London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 7 August 2005
London Erratics v Inkpen
at Inkpen

Seventy going on seventeen
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
Head c & b 0    
† Rennell NOT OUT  46 4   
* Rivington caught 2    
Neal bowled 15 2   
Berrigan hit wicket 22 2   
Long lbw 9   1 
Dunabin caught 12 2   
Bush caught 5 1   
Day NOT OUT  0    
Eltringham    
Heller    
132 for 7 in 35 overs
Fall of wickets:  1–0, 2–10, 3–34, 4–74, 5–91, 6–122, 7–131
The Erratics arrived with ten, but were kindly loaned Phil Day by the opposition. A 35-overs game. The Erratics won the toss and elected to bat.
In-form batsmen Jim Head and James Rivington had both played this fixture last year, so should have recalled the idiosyncracies of the pitch, but they still offered up catches to balls that stopped on them — Jim first ball!
In addition, the length of the outfield grass (memo to the parish council!) made run scoring awkward. On his most welcome return from his sojourn in Italy, Matthew Neal had difficulty in timing the ball: in the end he completed a sweep shot hours before the ball arrived and was bowled. Brian Berrigan, playing his first game since the opener at Shalbourne, was also rather restrained. There was an absence of his trademark footwork against the slow bowlers, and he finally demolished his own wicket in frustration.
The later batsmen were sent out with a mandate to give it some welly. Mike Long eased a six over backward square leg, then was out lbw to a ball that was perhaps a shade high. Chris Dunabin and Bill Bush both found the boundary, before skying catches.
Tremayne Rennell had been watching all this frenetic activity from the other end. He wisely ignored the captain’s increasingly hysterical cajoling from the sidelines, and prevented the innings from falling apart by keeping the score ticking over. And this rare blend of patience and stamina was garnished with some lovely clean strikes. But could a total of just 132 be enough?
INKPEN — batting
1   b Berrigan 1
2   b Head 25
3   c Day b Eltringham 0
4   c Long b Eltringham 4
5   lbw b Berrigan 0
6   b Berrigan 0
7   b Eltringham 0
8   run out 14
9   b Head 2
10   b Head 3
11   not out 6
59 all out in 23.5 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–5, 2–6, 3–10, 4–11, 5–11, 6–16, 7–35, 8–43, 9–47

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Eltringham 5 1 18 3
Berrigan 3 2 1 3
Heller 6 2 13 0
Head 5 1 12 3
Rivington 2 1 4 0
Dunabin 2 0 7 0
Day 0.5 0 1 0
When Matthew Eltringham’s first over went for five runs, Inkpen were on course for victory — for the first and last time. If Brian had been rusty with the bat, he was spot on with the ball, and his sixth delivery was much too good for the Inkpen opener. A couple of maidens, and then Matthew made his day trip from Devon worthwhile as he induced a couple of false strokes — the catch at mid-on by loanee Phil was evidently something of a collector’s item. Shock horror, Brian’s 13th ball yielded a single! — so he calmly removed the next two batsmen. With Matthew bowling the Inkpen skipper the next over, the home side were 16 for 6, and various Erratics records were set to tumble.
Time for Richard Heller and Jim. Jim’s first ball bowled was as successful as his first ball faced, and went for a boundary. The tight grip on the scoring was eased. But having found his range in his first over, Jim started to torment the batsmen with his spin, and brought to an end the resistance of the No. 2. The score crept forward, past the paltry 42 that Chesterton made in 1999, but it wouldn’t be long before Jim bamboozled another two locals.
In a shameless bid for the last scalp, skipper James brought on himself and Chris. Neither grabbed the opportunity, so Phil was given the nod; and in his first over a cheeky attempted single to James fielding round the corner was punished by a direct hit.
One man had been on the pitch for the full length of the game: having run up and down the pitch seventy odd times, Tremayne then kept wicket immaculately. He makes many of us feel old.
Erratics won by 73 runs
2005 Season
Erratics HomePage