London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 2 July 2006
London Erratics v Great Houghton
at Great Houghton

Warne-ing!
Click on (Þ) symbol for photo images
GREAT HOUGHTON — batting
1   not out 91
2   c Green S b Stephenson 24
3   b Stephenson 5
4   lbw b Stephenson 18
5   not out 25
6  
7  
8  
9  
10  
11  
175 for 3 dec
Fall of wickets: 1–34, 2–42, 3–124

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Stephenson 12 4 40 3
Green T 10 4 26 0
Eltringham 7 0 40 0
Heller 4 0 31 0
Rivington 3 0 30 0
Green S 1 0 5 0
Hot, sunny (occasional cloud). Great Houghton won the toss and elected to bat.
Michael Stephenson showed exactly why his bowling has been much missed in recent weeks: coming down the slope, he generated plenty of pace and life to trouble the batsmen. With Tim Green producing awkward movement at the other end, Great Houghton made a slow start. The home captain started to push the score along, but quickly top-edged the ball high — Simon Green, making his debut with the gloves, was rock solid underneath it. When Michael knocked over the No. 3 cheaply, the Erratics had a spring in their step. There was yet more jubilation when the youngster at No. 4 seemed to edge Tim to his brother ... but the decision wasn’t given (mutter, mutter).
The opener had been struggling with a mean diet of good-length balls on off stump — particularly with Peter Andrews’ stomach patrolling the covers so efficiently. Confused by the sloping pitch, the change bowlers, Matthew Eltringham and Richard Heller, served up a feast of long-hops and full tosses, and the opener tucked in, peppering the leg-side boundary with the fruits of a metaphor that had got quite out of control.
At the second drinks break (it was that sort of day), Simon passed the gloves to brother Tim. Crazily, skipper James Rivington didn’t toss Simon the ball, but put himself on to bowl three overs of drivel. Fortunately he did have the sense to bring back Michael S, who responded with a much needed wicket maiden. But the score was now galloping along. Too late, Simon fitted in a tidy over before the declaration.
Still, a competitive total — just the same as the one we had successfully chased in 2005.
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
* Rivington caught 9 1   
Andrews bowled 0    
Khawaja bowled 29 4   
† Green T caught 8 1   
Stephenson stumped 4 1   
Evans stumped 8 1   
Eltringham bowled 0    
† Green S stumped 0    
Dunabin caught 4 1   
Green J caught 0    
Heller NOT OUT  0    
74 all out
Fall of wickets:  1(Andrews)–1, 2(Rivington)–24, 3(GreenT)–37, 4(Stephenson)–42, 5(Evans)–59, 6(Eltringham)–59, 7(GreenS)–59, 8(Khawaja)–67, 9(GreenJ)–74, 10(Dunabin)–74
The Rivington–Andrews partnership that had scored a hundred at this ground the year before came unstuck when Peter missed the fifth delivery (Þ) . The uneven bounce on this sandy wicket was now all too evident, as runs came slowly against the young seamers. James (Þ) , who had played one nice on-drive, had a swish at the change bowler, skied it (as seems to be his way), and was dismayed to see the smallest boy on the pitch coolly pouch it. Tim (Þ) started attractively with some crisp shots, and it was unfortunate that he dollied a catch to cover in the last over before the final twenty.
The discussion on the boundary had been about how to inject some urgency into the assault on the total. Michael S was promoted up the order: the cracking boundary was just what was needed; the stumping next ball wasn’t. Michael Evans knocked it about a bit (Þ) , and the becalmed Nasir Khawaja got going with a couple of boundaries (Þ) . Then a youthful spinner came on: Michael swatted his loosener to the boundary — that was the last victory of bat over ball. The extravagant leg-breaks dazzled Michael. In frustration, he swung the bat: the bat flew to mid-wicket, the ball was in the keeper’s glove gently removing a bail. It was all so dramatic (and funny) that umpire James lost count, enabling Matthew to be bowled behind his legs off the seventh ball of the over.
This ‘Warne’ moment transformed the game: it was now all about survival. Unable to farm the strike, Nasir coached Simon carefully: unfortunately Simon dragged his foot first ball (Þ) . Then Nasir forgot all his own advice and was bowled playing an ugly swipe. Would the last three batsmen be able to hold out for 11 overs? Facing the leggie, Jonathan Green kept the close fielders interested. At the other end, Chris Dunabin despatched a rare full toss, but otherwise the scoring stopped — even umpire James became reluctant to call wides. With only six overs left, an improbable draw was starting to look possible, but Jonathan was finally snapped up at silly mid-on (the young spinner finishing with 5 wickets for 7 runs). And in the next over, Chris couldn’t resist hitting a long hop to backward square leg.
The opposition were so happy with the day that they invited Richard to speak at their AGM in the autumn.
Erratics lost by 101 runs
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