Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Dunsford on Sun 25 Sep 2022 at 12.30pm
Erratics Cricket Club Won by 1 Wicket

Match report Lee ‘Ben Stokes’ Grant and Penny ‘Jack Leach’ Price earn Erratics a remarkable win in feisty local derby with Dunsford at Teign Valley.

And 6/11 of them still aren’t sure what format of cricket they were playing…

12.30 start? 1pm start? Nah let’s just start at 12.38pm and we’ll field because they’ve only got about seven playing members here and 11 Erratics have been whited ready for at least 20 minutes whilst questioning which bit of grass is most playable.

Thus, Dunsford’s batting order not typically in order as the majority of their team did not arrive until after the proposed start time.

Their opening bat, a Dunsford-turned-Canberra-international back staying with the Pousties, gave more commentary to his batting than even yours truly could manage, shouting out throughout the first over “run two I don’t want the strike” and such like until he had to face eventually in the second over….he did not last long.
One for Fraser to check, but how often have all four wicketkeepers been in action over a weekend in two games? Such have been the wicketkeeping options with Paul Mollins, Andrew Forrester and Richard Lindsay that Krupps and JK have been padless, in the field and even bowling in the twilight period of the ’22 season. As such JK took the first catch at point to give Erratics the early breakthrough.

Erratics dominated the early stages against whatever order Dunsford put out based on arrival time, until CSG friend Ollie Chatterjee came in at eight. A self-confessed TFC specialist fielder for CSG now going from B to A Division next year (big congrats Chris Ferro, Krupps and co) Ollie has barely batted of late in league cricket, but some generous bowling soon made up for that at Teign Valley.

Lee Grant found full tosses to Chatterjee’s fancy, effortlessly, elegantly baseballing (yes that’s possible) sixes over the legside as Grant persisted with, again self-admittedly, the worst he’s bowled for the Erratics. {Followed by the best he’s batted for us…. more on that to come…bear with, LOTR/HP has 3-6/7 parts and it’s worth persevering with the build up for the crescendo (no that’s not a wizard spell)}.

Much to my annoyance Chatterjee then perfectly plinked two sixes half a foot over the immaculately placed deep fielder I had just spent adequate time positioning perfectly to take the catch.

He had to retire on 50 but soon came back in and did enough damage; 195=enough runs given to Dunsford (we thought) to make not too routine a chase for Crawford’s Erratics.

It was worrying when their skipper (batting with Chatterjee for a good while) had no idea what format or timings we were playing; fortunately they were all out three minutes before tea was due so he didn’t have the headache of whether to aim to bat past 200 after tea before declaring.

…

By teatime Annie and Duncan had of course turned up, once adequate cake consumed and pads donned, Annie took to distracting me at three with an addition to her new YouTube collection (free Annie-advertising here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL0s3r7d0gc) .
Kirby and Wright (not a comedic double act) put on six before the former fell for one, not quite interrupting the just finished video. Again, I found Martin Wright great company to bat with, the senior partner youthfully galloping back and forwards encouraging me out of breath and to plan for some winter fitness training. He reached 16, surprisingly without his trademark sight-screen-shot, no boundaries showing our excess of running for the 44-run partnership.

Prosser reached five before generously giving groundsman Charlie Poustie an lbw, allowing Cammack and Everett to enjoy part one of two late-season prolific partnerships-nearly putting on 50 as Oscar had 16 off 15 balls helping push the run rate up as all tried to work out how many overs we had left.

There was plenty of confusion from Dunsford as their skipper was unsure what to bowl his chargers (though in Timed Cricket anyone over 18 should have no limit on overs bowled).

As it was announced it was time to play 20 overs from drinks, umpires Penny & JK didn’t want us to have drinks ‘cause they’d only bowled 13 overs, but amidst so much confusion we needed a match organisation admin chat!
33 overs didn’t seem much to allow for a chase and they felt much the same-their players offering us the same number of overs to bat but at drinks captain Matt assuring that we would just play 20 overs more-he confident that was long enough to chase this down with our power-packed middle-order to come…

I lost my head shortly after drinks and chipped their Jack Leach to short extra for 48, leaving Weiler to come and go for a duck before I could get back out to umpire. Anuj hit a sumptuous six, as he does, but unlucky 13 setting up Grant to come back in to seek redemption for his baseball pitching.

As I went back to umpire, three of their players were still asking how it works, still with eight overs to go unsure where the 20 overs left came from.

It had been an odd day for umpires, earlier a triple-bouncing ball given as wides, some dubious byes given and plenty of four and six confusion all game with many landing very close to the rope.

£1-charity-shop-jumper-man, who apparently is the richest man in Dunsford had no idea what was going on but was loving the game chatting to me at square leg: “Not had a single close game all season” before this one…
Crawford and Grant needed 68 off 10 overs, skipper playing across a straight one for four before Mollins went for the same score. All down to Price and Grant with just 155 on the board, 40 more needed…. +1..?! Always unsure if runs required is one more than the board says or not….
Grant played some glorious strokes, his six over extra cover being the shot of the day. And of course, he did not have to retire as he passed 50 when last bat Price already with him.

It did start to get more and more niggly and feisty here-whoever said friendlies weren’t competitive!?

For a Sunday September friendly it was pretty feisty; Dunsford fuming for a four given that their own player had said was four. I then gave a controversial four decision as I believed young Joe Poustie had his tracksuit bottom on the boundary rope….

Meanwhile Dunsford arguing whether they give Lee one or all in to make him hit a boundary, but PP did the Leach role admirably seeing off bowlers of all types. No Garry Lyon moment with a shocking run out miss but there were a few chances as Grant chipped a couple into gaps as Dunsford kept getting their field placements wrong.
Penny edged behind for one between two ill-placed slips to seal the tie second ball of the final over!

Missed stumping next ball as the wicketkeeper missed the ball and head butted the stumps!

Yes I would have had to have given it out, then spent five minutes explaining to them that a tie is different to a draw as I had already been asked…

Penultimate ball Lee back foot punched in front of point to seal the victory with a ball to spare!!!

Despite the late start and all the faffing, the game was finished with plenty of daylight, the sun just dropping below the hills above Canonteign Falls after another ridiculously good game of timed cricket. And another Erratics win they really should not have had a chance to!
Oh wouldn’t that be a good idea for an Amazon Prime documentary about a Lee Grant knock.

Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes
Lee Grant: Phoenix from the Ashes

Harry Everett

Dunsford Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
195 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 7w 5lb 
for 9 wickets
17
196		        
Jonathan Kirby Caught  1 1
Martin Wright Lbw  16
Harry Everett Caught  48 5
Dominic Prosser Lbw  5
Oscar Cammack Caught  16 3
Martin Weiler Bowled  0
Anuj Tiwari Caught  13 1 1
Lee Grant Not Out  67 7 4
Matt Crawford Bowled  4 1
Paul Molins Bowled  4 1
Penny Price Not Out  2

Dunsford Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.