Scorecard

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics v Mystics and Magicians on Sat 03 Aug 2024 at 2.30pm
Match was Drawn

Match report Erratics vs Mystics and Magicians, 3 August 2024
Report by BYB

The Erratics' innings was in two lop-sided halves. In the first, five wickets were lost for 53 runs in eight overs and 30 minutes; in the second 155 runs were scored for the loss of four wickets off 34 overs in 2 hours.

The first half went as follows.

In the second over, Lindsay was bowled by a ball from M. Cook that kept very low (unlike others earlier in the over that had reared up). The cricketing gods have not smiled on Rick so far this season. Perhaps his burnt offerings haven't been up to scratch. (I hear they like them fatty.)

As he strode out to the middle, Putnam cheerily promised he wouldn't be long. A man of honour, he kept his word, promptly spooning one into M. Cook's safe hands.

Next, Goswani was trapped leg before, hoping to pull off one of his elegant and wristy back-foot strokes to a ball that was a fraction too full.

Forrester had looked in form – a lovely off-drive played 'on the up' enters the Erratics Hall of Fame, distributed virtually among the neurons of nine decades' worth of players and onlookers – but was then bowled by Joshi-Cale trying to repeat the trick. It has happened before and will happen again.

I don't know whether Matt Cook has any truck with the ideas of Sigmund Freud, but had the founder of modern psychoanalysis been among the spectators he would have been chuffed to witness a patricide as the son's viciously rising leg-spinner found the father's glove and rebounded to gully.

All of which, as already mentioned, left the Erratics 53 for 5 after not much more than half an hour, with Grant and Hailwood at the crease.

Here begins the second half of the innings.

Grant had been in savage form with the bat all season (c.f. his display at Branscombe) but could he perform under pressure, when it really mattered, in front of a large and hostile crowd of Mystics fans?* Of course he could. Like a handsome version of a deep-sea fish, the man simply does not feel pressure. Within moments he was smacking good length balls to the boundary with an air of embarrassed ease. He does make it look very easy. The power comes from timing rather than brute force – or perhaps there is just a soupcon of brute force – with huge sixes often pinging from a compact, checked stroke. It's a fine thing to behold.

*Okay, they aren't exactly Millwall, but Annie did boo your correspondent after he dismissed her son. He was quite scared.

Meanwhile Captain Hailwood joined the dots brilliantly. At one point he joined 38 of them. The pair put on 83 together, to which Hailwood contributed a single run. It was a captain's innings par excellence, as extraordinary in its own way as what was happening the other end (well, almost). Once the team had emerged from peril it flowered into some fine stroke-play, including a nifty on-drive – let's call it that – for four. By that time Grant had reached his century: 105 runs off 74 balls. One for the ages.

The Erratics finished on 208 all out: certainly not enough to feel safe versus a team containing two Chaves and two Cooks, but something, at least, to defend.

Tea was magnificent, marred only by BYB's weird vegan sandwiches (peanut butter, marmite and grated carrot) though scorer Mercedes unaccountably seemed to enjoy them.

And so to the Mystics innings. Of which, sadly, I can remember very little, since over six months have elapsed since I wrote the first part of this report. Strangely, however, one thing I haven't forgotten is my own bowling: 6 for 62, though one doesn't like to brag.

The scorecard reveals that Matt Cook scored 78 off 63 balls, including four sixes and ten fours. Sounds pretty typical of the man. And I do recall a nail-biting finish, as the Mystics' tail-end stood firm against what may or may not have been an onslaught. They ended at 195 for 8: a draw, with – fittingly – cricket the only winner.

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 13w 4b  
for 9 wickets
18
208		        
Andrew Forrester b T Joshi-Cale 6 15 1 40.0 1
Richard Lindsay b M Cook 4 5 1 80.0
Roger Putman ct T Joshi-Cale 0 3 0
Dhruba Jyoti Goswami lbw M Cook 1 3 33.33
Lee Grant ct F Chave 105 74 19 3 141.89 1
Chris Cook ct M Cook 4 4 1 100
Mark Hailwood ct J Thomson 16 85 2 18.82
Phil Power b F Chave 9 9 1 100
Anuj Tiwari ct F Chave 11 13 1 84.62 2
Ben Yarde-Buller Not Out  27 23 3 1 117.39
Paul Molins Not Out  7 17 41.18

Mystics and Magicians Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Tom Joshi-Cale7.0147223.506.71
Matt Cook7.012939.674.14
Sam Cook6.014400.007.33
Keld Van-Schreven6.031100.001.83
Fraser Chave11.0140313.333.64
Jim Thomson5.0033133.006.60

Mystics and Magicians Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 2w 10b 3lb 
for 8 wickets
19
195 (38.0 overs)		     
Duncan Chave ct A Forrester b. M Hailwood 15 28 3 53.57
Martin Sharland lbw C Cook 48 79 7 60.76
Matt Cook lbw B Yarde-Buller 78 63 10 4 123.81
Matt Crawford b B Yarde-Buller 15 19 2 78.95
Chris Squire ct A Tiwari b. B Yarde-Buller 0 1 0
Sam Cook ct A Tiwari b. B Yarde-Buller 6 8 1 75.00
Fraser Chave b B Yarde-Buller 0 1 0
Keld Van Schreven ct L Grant b. B Yarde-Buller 4 8 50.0
Sid Thomson Not Out  10 15 66.67
Tom Joshi-Cale Not Out  0 10 0
Jim Thomson  

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Anuj Tiwari7.013300.004.71
Mark Hailwood6.0123123.003.83
Ben Yarde-Buller13.0162610.334.77
Lee Grant6.004000.006.67
Chris Cook6.0024124.004.00