London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 11 June 2006
London Erratics v Fernhurst
at Fernhurst

The Erratics’ hopes are inflated
Click on (Þ) symbol for photo images
FERNHURST — batting
1   lbw b Heller 47
2   b Eltringham 12
3   b Eltringham 7
4   c & b b Ward 40
5   b Heller 0
6   c Eltringham b Ward 7
7   b Heller 2
8   run out 23
9   b Heller 0
10   not out 8
11   not out 5
184 for 9 dec
Fall of wickets: 1–48, 2–58, 3–89, 4–96, 5–124, 6–129, 7–136, 8–136, 9–167

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Padmore A 8 1 48 0
Eltringham 9 0 63 2
Heller 8 1 21 4
Ward 8 1 21 2
Rivington 3 0 20 0
Skipper Michael Evans was confident he had a team of eleven — until he did a head count. The Erratics won the toss and elected to field. Hot, sunny, but there was a much appreciated breeze.
The Erratics bowling is already developing a pattern this season. Alex Padmore bowls really well, with no luck at all: it was a pleasure to watch him troubling the good Fernhurst opener. Matthew Eltringham serves up a confusing mix of hittable tosh and unplayable gems: a wicket in the 6th over arrested a breezy start by the home side. And in the 10th over, a horrid shooter did just enough to dislodge a bail. Alas, in this early period, Brad Fitzmaurice pulled a quad muscle and had to hobble off.
Richard Heller coughed and retched his way through a fine spell. In his first over he trapped the dangerous opener, and produced a corker in his second. At drinks, Tristan Ward surrendered the gloves to Chris Dunabin (something of a collector’s item), and came on for a twirl. He was quickly rewarded as the free-scoring No. 4 hit him high: Tristan badly misjudged it, but flung himself superbly at the last second. Two overs later, Matthew also dived well, to earn Tris a wicket maiden.
Richard wheezed through his last over — a double wicket maiden (surely small boys don’t count for the averages?). With the score on 136 for 8, the Erratics were looking at perhaps their best chance for eight years to bring off a win at Fernhurst. Skipper Michael gambled on some declaration bowling from James Rivington — well that certainly helped the score along. Nasir Khawaja at short fine leg combined well with Chris to punish some reckless running in the penultimate over. But a final burst from Alex dented his own figures and made the Fernhurst total look respectable.
Still the Erratics remained hopeful that the long-awaited victory could be achieved.
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
Rivington caught 1    
Khawaja bowled 61 7   
† Dunabin lbw 24 1   
† Ward caught 13    
Eltringham caught 3    
* Evans caught 0    
Heller NOT OUT  3    
Padmore A NOT OUT  8 1   
Fitzmaurice    
Padmore G    
127 for 6
Fall of wickets:  1(Rivington)–13, 2(Dunabin)–92, 3(Khawaja)–94, 4(Eltringham)–112, 5(Evans)–114, 6(Ward)–117
The Erratics’ task was made easier by Fernhurst sportingly opening the bowling with those who had missed out with the bat. James took full advantage of this generosity by steering a long-hop straight to point: a brief opening partnership, but one that saw Nasir pass 4000 runs for the Erratics. Nasir pushed the score along nicely, ably supported by Chris (Þ). The fifty came up in the 10th over; scorer Robert Waller (Þ) was kept so busy that Nasir’s own half century passed uncelebrated. When drinks were taken after the first of the final 20 overs, the target had been reduced to 94, and the Fernhurst fielders sipped their orange squash anxiously.
All change after the break. Chris’s perky performance ended when he was trapped on the back foot, then the untroubled Nasir missed an inswinger. Now runs were hard to find: Tristan and Matthew scratched around for 8 runs in 8 overs, until Matthew miscued to mid-on. Skipper Michael strode purposefully to the crease (Þ), for one of his special innings.
With the Erratics’ bubble now well and truly burst, the focus of entertainment switched to the inflation of two hot air balloons. Tristan did well to keep his concentration (Þ), until he leg-glanced one to the keeper. Alex (Þ) adopted a more aggressive approach to defence, striking a lovely four back over the bowler’s head. Richard dug in, umpire James was unmoved by some vociferous Fernhurst appealing, and the last two batsmen were spared a nervy finish.
Match drawn
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