Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Newton Poppleford on Sun 26 Jun 2022 at 1.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 6 Wickets

Match report Reporting by Matt Crawford.

On the 26th June, the Erratics played a game which was barely comprehensible.

It was the first game of the new era, the Teign Valley era, the first time we hosted a proper home match since 2013. Several members turned up early for a couple of hours of mowing, setting up, painting and readying the wicket, until the ground almost resembled a sports venue.

Just as well our opposition got lost on the way as preparation continued past the official start time of 1pm, and in the future we may adjust the order of preparation as when the opening batter of Newton Poppleford took his guard, he noted that the bottom of his bat now had collected some white paint.

Captain Mark Hailwood had won the toss but rather than asking Popplefield to bat, he requested the Erratics to field. Not a tactical decision due to the drizzle during the morning, hoping the pitch would dry up in time for the second innings, but to get the new era off to active start in the field. Once the game began, the clouds had departed for good and the sun was here to stay.

Hailwood started us off with a wicket, however we quickly realised that it was the batter at the other end who was going to be the problem.

Swatting, carving, thumping and smashing, Adey Junior held nothing back, punishing anything mildly short or full. The damp pitch made bowling tricky – not wanting to drop the ball too short so that it sat up nicely for the batter, or too full so they could hit a boundary on the front foot. Chances were given, including an LBW early on which looked a good shout as well as a few dropped opportunities in the field. Hailwood collected the 3 wickets of Adey’s various partners in a productive 8 over spell.

An intimidating 156 at drinks, there were murmurs of over 300 from the Erratics. Young Adel already had made his century before the break, and had no intention of stopping.
A little after the resumption, a controversial non-dismissal occurred when Adey hit a flat aerial shot straight to Lindsay at deep square leg. After the celebrations, and just before the batter crossed the rope by the pavilion, the umpire shouted to recall the player, who’s response was “Why?”, and much to the bemusement of the Erratics was informed that the catch had been taken while stepping on the boundary rope.

More sixes came and went, somehow only one ball was lost in an innings of 13 sixes, and it looked like the best way of escape would be to remove the batting partners of Adey rather than tackle the topscorer himself. That was until a second charge of the over to Chave Junior was unsuccessful and Forrester duly removed the bails. It was lucky our wicketkeeper was paying attention as after the innings he declared it was difficult to stay focused due to the lack of action behind the stumps- sorry Andrew, they were slapping us everywhere in front of the stumps! J Thomson made the bowling look easy, collecting 2 wickets and going for a measly 13 runs from his 4.1 overs at the back end.

A sprinkling of lower order runs hoisted the visitors up to 249, far beyond what was thought to be a par target, from seasons past the wise heads in the team would have expected 170. However this is a new era, and as they say, stranger things have happened.

A fantastic collaborative tea was put out, including various sandwiches, cakes for days and a homemade humous from Stroud. The break was much appreciated by the home side, and we considered not returning to the middle and instead calling it a day.

But dutifully Lindsay and Chave senior strode to get the innings underway, and did so with vigour and boundaries. Duncan was imperious, the ball flew to all parts as he raced to 50, with three sixes. His undoing was forgetting to hit the ball and was bowled.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Lindsay was enjoying being dropped numerous times to various fielders particularly on the off-side, but was also enjoying his share of the boundaries, tucking into the bad balls with some enormous shots towards the long grass.

It was chilly in the shade, and gusty at times. As F Chave began to establish his innings which became gutsy rather than gusty. He thumped his way to a second 50 in as many days, punishing the balls sitting up, over the hedge, and cutting those that didn’t. At the halfway point the Erratics had reached 148, keeping up with the rate still with 8 wickets in hand.

A visit from Our President, fresh from his morning visit to Devon vs Cornwall encouraged the team, it is good to see him still willing to chip in with a 20-minute search for a ball.

F Chave was caught trying one big shot too many off the bowling of Adey Senior, who then went on to unfortunately collect the wickets of Kirby and Liley. This brought Crawford to the crease, with the equation resting at 60 required from 13 overs. A generous over with a couple of shoulder height no balls went for 21. The final runs were kindly brought up by extras, the Erratics victorious with 6 overs not required.

Lindsay remained not out, albeit with the support of some of the field but nonetheless played an admirable innings, splaying 13 boundaries whilst taking a ball to the shoulder and batting with a strained calf, and his top score so far for the Erratics, of 81. A near impossible looking chase was made to look easy by our three half-centurions.

An incredible day of 500 runs, the Erratics were left baffled and trying to work out what had just occurred, and was of course finished in the Lower Ashton pub, the sun still beating down.

England have Bazball, the Erratics have Alfball.


Fraser’s stats bank:
4th highest successful chase by the Erractics
First time that the top 3 all scored 50+
5th time that any 3 Erratics all scored 50+
Duncan Chave passed 7000 runs and Matt Crawford passed 1000 runs for the Erratics.
Exactly 500 runs in the day, in just 69 overs.

Newton Poppleford Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2w 3b  
for 10 wickets
5
249 (35.1 overs)		     
L Adey (jnr) st  Forrester B. F Chave 160
K White ct  Kirby B. Hailwood 0
L Adey (snr) b  Hailwood 9
R Coombes ct  Lindsay B. Hailwood 4
M Raistrick ct  & B. F Chave 28
C Davies ct  Thomson B. D Chave 5
A Chesham ct  & B. F Chave 16
R Hartland ct  F. Chave B. Thomson 7
K Clay ct  Liley B. Thomson 13
K Phillips ct  Hailwood B. F Chave 0
A Perram Not Out  8

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mark Hailwood8.0251317.006.38
Matt Crawford8.006000.007.50
Fraser Chave8.0162415.507.75
Duncan Chave5.0049149.009.80
Jim Thomson4.111326.503.12
Russ Liley2.001700.008.50

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
6nb 12w 8b 3lb 
for 4 wickets
29
251		        
Duncan Chave b  Chesham 56 43 6 3 130.23
Richard Lindsay Not Out  81 76 12 1 106.58 1
Fraser Chave ct  Adey (snr) 53 35 5 3 151.43 3
Jonathan Kirby ct  Adey (snr) 5 8 1 62.50 1
Russ Liley ct  Adey (snr) 0 7 0 1
Matt Crawford Not Out  26 21 5 123.81
Mark Hailwood   1
Andrew Forrester   1
Jim Thomson   1
Sean Webb  
N.O. One  

Newton Poppleford Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
A Perram8.012500.003.12
K Phillips5.005400.0010.80
A Chesham4.0041141.0010.25
K Clay1.001200.0012.00
C Davies6.003500.005.83
L Adey (snr)7.0162320.678.86
L Adey (jnr)2.201100.004.71