London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Saturday 18 June 2005
London Erratics v The Times
at Glaxo Sports Ground, Greenford

A thundering win against The Times (and a sickening loss)
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
† Rennell bowled 15 1   
Green J bowled 9 1   
Mellows-Facer NOT OUT  127 24  1 
Long caught 55 9   
Green T NOT OUT  21 4   
Evans    
Dunabin    
Towers    
* Heller    
Rivington    
260 for 3 dec
Fall of wickets:  1–25, 2–55, 3–213
Our special correspondent writes:
On the hottest day of the summer (91 in real temperature), Richard Heller took a strong team of ten Erratics to play The Times at a new ground — that of Glaxo Smith Kline in Greenford, west London (only just). It was a considerable step up in playing quality from the usual Gunnersbury Park — but as it turned out considerably less secure.
Richard won the toss from their Michael Evans and elected to bat for climatic reasons. It was a sound choice as Tremayne Rennell and Jonathan Green took our score quickly to 25 in contrasting styles, before Tremayne succumbed to an in-swinger. New signing Adam Mellows-Facer began soundly and quickly opened out with a flurry of legside boundaries. Unfazed by the loss of Jonathan at 55, he and Mike Long advanced the score with a series of cuts, pulls or straight drives off the 4-balls and well-judged singles off most of the rest. They were held up only by a treacly-slow over rate from our heat-struck opponents, which at one point threatened to restrict us to around 200 instead of the captain’s target of 250. But the batsmen then embarked on a series of double-digit overs from the secondline bowling. Milestones disappeared at warp speed: 100 partnership … Mike’s fifty … Adam’s century … Neither was the least put off by our Michael Evans waiting to bat on the boundary, exhorting the fielders to achieve a dismissal, any kind of dismissal.
Eventually Mike holed out, leaving the closing overs for a rapid unbroken partnership of nearly 50 between Adam and an elegantly-driving Tim Green. Adam finished on 127 not out, a promising start from a debutant, and the innings closed on a mighty, almost record-breaking 260 for 3 — off just 32 overs.
Unlike Gunnersbury there was a separate sit-down tea, which proved to have unfortunate consequences.
THE TIMES — batting
1   b Towers 0
2   b Towers 2
3   lbw b Rivington 34
4   c (& st) Rennell b Dunabin 35
5   not out 9
6   c Towers b Dunabin 20
7   b Dunabin 0
8   b Heller 2
9   b Heller 0
10   b Green T 0
11   b Green T 1
123 all out
Fall of wickets: 1–0, 2–20, 3–50, 4–84, 5–115, 6–115, 7–119, 8–119, 9–119

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Towers 8 0 17 2
Green T 7.5 3 15 2
Heller 6 1 31 2
Rivington 3 1 23 1
Dunabin 5 1 13 3
Evans 2 0 20 0
We resumed action with one of the most hostile opening attacks in the modern Erratics era. Alex Towers produced an unplayable second ball to the Times opener (breakback flattening off stump) and the left-arm Tim Green beat the bat so regularly as to earn the rare accolade of a second slip. But it was Alex who produced another snorter to remove their other opener.
Tim gave way to Richard, and Alex gave way to the one-handed James Rivington, who obliged with a wicket. But runs began to flow fast, and both James and an ineffective Richard removed themselves in an orgy of self-disgust, in favour of Chris Dunabin and our Michael Evans. Off Chris’s second ball, the No. 4 succumbed to smart work by Tremayne, taking the catch and removing the bails in one move.
The Times then established a partnership which threatened stalemate. But Chris Dunabin’s loop mesmerized two batsmen in consecutive balls. A restored Richard redeemed himself with two devastating leg-cutters, but could make no headway against the Times’s elegant batswoman (one of two) who had resisted solidly for many overs. With victory receding, chivalry disappeared. The openers were resummoned for a final burst. Tim duly induced batswoman two to play on with a well-planned wide long-hop, and then yorked No. 11 to deliver a 137-run victory, with 3 of the final 20 overs remaining.
Victory celebrations were cut short by the discovery of organized theft while we were at tea. A person or persons unknown had broken into the locked dressing room at the empty ground and helped themselves to wallets, mobile phones — and Jonathan’s car. [RH]
Erratics won by 137 runs
2005 Season
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