Scorecard

Spreyton v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Wed 20 Apr 2022 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 13 Runs

Match report The Erratics have been preparing for the return to Spreyton since we took our first step away from that unholy ground in April 2021. The reactions of those individuals to have played, or some might say survived, that original meeting have been considerable and occasionally unfathomable. Some, such as Nigel Rutherford and Ben Youngman have cast the village from their maps, leaving only a gaping hole from Widdon Down to Itton. To these people, merely seeing the name ‘SpReYTon’ on a sign would be enough to send them down a dark path (but not the dark path to Spreyton). Others, like Mark Hailwood or Matt Crawford, would wake from a cold sweat from a dream of variable bounce to spend hours pondering the question of whether it is acceptable to set a field of nine deep mid-wickets. The rest thought only of revenge. It is said that Lee Grant will not find peace until victory is ours, his last 365 days have been spent in meditation and preparation – spending sleepless nights studying the mechanics of how a cricket ball bounces on different types of moss, sleeping in the far corner of Spreyton’s pavilion under a blanket made from the shards of cricket bats. I even hear rumours that he cooked and ate the dead sparrow omen that cursed our team since we first arrived fresh eyed and unblinking into the fog of Spreyton in an attempt to lift said curse. New recruits like Anuj Tiwari and Tim Fawcett have been raised on stories around the campfire of the fate to befall the troops who did not return from the last encounter. What new fresh horrors would we encounter? Perhaps the square would no longer be a square, but instead would curve and distort into the shape of a pentagram. Perhaps the stumps would be twice as long and twice as wide. Perhaps a wide would not be worth two runs but instead would mean that have to tell the batter an embarrassing story from your past before delivering your next delivery. – an extract from the ramblings of a lost Erratic.


I don’t know if I have seen Spreyton in the sunshine. It made for a pleasant change, as not only could we now see the surrounding hills of Dartmoor but also we could now see the other side of the ground. Lee won the toss (let Spreyton bat first because not all of their players had arrived) and we were in the field. Our opening bowlers, Mark Hailwood (tall, slow and accurate) and Anuj Tiwari (short, fast and less accurate) both started well. Mark using the weird bounce of Spreyton to his advantage and Anuj’s pace proving difficult to get away when he pitched it up. Anuj picked up the wicket of the opposition captain with a full delivery sending the stumps scattered to the wind. Mark nearly got a wicket but was let down by his in-field, which unfortunately set the precedent for the rest of the innings. Spreyton had 4 players retiring at 25 and all of them were dropped at some point – and this was not an Erratics fielding team that you could say would be expected to make multiple drops. Kyle and I bowled our way through the middle overs, the batters struggling to get us away when we bowled on a good length. Unfortunately we also threw in some not-good length deliveries which were always dispatched to the boundary meaning that the scoring rate remained high, and dropped chances meant that the wickets remained low. Captain Lee brought himself on and started his spell with a double bouncer and two full tosses before bowling a good full ball that hit the stumps and brought our second wicket. Tim Fawcett made his bowling debut at the other end and started with a maiden of tricky and confusing short pitched bowling. Mark and Anuj returned to bowl the last two overs. Mark’s first ball was promptly hit into the children’s play area but the rest of the over didn’t go anywhere near a play area. Anuj abandoned his accuracy and went for some runs in an over that saw us pick up a couple more wickets, Richard behind the stumps cleaning up after his own misfiled and causing a run out and finally, on the last ball of the innings, we took a catch with Kyle taking a good one in the deep. Alas it seemed that the damage was already done, with the opposition having racked up an intimidating 147, which Chris Ferro said was probably double what looked to be a par score on that wicket.

The Erratics were not to be so easily shut down by this negative viewpoint and took to the crease with nothing but belief. Perhaps we could win this game with brains and not with brawns. When Chris Ferro was dismissed in the third over, hitting a high full toss in the wrong direction, we gave up on brains and let brawns have a go. Matt hit two sweet sixes before stepping aside and allowing me to have a three-ball innings which included another one. When Jonathan was caught - placing it gently into the offside field, it was time for a short spell of recuperation before the final onslaught. Richard played a great innings, realising that his normal approach of driving the ball along the ground or over the in-field wasn’t going to butter any parsnips on this wicket, he adapted his batting style and hit some horrible and effective slogs into the tennis court until his innings was brought to an end by the call of dinner time at the retirement village. When captain Lee was caught off a skier, trying to force a boundary, the two newcomers came together at the crease. Tim and Anuj needed a tricky 54 from 24 balls and gave it a damn good go. “He’s only got one thing on his mind,” the bowler said of Anuj’s attempt to swipe every delivery from his vicinity. Quite what the bowler expected him to have on his mind was a mystery. Perhaps he thought that Anuj should be more worried about where the grill on his batting helmet had got to. Anyway, they were, in the end, unsuccessful and the Erratics fell 13 runs short with Tim bravely and entirely without purpose running himself out on the final ball. Spreyton thanked us for coming by providing us with hot dogs and brownies at the end of the game until it was very very dark and we all struggled to find our way back to the car park, which was unexpectedly full of cars – patrons of village hall’s night of Bridge. Perhaps next year we can give that a go. – an extract from the ramblings of a lost Fraser Chave.

Spreyton Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 8w 1b 1lb 
for 4 wickets
14
147 (20.0 overs)		     
J Mawte Retired Not Out  25
C Filor Retired Not Out  27
J Griff b  Tiwari 0
B Hancock Retired Not Out  25
G Skinner b  Grant 6
J Jackson Retired Not Out  25
R Wilkinson run out  Lindsay 24
W Cork ct  Wedgewood B. Tiwari 0
C Chastey Not Out  1
R Davis-Horne  
C Headly-Dent  

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mark Hailwood4.003300.008.25
Anuj Tiwari4.0030215.007.50
Kyle Wedgwood3.002300.007.67
Fraser Chave3.002300.007.67
Lee Grant3.0015115.005.00
Tim Fawcett3.012000.006.67

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 10w 2b  
for 6 wickets
18
134		        
Chris Ferro ct  Headly-Dent 7 10 1 70.0
Jonathan Kirby ct  Wilkinson 17 26 2 65.38
Matt Crawford b  Chastey 17 14 2 121.43
Fraser Chave ct  Chastey 6 3 1 200
Richard Lindsay Retired Not Out  27 25 1 2 108.00 1
Lee Grant ct  Mawle 7 11 1 63.64
Tim Fawcett Run out  22 14 3 157.14
Anuj Tiwari Not Out  13 11 2 118.18
Sivaraman Subramanian  
Kyle Wedgwood   1
Mark Hailwood  

Spreyton Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
C Headley-Dent4.0022122.005.50
R Davis-Horne2.001500.007.50
C Chastey3.001829.006.00
R Wilkinson3.0015115.005.00
J Jackson2.00900.004.50
B Hancock3.002700.009.00
J Mawle3.0026126.008.67