Scorecard

Marldon v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Sun 24 Apr 2022 at 1.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 9 Wickets

Match report What a joy to be back playing cricket on such a beautiful spring day. Marldon was looking at its best and the orchestral delights of the birdsong that greeted the start of play memorable. The stage was set for an impressive all round display from the Erratics – smart skippering, tight bowling, sharp wicket keeping and exceptional catching all paving the way to a comfortable victory. And then there was the strange case of ‘Dog stops play’. But more of that later.

Fraser Chave won the toss and chose to field first. He was surprised to have to make a decision. “I never win the toss” he said. “It did my head in”. Clearly it hadn’t because with just 4 runs on the board he switched Richard Lindsay to reinforce the offside. And two balls later Richard snaffled a mistimed drive enticed by the ever dependable Ben Youngman (1-16). Good work skipper!

There was much talk about the Erratics poor fielding at Spreyton when it was reported that 6 catches went down. It was the complete opposite at Marldon. Matt Crawford safely took the second one to give Rithvik Gutha reward for a tight spell (1-8). Rithvik had caused raised eyebrows when he elected to bowl round the wicket down the slope. The home umpire asking if he was sure - “have you ever played here before?” But it was a good call from Rithvik who only conceded four scoring shots off his 6 overs.

Jonathan Kirby enjoyed a productive time behind the stumps particularly when Matt Crawford was bowling. A catch and stumping are in the book but there were strong shouts for nicks on two other occasions. Matt bowled really effectively and went on to record a career best 4-26.

The standard of catching was of the highest order. Fraser held on to two caught and bowled efforts that were absolute humdinger of shots. When I mentioned how unErratic it was to hold on to those thunderbolts Fraser sidestepped the glory and said “if anyone can catch it, Hugo can”.

The aforesaid Hugo Longrigg was soon proving the point with one of the best Erratic catches I have ever seen. Matt was brought back into the attack and went for 4 first ball. The number 10 fancying this then launched a massive hit far to the left of Hugo and up a slope. Somehow he not only made it to the area it was spiralling down into but, watching the ball every step of the way, he dived and held on to the ball one handed. Quite outstanding.

Marldon had simply never got going and kept being pegged back by the Erratics attack. Fraser contributed a lovely spell of 4-2-4-3 and Kyle Wedgwood joined in the wicket taking with 1 -14. Five different Erratics took wickets and there were 7 catches and a stumping.

Marldon would have scored a few more but for the local rules. On one side if you hit a six you only get four to try and protect bordering houses. Erratics Alumni Brian Carpenter still has nightmares about what would have been his only six being so reduced. On the other side if you hit it out of the ground you don’t get any runs at all to try and reduce the number of lost balls. We benefited from strikes on both sides and Marldon only made it to 95.

The Erratics, responding, made relatively light work of this total. This was mainly down to Anuj Tiwari, our new recruit having arrived in Exeter, via two years in Japan, to do a Bioscience Phd. He quickly got down to business with a six and then eight fours with a combination of stylish and hard hit strokes. Having scored 50; Fraser invited him (well, ordered actually) to retire which he did with great grace and speed.

As the Erratics moved relentlessly towards victory there was much comment on the encouraging sight of families watching the game on the village green. Several groups consisting of at least three generations were having an idyllic Sunday afternoon. But also keen to enjoy the action was a black dog.

No one quite knew who this four legged friend belonged to but the dog clearly felt it belonged to the ground. Play was stopped as it wandered imperiously around the outfield. Then things deteriorated. Carefully choosing a spot behind the bowlers arm it left a large deposit on the field. Thankfully one of the watchers was a dog person and did the necessary with a poop bag.

As Erratics discussed what number we should send the dog into bat at, Matt made an early bid for the joke of the season with “Number Two, of course”.

Finally the game got going again and a patient Tom Bennett Hughes (10 not out) and more belligerent Hugo (22 not out) saw us over the line in the 23rd over.

So an early finish and all the more time to retire to the garden of The Church House Inn where there was much chatter of catches, sixes and black dogs.

Martin Weiler

Marldon Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
8w 2b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
11
95 (32.5 overs)		     
S Rowsell ct  Crawford B. Gutha 10
Morris ct  Lindsay B. Youngman 4
A Claridge ct  Kirby B. Crawford 10
Simcox st  Kirby B. Crawford 18
Bonnett ct  & B. Chave 0
J Roberts b  Wedgewood 22
J Wakeley ct  & B. Chave 0
M Pragnell b  Chave 0
J Waugh ct  Lindsay B. Crawford 5
D Siddall ct  Longrigg B. Crawford 15
H Roberts Not Out  0

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Rithvik Gutha6.03818.001.33
Ben Youngman8.0216116.002.00
Matt Crawford6.502646.503.80
Fraser Chave4.02431.331.00
Kyle Wedgwood4.0114114.003.50
Hugo Longrigg4.012400.006.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 7w 4b 1lb 
for 1 wickets
13
96		        
Anuj Tiwari Retired Not Out  50 59 8 1 84.75
Richard Lindsay ct  Siddall 1 5 20.0 2
Tom Bennett-Hughes Not Out  10 52 1 19.23
Hugo Longrigg Not Out  22 20 4 110.0 1
Martin Weiler  
Kyle Wedgwood  
Jonathan Kirby   1 1
Rithvik Gutha  
Fraser Chave   2
Matt Crawford   1
Ben Youngman  

Marldon Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
J Wakeley8.021900.002.37
D Siddall6.0036136.006.00
J Roberts5.01900.001.80
J Waugh2.001800.009.00
H Roberts1.40900.005.40