London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Saturday 28 June 2003
London Erratics v V&A
at Stonor

Not quite

With Tony Poulter dropping out (hit on the head by a bouncer the previous day), the Erratics arrived with ten men. The V&A won the toss and elected to bat on a hot sunny day.

Matthew Neal has become a specialist at picking up wickets from leg-side tickles. David Brook, on the other hand, had the batsmen playing at thin air, ball after ball; and when he did find the edge, again he was let down by the fielding. At lunch, the V&A had reached 76 for 1.

Most of the bowling after lunch was done by the two Johns, Booth and Truscott. They tightened up both ends, and John B got three wickets in a couple of overs — amongst them a good diving catch by Nasir Khawaja to where the slips would have been. The fall of the sixth wicket shortly afterwards saw the bad-tempered V&A fast bowler come to the crease, and he launched an assault on John T, despatching him for two fours and two sixes in one over; John held his nerve and had his revenge in the next.

The later batsmen swished merrily, and John B (when not hurling abuse at his fielders) helped himself to another two wickets — including the mouthy No. 5, caught at mid-wicket off the last ball of the innings for 49 (shame).

V&A — batting
1		b Booth	33
2	c Khawaja	b Neal	4
3	c Khawaja	b Booth	42
4	lbw	b Booth	1
5	c Rivington	b Booth	49
6	lbw	b Booth	8
7		b Truscott	25
8		b Booth	12
9	not out		1
10
11
202 for 8 dec
Fall of wickets: 1–5; 2–91; 3–92; 4–97; 5–125; 6–162; 7–191; 8–202

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
	Brook	10	3	21	0
	Neal	8	1	55	1
	Booth	14.5	1	54	6
	Rivington	1	0	4	0
	Truscott	10	0	49	1
	Bush	2	0	11	0

After a tireless display in the outfield, debutant David Penhallurick deserved a long stay at the crease; instead he got the wrong end of shocking decision. Chris Dunabin, on the other hand, looked in frisky mood, and had pushed the Erratics along to 30-odd for 1 at tea.

After the ball had dribbled on to Chris’s stumps, David B batted with vim, and put on 46 with James Rivington. A rather restrained Michael Evans then top-edged a kid bowler to mid-wicket. James had played a couple of nice shots, but became the fourth victim of the V&A quick — who was putting in an unusually measured performance so that he could bowl through the innings unchanged.

As the skipper joined John T at the wicket, the asking rate had climbed to 6.6 off the last 13 overs. The two classy batsmen chased valiantly, but never managed to get on top of the run rate. Perhaps they were playing almost too correctly and some outrageous slogging was needed to shock the opposition. When John T was out off the last ball of the penultimate over, they had put on 67 — but the Erratics were still 19 short. Some final-over mayhem provided entertainment to conclude an enjoyable day.

Footnote: on the following day, James Rivington played for the Withered Lilies, and scored 83.

LONDON ERRATICS — batting				4s	6s
	Dunabin	bowled	17	2
	Penhallurick	lbw	6	1
	Rivington	bowled	38	2
	Brook	bowled	18	3
	Evans	caught	6	1
	Truscott	bowled	43	3
*†	Khawaja	NOT OUT	31	2
	Booth	bowled	4
	Neal	NOT OUT	1
	Bush
193 for 7
Fall of wickets: 1–16, 2–38, 3–84, 4–98, 5–117, 6–184, 7–189

Match drawn

2003 Season

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