Scorecard

Marldon v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 18 Apr 2021 at 1.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 37 Runs

Match report Marldon 174 (Everett 5-41)
Erratics 138 (Everett 52)

The glorious weekend weather continued as the Erratics gathered at picturesque Marldon, full of tales from the previous day’s narrowest of defeats at Stokeinteignhead.

There was a lovely atmosphere behind the boundary as family and friends arrived to celebrate Marldon’s George Woodcock’s 18th birthday. It was reminiscent of Erratics days of old and all the sadder to remember two stalwarts of such gatherings have recently departed. Rita Thomson and Les Hanson RIP.

There was much discussion on how the Erratics had wintered. There were a couple of strong claims to extra fitness. Peter Colclough because he had been out exercising a new dog and Paul Molins walking miles as a new postman. Who knows if Lee Grant had been in training too but all eyes were on his feet or rather his bright blue and green new cricket boots.

Fraser Chave won the toss and inserted a youthful home team for the 40 over encounter. The Marldon openers made a steady start only losing their first wicket in the 13th over with 45 on the board; Tim McMath making the first of three sharp catches with a tumbling effort at slip off Phil Power.

From here Marldon lost wickets in batches; two at 45, two at 84, one at 97 and another two at 101. With 7 wickets down at this point a below par score looked likely. But some late hitting moved the score to 174 and a more challenging target. Seven batsmen had reached double figures – a consistency which provided the foundation of their total.

All the Erratic bowlers got some good early season overs in. Despite his new boots Lee struggled bowling down the not inconsiderable slope. When he later switched ends he immediately grabbed a wicket (1-27). Ben Youngman on the other hand had wanted to bowl down the slope but was given uphill duties. He was his typical metronomic self taking 1-20 off his eight overs.

Phil Power (2-36) took wickets at vital times and Matt Crawford tempted the birthday boy to drive hard and long but straight at Harry Everett who took the third of his catches to end the innings.
And it was Harry himself who topped the bowling charts with 5-41 and so actively participated in eight of the dismissals. It was his second fifer in just his third bowling performance for the Erratics.

In reply Fraser gave us hope by nonchalantly hitting two boundaries in the first over but this flattered to deceive. George, of birthday fame, was getting quite a head of steam up and clean bowled Fraser and then Peter next ball, with a vicious yorker. 13-2.

Jonathan Beverley (13) and Tim McMath (15) steadied the ship before a stinging shot by Jonathan was brilliantly caught low down. He rued “That was the best shot I hit all day”.

Talking of best shots now is probably the best time to account for the peculiarities of the local rules at Marldon. Being a tight knit ground with houses on one side and fields on the other every effort is made to discourage big hits that either lead to property damage or lost balls. So as a result any six on these sides counts for nothing if the ball clears the ground or just four if the ball rolls back into the playing arena.

This rule famously deprived Brian Carpenter of his only Erratics six. All these years later, he is still believed to be in therapy trying to come to terms with this.

Harry tested the rule to destruction hitting non sixes on both sides. One went sailing far into the distant fields prompting Fraser to reflect that it was ‘the best dot ball I’ve ever seen”. Ben Youngman later mastered the technique sending the ball high into the netting and then seeing it roll back on to the outfield for four.

So that was the local rules dealt with. But what about the Laws of the game? We had a good cricket quiz question when a Marldon bowler released a delivery that was both high and wide. Cue great discussion in the ranks about what takes precedence the wide or the no ball. The problem was that our resident official umpire Jonathan was out, well where else but umpiring. It was only on his return that we got the definitive answer – the no ball is the winner.

Annie Chave by this time had abandoned scoring and supporting and had moved into media darling role. She could be seen being interviewed at length by the boundary. Torbay Hospital Radio listeners should be in for a treat later this week.

Now where was I with the Erratics innings? Actually diversion is probably for the best because apart from an excellent 52, including ten 4s, by Harry, and some late resistance by Ben (16) we stuttered to 138 all out. Only four of us had reached double figures – the main difference between the two sides.

So not quite the excitement of the previous day but on a beautiful sunny April day we had all enjoyed a game played in the best of friendly cricket spirit.

Martin Weiler

Marldon's own reportcan be found but cutting and pasting the following link into your browser:
https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/marldoncricketclub/teams/145129/match-centre/0-4982762/report


Marldon Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 6w 10b  
for 10 wickets
18
174 (39.1 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ben Youngman8.0220120.002.50
Lee Grant8.0227127.003.38
Phil Power8.0136218.004.50
Harry Everett8.004158.205.13
Fraser Chave4.001300.003.25
Matt Crawford3.1027127.008.53

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 21w 2b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
25
138		        
Fraser Chave Bowled  8 2
Jonathan Beverley Caught  13 3
Peter Colclough Bowled  0
Tim McMath Bowled  15 3 3
Lee Grant Bowled  0
Martin Weiler Bowled  3
Harry Everett Caught  52 10 3
Matt Crawford Bowled  2
Ben Youngman Bowled  16 3
Phil Power Not Out  3
Paul Molins Bowled  0

Marldon Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.