncan leading the way with a beautifully crafted 95. All the more impressive given he was in some agony with a hip problem. Best line of the day came when Annie went out to administer some painkillers and was asked by a fielder if it was Viagra!

Duncan, out agonisingly close to a century, received double figure support from Hailwood, Heaton, Matt Cook and Weiler so that by tea we had reached 169-7.

But what to do? We only had a lead of 90. Should we bat on or declare? Oh how the arguments went back and forth. On the one hand there were the pragmatists – the rest of the Erratics were unlikely to score many so we might as well declare and get it over with and hit the pub early. Some, on the other hand, took the high moral ground and said we should declare because that was the proper thing to do (and that we could still get down the pub early!). No one seemed to think we had any chance of winning. So declare we did.

That sorted we could get back to enjoying the excellent tea – which rather unseasonably included Christmas Cake!

Refuelled we took to the field and gave Teign Valley the fright of their lives. At the core was a quite magnificent unchanged spell by James Burrows. James in his fourth decade of Erratic cricket (debut 1989) can rarely have bowled as well. He must have been tired but you would never have known as he got better and better, clean bowling all four of his victims in a 15-1-42-4 spell.

Matt Cook was an able assistant bowling a competitive 10-2-30-2; bowling effectively off both a longer and shorter run up. John Curtis weighed in with 4.2-0-11-1 but we just couldn’t put the brakes on quite enough and Teign Valley won in the deepening gloom. It had taken them nearly 30 overs to overtake us at 91-7.

The hosts were unfairly aided by a series of animal interruptions that clearly they are used to. There were extensive invasions by dogs, distracting screeches from owls and then finally the arrival of a couple of horses who headed for all the parked cars. “Oh it’s ok” said a Valleyman, “they only come over to lick the vehicles”.

Another fine day to add to many in the past. The trophy was handed over, speeches made and then it was, rather later than expected, finally down to the pub.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting - 1st innings
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
11w 1b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
13
94		        
Duncan Chave Bowled  1
Jan Heaton Caught  2
Martin Weiler Run out  29
Matt Cook Caught  25
John Curtis Caught  10
Mark Hailwood Not Out  9
Jeff Haynes Caught  1
Fraser Chave Not Out  4
Christopher Fear  
James Burrows  
Penny Price  

Teign Valley Bowling - 1st innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Teign Valley Batting - 1st innings
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 9w  
for 3 wickets
11
173 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling - 1st innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Burrows4.002000.005.00
John Curtis2.001900.009.50
Martin Weiler4.0123123.005.75
Duncan Chave4.0121210.505.25
Fraser Chave2.002700.0013.50
Jeff Haynes2.004100.0020.50
Christopher Fear2.002100.0010.50
Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting - 2nd innings
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
5w 2b 2lb 
for 7 wickets
9
169		        
Mark Hailwood Bowled  14
Jan Heaton Caught  18
Duncan Chave Caught  95
Matt Cook Caught  22
Martin Weiler Caught  10
Jeff Haynes Bowled  1
John Curtis Caught  0
Fraser Chave Not Out  0
James Burrows Not Out  0
Christopher Fear  
James Burrows  

Teign Valley Bowling - 2nd innings

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Teign Valley Batting - 2nd innings
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
5w 4b 1lb 
for 7 wickets
10
91 (29.2 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling - 2nd innings

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
James Burrows15.0142410.502.80
Matt Cook10.0230215.003.00
John Curtis4.2011111.002.54