London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 3 July 2005
London Erratics v Great Houghton
at Great Houghton

Nicely judged

GREAT HOUGHTON — batting
1	c Padmore A	b Towers	5
2		b Allen D	56
3		b Padmore A	8
4	c Long	b Ward	18
5	c Ward	b Rivington	2
6	st Allen S	b Ward	2
7	c Towers	b Ward	3
8		b Ward	16
9	lbw	b Ward	9
10	not out		21
11	not out		4
175 for 9 dec
Fall of wickets: 1–19, 2–36, 3–85, 4–88, 5–91, 6–112, 7–117, 8–145, 9–149

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
	Towers	8	2	19	1
	Rivington	7	1	37	1
	Padmore A	7	1	43	1
	Ward	10	1	31	5
	Allen D	5	0	14	1
	Evans	1	0	13	0

Skipper James Rivington’s fear that the Erratics would only be able to field ten was dispelled when the player that Tristan Ward was bringing with him turned out to be twins — David and Stuart Allen. On a sunny afternoon, Great Houghton won the toss and decided to bat.

Alex Towers opened with good pace and bounce; with Alex Padmore delayed en route, James put himself on at the other end (gulp!). When Alex P did arrive, he brought success with him — first taking a catch at mid-off to give Alex T a deserved scalp, then rearranging the No. 3’s stumps.

A useful stand for the 3rd wicket got the run rate going. In a double change, James brought himself back (you don’t hear that often) and called upon our wicket machine, Tristan Ward. Tristan quickly obliged thanks to a diving catch by Mike Long, and then earned his skipper’s gratitude by safely pouching a chance in the next over.

Bill Bush had been keeping wicket quite tidily, but during the drinks interval (taken after 20 overs) he surrendered the gloves to Stuart. It was perhaps unkind of Stuart to demonstrate the fine art of stumping quite so immediately.

Another little stand included the GH opener reaching a slightly fortunate maiden fifty — why are so many batting milestones achieved against Erratics bowling? The partnership was broken by Tristan (of course) and David (who had been much too modest about his off-spin).

A period of watchful accumulation against the spinners led to the return of Alex P and the skipper’s threat to take off Tristan: Tristan responded with two wickets (all these jugs must be getting expensive). Now time for some professional declaration bowling from Michael Evans — a successful ploy as GH declared rather than suffer a second over of it.

Another good tea, though this time without the cheese straws.

LONDON ERRATICS — batting				4s	6s
	Andrews	bowled	60	7
*	Rivington	caught	42	6	1
	Padmore A	bowled	2
	Long	lbw	4	1
	Evans	bowled	1
†	Bush	c & b	4	1
†	Allen S	caught	11
	Allen D	NOT OUT	30	1	1
	Towers	NOT OUT	0
	Ward
	Padmore G
178 for 7
Fall of wickets: 1–102, 2–122, 3–122, 4–127, 5–131, 6–131, 7–172

The GH opening attack was breezy — though it briefly suggested that the target might be reached in extras. Peter Andrews and James saw off the initial threat, and picked up the pace against the second string. Peter accumulated relentlessly (including a five!); James played a couple of nice shots against the off-spinner (a cover-drive for four and a straight six); and the heads of the young fielders began to drop. In the 21st over, the hundred came up ... and James departed (one lofted shot too many).

Peter stormed past fifty, and then succumbed to the returning pace bowler. Never mind, the skipper had shuffled the order to deploy his big hitters to knock off the 50-odd runs needed ... good plan. But the off-spinner (the legendary ‘DL’) had got his arm-ball going and suddenly Alex P, Mike L, Bill and Michael E had all participated in a classic Erratics middle-order collapse.

Time for the Scottish twins to show if they could score 45 off the last 7 overs. Disconcertingly they seemed to be in no hurry, and then they commenced the most immaculate display of tip-and-run, breathtaking in its impertinence. The field pushed in urgently, the throws became wild, and bickering broke out among the home players. A worrying moment when David was caught — but it was a no-ball, and he added the insult of a six in the same over. With just one boundary needed, Stuart snicked the off-spinner to the keeper, but David clubbed the winning runs with three balls to spare.

In the White Hart afterwards (the landlord was absent, buying an island), we were generously invited to share a bottle of champagne to toast the GH opener’s fifty and his thousandth career run.

A vignette — The locals were so taken with Peter’s particularly memorable report from last year that they had stuck a print-out of it on the pub wall (and have imitated it in their own reports).

Erratics won by 3 wickets

2005 Season

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