Scorecard

Warborough v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 06 Sep 2020 at 11.00am
Match was Drawn

Match report Mark Hailwood reports...

To qualify as such, an Erratics tour must involve games other than the cricketing kind. And so, on Saturday night The Six Bells played host to two - social distanced – tour classics: a Fraser Chave quiz, and a few rounds of Word Disassociation. Mark Searle, an applied linguist, relished the chance to show off his vocabulary a little too much [FINE]. As such, several members of the squad were a little later to bed – so I am told – than was ideal.

Still, Sunday morning reinvigoration was provided by our local guides, Bev and Mark Searle, who generously invited the campers to a garden breakfast of pastries, fruit and coffee. With the sun shining and the first independent review of ‘Unicorns Rampant’ arriving in Annie’s inbox (‘rather substantial’... ‘surely indispensable’... see here: http://www.cricketweb.net/books/the-erratics-unicorns-rampant-1995-2019/) the hangovers gently lifted.

Next stop, the Warborough village nets, nestled next to the allotments. What a fantastic facility for a club whose senior team only play friendly cricket! Captain Cook was determined that we not end the tour with three straight losses, so we were put through 90 minutes of competitive netting in the growing heat. There were dividends: Penny and Ed (Fraser’s university friend, known for wearing his cost at all times) both found their line and length, but your narrator took the last ball of the session – a Chris Cook drive – square on the toe [FINE: Chris Cook]. Suddenly that hangover was back, and now with a limp attached.

Mercifully it was feet up time, for the bowlers at least, as we returned to the picture-perfect village green for the second day in a row, to bat first against Mark Searle’s team, and our hosts for the weekend, Warborough and Shillingford CC. As the red kites soared overheard, the Erratics run rate did anything but. We were playing on the same wicket as we had the day before, and the shooters and spitters weren’t getting any easier to negotiate.

At breakfast, Mark had told us of a W&SCC tradition of recording in the scorebook the first words uttered by a dismissed batsman as they returned to the pavilion. On scoring duty myself, I took this up. Fraser, who gloved a leg side looper to the keeper after two glorious boundaries, offered ‘That’s the best I’ve felt all season’. Martin Wright, who battled for his 11 runs, met consoling words of ‘well batted’ with ‘Nah, crap’. Phil Power – who played a brilliant hand as anchor man, fighting tooth and nail for a crucial 31 – went with ‘Rats’. Sam Cook responded to applause for his hard hitting 29 with a polite ‘Thanks’. Chris Cook, bowled first ball by the Warborough off spinner’s ‘lower ball’, ruefully declared he would be ‘drinking the Golden Duck tonight’ (The Six Bells had prophetically put this cricket-themed ale on for the weekend).

Others chuntered words I did not capture, or which do not bear repeating, as we scratched our way to another modest total of 135 before declaring at tea. Much like the day before, we would have to fight hard to defend it.

On the whole, the bowlers rose to the challenge well, especially for day three of a tour. Ben was, as has been the case throughout this season, superb, and he and man-of-the-match Phil (mind you, he had taken Saturday as a rest day: FINE) were singled out for praise by opposition skipper Adrian Zagoritis in a generous post-match speech. The compliment was coming from a man who clearly knows his cricket, and ‘Zag’ had looked at one stage like he might single-handedly lead his side to victory with the bat, before our own captain brought himself on for a battle of the stags, and pinned his opposite number leg before. After that came redemption for Ed the Coat, who atoned for Saturday’s yips with a fine spell of fast and accurate seam bowling that deserved more than the 1 wicket it harvested.

All of these efforts kept the game in the balance, and with 4 overs to go our hosts needed about 20 to win with a couple of batsmen set. Cook gambled on bringing back your hobbling reporter, without a wicket all tour. Phil, who was tying things down at the other end, suggested that my wickets are like the proverbial buses in their frequency, and that one (or two) were about due. (I checked up on this pattern, and Phil is right. This year my first 15 overs took 2 wickets; my next 16 overs took 15 wickets; my last 34 overs have taken just 3). Anyway, as we entered the penultimate over Warborough needed about 10 to win the game, but my first ball secured the gentlest of bowled dismissals by just clipping the top of the leg bail and persuading it to fall forwards off the stumps. Right on time, and a nice moment for me in my 200th Erratics appearance. A wicket maiden ensued, and suddenly we were trying to bowl out Warborough to win. Phil snaffled one more, but the game ended drawn. Something to show for our weekend’s efforts at the last.

Most Erratics had a long journey back down the A303 to negotiate, so the after-match formalities were brief, but we thanked our hosts with a copy of the book and an Erratics cap for Mark Searle, who had curated our time in the village wonderfully. As we headed back west into the setting sun, the consensus on this new touring venture was unanimous: we’d be back next year.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 7 wickets
0
135		        
Fraser Chave Caught  8 2
Martin Wright Caught  11
Phil Power Stumped  31 3
Sam Cook Caught  29 4
Penny Price Bowled  4 1
Chris Cook Bowled  0
Duncan Chave Stumped  10 1
Martin Weiler Not Out  11 1
Jonathan Kirby Not Out  3 1 1
A.N. Other  
Ben Youngman  
Mark Hailwood  

Warborough Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Warborough Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
123 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mark Hailwood8.0232132.004.00
Ben Youngman7.021800.002.57
Chris Cook7.02832.671.14
Fraser Chave8.0029129.003.63
A.N. Other6.0221121.003.50
Penny Price1.00300.003.00
Phil Power5.001025.002.00
 
Photos and video of Warborough v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 06 Sep 2020 at 11.00am

Warborough and Shillingford CC (3)

Village cricket scenes

Warborough and Shillingford CC (4)

Chris Cook thanks our hosts after a close drawn game

Warborough and Shillingford CC (1)

The pavilion at Warborough

Warborough and Shillingford CC (2)

The view from the boundary