Scorecard

Ipplepen v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Wed 08 Jun 2016 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 59 runs

Match report Erratics spotted trespassing on professional cricket ground

It started out a relatively normal evening out for village cricket with the Erratics. Having been directed by google to a cul-de-sac in a village 5 miles away (presumably the club secretary for Ipplepen’s house) and arrived with only a few minutes to spare, I delivered captain Krupakar only to find out that other Erratics had been lost in a similar way and 4 still hadn’t shown. Perhaps said cul-de-sac saw the largest volume of traffic since the days of regular milk deliveries and ice cream vans that night?

An unfindable ground in the middle of Devon? So far, so village. Once found, however, it soon became obvious that this would be no ordinary game. The vast outfield, much bigger than any I’ve played on and was pristinely mown to putting green length. Indeed, up north, only the really expensive golf courses for stranded southern members of the nobler classes had such nicely mown putting greens. I digress…

The wicket was dusty and professionally marked, including “short”, “good” and “full” bowling length lines. The changing rooms were newly refurbished, and we were later to learn that their opening bowler was “their overseas player for the season”, which means he was here to get experience of English conditions and to improve for his home club. On commenting on how professional the team seemed, the skipper said “we have a T20 final at the weekend and we’ve put out a strong batting side to give the lads some practice”. Gulp turned out to be the right word.

Though it started out well enough. We did our best to look good during the warm up, my obligatory lap of the field, though more like the 10,000m, must have served as some intimidation as Gareth Oughton began with pace and bounce, taking a wicket and numerous drops (including one of his own, a ct and bowled chance he would later claim should have been Fraser’s ball), and only going for 4 runs off his opening 3 overs. Meanwhile, at the other end, Sophie Florides bowled down the steep and difficult slope with lovely control. Extracting edges that wouldn’t find the fielders, yet keeping things tight. As Fraser and Harry came on, the remaining Ipplepen opener was finding his higher gears and soon made a half-century in boundaries. As Harry was finding it difficult down the hill, he changed ends and I came on to replace him, bowling the sort of tempting pace tight line stuff that their batsmen were desperate to launch for 6. The high scoring opener holed out to Chris Ferro in my second over as the batsmen took mainly singles and the other chances either fell wide of a well placed field or just fell...

At the other end, Harry Molins was really getting his wheels on, and retired their number 3 hurt when a top edge hit him in the nose (I think). He was back from hospital (or wherever he had been patched up) before the end of the game, so all’s well that ends well.

Speaking of ending well, by the time Gareth came on to bowl his last, the Erratics probably needed their best T20 score to win, chasing 144. However, having only conceded 4 bowling up the hill for his first 3 overs, the last bowling down was not to be so economical. Though taking his second wicket to a lovely sharp catch by Chris Ferro, the last ball 6 over his head would take his final runs conceded to 22.

Needing 163 to win, we needed a big performance from our batsmen. However, with Chris Ferro, Krupakar and Fraser in the side, plus no retirement rule, there was always the chance of a big innings. We just had “the overseas player” to deal with. Left arm lightening with hooping away swing (to the right hander) best described what I was seeing, and our batsmen were finding it difficult. Well, most of them were. Mark Phillips opened with confidence, opening the face to guide our first boundary to 3rd man and taking a few nice singles. Fraser was clean bowled and both Chris and Krupakar would eventually play and miss at a few.

Mark’s assured start was to end prematurely at the other end, stumped to a much slower bowler, and bringing the partnership of Chris and Krupakar together. This was to be our best partnership with both tucking in nicely to the domestic bowling, Krups eventually caught for 20. Chris would carry his bat for 52 as a middle order collapse would see Matt Crawford, Paul Molins and Dan Thistlethwaite all fall trying to heave to the wiley young leggy into next week, with your illustrious reporter caught and bowled with a leading edge having arrived on the delivery a good 5 minutes before it was ready.

As Sophie and Chris played out the last couple of overs, we commented on how nice it was to be beaten on such a well looked after pitch and enjoyed a beer in the sunshine. Had this been village cricket? I leave such questions for those more experienced than I. However, I had fun and Chris got a 50. Maybe this wasn’t such an unerratic experience after all!

Danny Williamson

Ipplepen Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
162 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Gareth Oughton4.0122211.005.50
Sophie Florides4.003500.008.75
Fraser Chave2.002800.0014.00
Harry Molins4.0025125.006.25
Chris Ferro2.001100.005.50
Danny Williamson4.0035135.008.75

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
103		        
Mark Phillips Stumped  7
Fraser Chave Bowled  1
Jayakrupakar Nallala Caught  20
Chris Ferro Not Out  52
Matt Crawford Bowled  0
Paul Molins Caught  5
Daniel Thistlethwaite Bowled  0
Danny Williamson ct  & bowled 5
Sophie Florides Not Out  6
Harry Molins  
Gareth Oughton  

Ipplepen Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.