Scorecard

Belstone v Erratics Cricket Club Erratics on Tue 26 May 2026 at 6.00pm
Erratics Cricket Club Lost by 23 Runs

Match report Match report by Paul Carr

I’d like to tell you about another hard-fought, erratic victory against the odds. I’d like to, but I can’t as (spoiler alert) we lost. There are many reasons for this that will become clear as we go on. The first contributory factor may be cited as the loss of the toss. It feels churlish to blame the captain, but it is obvious that it is his fault as he called wrongly. That is the captain’s job after all, 50/50 chance and all that. I mean, a horse could probably have a decent go at it with a hoof. That said, I don’t know how good horses are at pointing, although I have watched dressage, and that is amazing. Who knew horses could dance!? Anyway, I seem to have gone a little off-piste. The main thing is we lost the toss, which meant we had to field in temperatures that wouldn’t have seemed out of place on Venus. To say it was hot would be something of an understatement. We are talking about temperatures so hot that Brad Causley was forced to wear a bucket hat (something he must never be allowed to forget).

To the match. After dragging ourselves to our fielding positions, we awaited the metronomic arm of Mark Hailwood to guide us through the opening overs. As is customary, he bowled 4 accurate overs that asked many questions of the experienced Belstone batsmen. It was a herculean effort to even stand in the heat, let alone bowl, and he can consider himself very unfortunate not to be rewarded with a wicket. Jon Robertson took on the challenge from the other end with some lightning pace matched by unerring accuracy. Taking two beautiful wickets with one ball, jagging back to trap Bancroft LBW, and one caught magnificently by Fraser. Carr followed with a strange tactic of bowling balls straight up in the air. It was with one of these balls (which was briefly officially recognised as a new planet) that the batsman managed to curtail his innings by scooping the ball into the safe hands of Will. It was one of those wickets that was all down to the batsman and nothing to do with the bowler…. and I bowled it. It was embarrassing, really, but I have made up for it since by not doing it again. From there, the opposition batsman developed a frustrating habit of hitting the ball really hard and really far. Despite this, the whole bowling attack stuck to their task commendably, with Will Luscombe bowling an absolute beauty to remove Ralph. Leaving the field very sweaty and a few kgs lighter, it was some effort to restrict the opposition to 156.

Unfortunately, for our reply, the temperature seemed to drop to a much more comfortable level. The result is that the opposition could bowl with less fear of death. In fairness, they stuck to their task diligently, with their fielding being particularly impressive. Admittedly, we didn’t help ourselves by consistently hitting the ball directly at their fielders. Still, there were some excellent performances. Richard produced a patient and measured knock and was unlucky to get out just before retiring. Brad produced some signature straight drives to give us a fighting chance, but from there, we just couldn’t quite keep pace with the run rate. This was despite the best efforts of Fraser, who produced a swashbuckling performance with one six that can only really be described as ‘sexy.’ The result may not have been what we wanted, but as always, it was an excellent example of the Erratics abilities to battle against the elements. So the things we can blame the loss on include the heat, the pitch (clearly swapped between innings), and the fact that their bats were ever so slightly bigger than ours. Onto the next one!




Belstone Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 8w  
for 9 wickets
9
156 (20.0 overs)		     
Brad Curtis ct  J Robertson 8 13 1 61.54
Will Bancroft lbw  J Robertson 5 13 38.46
Dale Chadwick b  B Causey 28 11 3 2 254.55
Craig Penberthy ct  F Chave 21 8 3 262.50
Andrew Hooper b  F Chave 2 10 20.0
Shaquan Glasgow Not Out  48 15 5 4 320.0
Dave Smallacombe Not Out  14 21 1 66.67
Giles Heard b  L Grant 0 2 0
Joseph Woolnough ct  P Carr 5 8 1 62.50
Andrew Ralph b  W Luscombe 3 9 33.33
Kian Burns b  B Causey 13 11 2 118.18

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Mark Hailwood4.003300.008.25
Jon Robertson3.0024212.008.00
Fraser Chave4.0033216.508.25
Lee Grant2.0022122.0011.00
Paul Carr3.0014114.004.67
Will Luscombe2.0010110.005.00
Bradley Causey2.0020210.0010.00

Erratics Cricket Club Erratics Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 15w 3b 3lb 
for 6 wickets
25
133		        
Richard Lindsay ct  W Bancroft 24 33 3 72.73
Joseph Liyo b  J Woolnough 10 13 1 76.92
Mark Hailwood ct  D Chadwick 4 13 30.77
Bradley Causey Retired Not Out  25 22 3 113.64
Will Luscombe ct  W Bancroft 2 10 20.0 1
Lee Grant ct  D Smallacombe 5 3 1 166.67
Bill Gilmour-White b  G Heard 1 6 16.67
Fraser Chave Not Out  32 16 2 2 200 1
Jon Robertson Not Out  5 8 62.50 1
Peter Colclough  
Paul Carr  

Belstone Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Joseph Woolnough3.0010110.003.33
Dale Chadwick3.0017117.005.67
Andrew Ralph3.001300.004.33
Brad Curtis3.002600.008.67
Will Bancroft4.0023211.505.75
Dave Smallacombe2.0012112.006.00
Giles Heard2.0026126.0013.00