London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 5 June 2005
London Erratics v FC London
at South Park, Fulham

Juggernaut
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
Head NOT OUT  141 22   
Rivington NOT OUT  50 6   
† Rennell bowled 9 2   
Truscott    
Long    
Green T    
Padmore    
Evans    
* Eltringham    
Green S    
Heller    
240 for 1 in 35 overs
Fall of wickets:  1–54
A 35-overs game. FC London won the toss and elected to field.
The pitch had variable bounce — on many occasions the ball shot. But in the 3rd over with the score on 8, James Rivington (then on 1) failed to get out of the way of a bouncer and could only head it down to fine leg; as a precaution he ‘retired hurt’.
In the 8th over, Jim Head got some momentum going, and a flurry of runs brought up the fifty three overs later. Tremayne Rennell, who had been quite quiet, now hit a glorious straight drive — and was out next ball.
James went out to resume his innings; the quick bowler who’d hit him was rattled by this renewed contest, and immediately lost his line and length. The fielding proved fragile too. Some aggressive (sometimes suicidal) running was rewarded with lots of overthrows: on one occasion James was absolutely stranded half way down, but it ended up as three overthrows. The extras included 14 wides and 25 byes; the batsmen’s scores also benefited from a number of unsignalled byes.
But don’t underestimate the potency of the batting. Jim contemptuously punched the ball to all parts of the boundary — perfectly controlled power hitting. James (who was badly dropped at slip) made use of the lofted drive he had been practising all winter.
When Jim reached his hundred, he asked James whether he should retire. James told him to keep going, but to ‘be reckless’; Jim thought he’d been advised to ‘be ruthless’ — and that’s how he continued.
On the boundary, the skipper Matthew Eltringham shuffled the rest of the order as the milestones were passed — but no one else was needed. Jim’s 141* is the highest individual score ever made for the Erratics, and the 186 (off 24.3 overs) is comfortably the largest partnership. The opposing captain was overheard to use the term ‘juggernaut’ in the closing overs as the ball sped for yet another boundary.
FC LONDON — batting
1   b Heller 47
2   b Padmore 27
3   run out 5
4   c Rivington b Truscott 22
5   not out 53
6   b Truscott 0
7   c Evans b Truscott 0
8   b Green T 9
9   st Rennell b Green T 13
10   not out 1
11  
189 for 8 in 35 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–55, 2–61, 3–86, 4–120, 5–121, 6–121, 7–??, 8–??

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Eltringham 7 1 32 0
Padmore 7 0 48 1
Truscott 7 0 27 3
Heller 7 0 41 1
Green T 5 0 30 2
Green S 1 0 11 0
Evans 1 0 12 0
A tidy maiden over from the skipper was a good start. But FC London always bat aggressively, and boundaries quickly started to flow. The 10th over saw both the fifty come up and a wicket for Alex Padmore, his first for the Erratics; he was immediately rewarded by being taken off. In John Truscott’s first over, the Erratics demonstrated to the opposition what a run out looks like.
The No. 1 got after Richard Heller as he accelerated towards his half century, but Richard had the last laugh. The middle order kept playing shots. The first ball of the 24th over was hit high in the direction of James on the long-on boundary: he ran in, dived, held it. (It was only after his team mates had stopped congratulating him that James noticed that one of his fingers was the wrong shape. In spite of his captain’s supportive opinion that he shouldn’t worry about it, James took his dislocated finger off in search of a hospital, and Jonathan Green went on as sub fielder.) John’s next four deliveries brought two more tame dismissals, and the contest was effectively over.
Tim Green picked up a couple of wickets, and younger brother Simon got his first bowl for the Erratics. To the dismay of his own team mates, the No. 5 reached an improbable fifty just before the end.
Alas, Robert Waller could only keep score for part of the match. There is therefore something wrong with the bowling figures, which don’t add up.
Erratics won by 51 runs
2005 Season
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