Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Rockley Gentlemen's Cricket Club on Sat 29 Aug 2009 at 2pm

Forgot password?
Register
Login

Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Rockley Gentlemen's Cricket Club on Sat 29 Aug 2009 at 2pm
Match was Drawn

Match report Match Report by Peter Thomson

It can’t be said that we had the better of this game. Rockley Gentlemen are a touring team from north Nottinghamshire. They have big cars, lots of wives and the best intentions. Having taken stock of our team, I suggested to the visiting captain that Rockley should bat first. (There was a real possibility that we wouldn’t score enough to make a decent game for a touring side.)

So, when we had them 49 for 6, I was squirming a bit. Not that I needed to worry. They’d more or less reversed their batting order, and the youth who came in at number 8 proceeded to splatter our bowling through the long grass, onto the road, deep into hedges and towards wherever Max Ellis was gamely fielding. James Burrows eventually bowled him for 96 in the last over before tea. There was something irresistible about his progress. I don’t suppose he was in for much more than forty-five minutes (much of it spent by our fielders looking fecklessly for several perfectly decent lost balls). His partner in the productive seventh-wicket stand was an altogether different kettle of fish. He was the kind of wafter who gets to fifty twice in a lifetime: today was the second (or maybe the first). Later he would keep wicket with a similarly uncertain touch, his radar not always up to tracing the path of the ball. But the Erratics can take some of the credit for giving him a day to remember.

What else was memorable about our time in the field? A tidy spell with the new ball from James and Penny: some leaden-footed fielding from me, shorn of the wicket-keeping gloves, but neat work from Sid Thomson, who was wearing them: a smart catch by John Pearson at mid-on: Jim Thomson’s tantalising early overs – before the high-scoring youth marmalised him: Phil Ellis steadying the bowling ship. Most of all, though, there was Chris Mellett’s moment of martyrdom. You know those portraits of Saint Sebastian hanging on a cross with his body full of arrows. Chris, at mid-wicket, was the recipient of the one that skewered his testicles. (When the same thing happened to him while he was batting, it was a pavilion proposal that the verb ‘to mellet’ should become part of the official Erratics vocabulary.)

It would be idle to pretend that we had a team easily capable of scoring at five an over, and any such pretence would have been soon exposed by the progress of our early batsmen. Jim Thomson lasted into the third over, but Chris Mellett and Guy Clarke batted serenely for quite a long time, but serenity is one thing and productivity another.

Rockley might have been suspecting that we’d set our sights on a draw from the start, but the truth is different, and it raises a point for connoisseurs. Putting on slow bowlers to invite a team to hit out can be counter-productive on wickets as slow as Dunsford’s. Chris in particular, but Guy to a degree also, is not of the bashing kind. As far as I remember, we’d scarcely passed 40 by the time the last twenty overs were announced. Guy had been smartly caught by then, bringing Martin Wright to the wicket for an all too brief flourish, and it was left to Sid Thomson to pick up most of the runs.

Eventually, Rockley brought on their fast man to get rid of a stubborn John Pearson (helping save the side for the second match in succession) and then, with the first ball of the last over, Penny Price. So James Burrows and I had to hold out for an inglorious draw, after which sausages, chips and conversation lasted for quite a time in the garden of the Royal Oak. At least I now know the truth about the bus service between Nottingham and Derby.

Rockley Gentlemen's Cricket Club Batting

Player name		Runs
extras TOTAL :	3w 1lb for 8 wickets	4 202 (42.0 overs)

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player Name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
James Burrows	14.0	3	47	3	15.67	3.36
Penny Price	7.0	1	20	1	20.00	2.86
Phil Ellis	11.0	1	52	3	17.33	4.73
Jim Thomson	7.0	1	49	1	49.00	7.00
John Pearson	3.0	0	33	0	0.00	11.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting

Player Name		R
extras TOTAL :	1nb 7w 8b 3lb for 9 wickets	19 98
Chris Mellett	Bowled	9
Jim Thomson	Caught	0
Guy Clarke	Caught	21
Martin Wright	Caught	10
Sid Thomson	Caught	27
Phil Ellis	Bowled	2
Max Ellis	Bowled	0
John Pearson	Bowled	6
James Burrows	Not Out	3
Penny Price	Bowled	0
Peter Thomson	Not Out	1

Rockley Gentlemen's Cricket Club Bowling

Player name	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy
No records to display.

Photos and video of Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Rockley Gentlemen's Cricket Club on Sat 29 Aug 2009 at 2pm

Scorecard