London Erratics Cricket Club

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling

Stephenson

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Satuday 16 June 2007
London Erratics v The Times
in Dulwich

The rain gods don’t favour the Erratics

Click on (Þ) symbol for photo images

LONDON ERRATICS — batting				4s	6s
	Berrigan	caught	7
	Green J	bowled	0
	Poulter	caught	6	1
	Truscott	bowled	0
	Rivington	bowled	0
	Moss	bowled	9	2
	Stephenson	stumped	9	1
†	Green T	caught	2
†	Green S	bowled	7	1
	Bush	lbw	15	3
*	Heller	NOT OUT	12	2
77 all out
Fall of wickets: 1(GreenJ)–3, 2(Poulter)–14, 3(Truscott)–14, 4(Berrigan)–14, 5(Rivington)–23, 6(Moss)–23, 7(GreenT)–32, 8(Stephenson)–48, 9(GreenS)–51, 10(Bush)–77

Monsoons were sweeping all parts of England — apart from a little pocket of sunshine in Dulwich which contained the Griffin Club cricket ground. With several players not present at the start (including Nasir Khawaja, who never made it through the torrential M40 rain), skipper Richard Heller won the toss and elected to bat.

One opening bowler (Evans minor) bowled medium-pace wobblers, and there was someone quicker at the other end. Jonathan Green, promoted up the order, became an early Evans casualty. For four overs, Brian Berrigan and Tony Poulter played carefully, then an impatient Tony smacked a four — and skied one two balls later. John Truscott lasted one over from the quick, Brian edged to slip, and three big wickets had fallen with the score stuck on 14.

Making his second appearance for the Erratics (first in 2005), Stephen Moss clubbed all nine runs in his partnership with James Rivington, until James judiciously assayed a pull at a slow long hop; and Stephen was bowled next over — 23 for 6. Michael Stephenson and Tim Green played some very attractive shots (Michael, an exquisite cover drive for three). But Tim became Evans minor's fifth victim, and no one could quite work out whether it had been good bowling, or bad bowling played badly, or a bit of both.

Simon Green joined Michael, and opened his account with a nice boundary. When the stand had reached the massive total of 16 runs (Þ) , Michael (who was seriously in danger of becoming the first Erratic to reach double figures) lost patience with the spinner. Simon stayed long enough to see the fifty up, then was surprisingly bamboozled by Evans major.

Skipper Richard had warned his team mates that he would be fine so long as no one exhorted him to play a "Captain's innings"; Michael, who had been batting when this admonition was delivered, duly obliged. In some weird reverse psychology, this spurred Richard, together with the ebullient Bill Bush, to put everyone else to shame (Þ) . They contemptuously hit as many boundaries as the rest of the team put together. The pair seemed easily capable of posting a respectable score, until Bill was given out lbw by Tony (which earned Tony a long lecture from scorer Robert Waller). All out for 77 — a bit of a come down after the previous week's opening partnership of 97.

*THE TIMES* — batting
1	not out		40
2	lbw	b Stephenson	4
3	c Green T	b Green S	24
4		b Truscott	2
5	not out		3
6
7
8
9
10
11
80 for 3
Fall of wickets: 1–11, 2–61, 3–64

With the first innings lasting just 29 overs and one ball, the Erratics had to be active in the field before they would get their tea. A brief spatter of rain added to the gloom, rather than offering hope of a wash out. Michael got some zip and found some bounce, and in his third over trapped an unconvincing opener. Tim kept a tight grip too, though the batsmen tried to relieve the pressure by having an occasional flash at him.

At tea, the Times were well on course, and still no sign of a downpour. When the game resumed, there was a flicker of resistance. Simon, who had handed the gloves to his older brother, found an edge in his first over and Tim took a smart catch — well done the Greens. And John bowled a beauty to dismiss the next man, not playing a shot.

Stephen had a promising twirl. But the game was up, and the Erratics had been stuffed.

Erratics lost by 7 wickets

The Times | 2007 Season | HomePage