London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Saturday 3 September 2005
London Erratics v Bank of England
at Roehampton

Melodrama
BANK OF ENGLAND — batting
1   lbw b Taylor 43
2   b Berrigan 56
3   b Taylor 0
4   c Berrigan b Taylor 1
5   b Green T 31
6 run out 11
7   b Green T 6
8   not out 1
9  
10  
176 for 7 dec
Fall of wickets:  1–66, 2–66, 3–69, 4–148, 5–148, 6–167, 7–176

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Berrigan 11 2 26 1
Green T 9 1 41 2
Heller 13 1 28 0
Taylor 5 0 24 3
Moss 3 0 13 0
Dunabin 3 0 12 0
Andrews 1 0 15 0
Our special correspondent writes:
On a glorious afternoon at the Bank’s grounds in Roehampton — currently a construction site (we changed in portacabins) — hopes were initially high, since it was known that several of the stronger Bank players had been called up to their 2nd XI at short notice, and the 3rd XI was in any case without a win all season. But they had replaced them with a mixture of celebrities from a team of actors who play at the Bank, and — much more dangerously — two colts, one large and one very small of whom more anon. Richard Heller delegated the captaincy to Peter Andrews, and Peter was unwise enough to toss and choose to bowl without noticing that Chris Dunabin and Mu Ali had not yet arrived. Jonathan Green kindly agreed to field despite a dodgy back (which he soon exacerbated, requiring him to field on the boundary throughout) bringing the teams to ten each once Chris had appeared in the tenth over; but on a baking hot day, fielding with ten (of whom only two were under 48) promised a certain amount of pain. Young Hugh Evans came on barefoot as an additional sub for one over, but was disenchanted when the Bank opener insisted that he stand on the boundary for safety reasons. Mike Long, spectating with his family, wisely declined an invitation.
Brian Berrigan, Tim Green and then Richard all bowled tidily, and we were helped both by a very strange pitch, which looked and felt like the sort of ash produced by burning banknotes and produced frequent low and occasional high bounces, and by a surprising degree of respect for our fielding from the Bank openers. Andy Taylor, a friend of Tim, making his debut, had been billed as a specialist batsman, but he looked more like a bowler than most of the rest of us and was persuaded to have his first go of the season. Understandably he took a while to settle, but then took three quick wickets, the third a spectacular boundary catch by Brian running from long off to long on which was felt by many to merit an Oscar nomination.
There then ensued a grinding partnership between two left handers, the Bank’s veteran captain and Graham Seed (who plays Nigel Pargeter in The Archers). Richard kept it tight from one end, while Stephen Moss and Chris varied things from the other. After Peter had tried his first and last Erratics over of the season with embarrassing consequences, Brian and Tim returned, broke the partnership, and prevented any acceleration. But as a result the Bank batted on until 4.20 on the game clock, which runs 10 minutes behind the real world. It had been agreed that the Erratics would have 65 minutes and 20 overs to bat, but this meant the light would be fading by the end of the game.
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
† Rennell bowled 30 6   
Evans bowled 12 3   
Taylor bowled 1    
Berrigan c & b 0    
* Andrews caught 32 5   
Green T stumped 34 7   
Moss lbw 4 1   
Dunabin run out 2    
Green J stumped 19 4   
Heller NOT OUT  0    
160 all out
Fall of wickets:  1–34, 2–35, 3–37, 4–62, 5–120, 6–129, 7–136, 8–157
Tremayne Rennell and Michael Evans started brightly against the Bank’s seam attack. However, soon after Michael’s dismissal, the Bank introduced their small boy, with devastating consequences. He turned out to be a leg spinner who could turn the ball sharply, make it bounce as high as himself, and could also bowl a well disguised googly (remember the name O’Gorman for future years). In general his control was pretty good, but he started with a long hop which yorked Andy on the second bounce having never exceeded shin height. Soon afterwards Brian gave him a return catch, deceived by spin or bounce or the pitch, and things looked grim.
Peter and Tremayne began repairs, although Peter’s inelegance against the spin attracted some derision from passers by. Then, after Tremayne had survived an appeal for a slip catch in a flurry of bat, pad, handle, ground etc., he too was bowled by the young Torquemada. There was some question as to whether Master O’G had to come off after five overs, since although he bowls spin we argued that he used a long run up. In fact a couple of blows from Tim persuaded the Bank to change the attack. Tim farmed the bowling effectively (despite a close escape in a run out which prompted some stage mannerisms from the Bank’s thespians), and brought us up to the required run rate.
After Tim and Stephen departed, Chris was run out — young Master O’G was the fielder, appearing rapidly from beneath Peter’s radar. It looked over given that Jonathan was in obvious discomfort, but a sequence of fours from classy on drives prompted enough alarm from the Bank that their total was renegotiated in mid innings from mid pitch.* Eventually Peter gave a tired catch to mid on, and then the young leg spinner claimed his fourth wicket as Jonathan became the second Green stumping victim. As always there were plenty of “if onlys...” — if Mu had appeared, if Andy survived his grubber — but it was good to see the success of leg spin being bowled by a youngster who would normally play in 24 over slogs; adult cricket must seem easy by comparison. [PA]
(* The Bank tally had said 173, the batting had totalled 178, bowling 171.)
Erratics lost by 16 runs
2005 Season
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