|
V & A
— batting
|
| 1 |
|
c Rivington |
b Stephenson |
10 |
|
| 2 |
|
c Khawaja N |
b Stephenson |
25 |
|
| 3 |
|
|
b Stephenson |
0 |
|
| 4 |
|
|
b Berrigan |
21 |
|
| 5 |
|
not out |
|
77 |
|
| 6 |
|
lbw |
b Berrigan |
0 |
|
| 7 |
|
|
b Eltringham |
4 |
|
| 8 |
|
not out |
|
0 |
|
| 9 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 10 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 11 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 146 for 6 |
|
Fall of wickets:
1–26, 2–26, 3–57, 4–71, 5–71, 6–127 |
|
LONDON ERRATICS
— bowling |
|
Stephenson |
9 |
2 |
32 |
3 |
|
|
Berrigan |
12 |
2 |
36 |
2 |
|
|
Eltringham |
7 |
0 |
48 |
1 |
|
|
Heller |
3.2 |
0 |
22 |
0 |
|
|
| The start (normally pre-lunch) was put back to 1.30 to give the ground a chance to recover from
the recent rains. There had been much competition for places for this fixture, so it was inevitable that only ten Erratics would turn up.
V&A won the toss and elected to bat. |
| The openers put bat to ball from the off. However, both of them pulled up with dodgy hamstrings,
and the Erratics regained a measure of control. Fortunately the confusion of having two runners was short-lived as the No. 1 smacked a
Michael Stephenson long hop straight at James Rivington at extra cover; and his successor misjudged his fourth ball — double wicket
maiden. |
| Apart from Tony Poulter feeling a twinge in his other leg (see Fernhurst report), the Erratics
were gambolling in the field. A red kite, boldly flying as low as I've ever seen, eyed up a diving Richard Heller as possible
prey. |
| The No. 2 was continuing to have an eventful time: broken bat, hit by a short ball, his bails
mysteriously fell off without his being out (the umpires promised to 'explain later'). Finally Michael S found
the edge, to put him out of his misery. |
| The Erratics' misery came in the form of the tiresome No. 4, who had so undeservedly ground out
a score last year: he kept finding fault with some harmless nattering in the slips. It now suddenly dawned on the ten Erratics that they
had a perfectly good eleventh man on the boundary in the form of young Jaspar Khawaja. His first experience of Erratics cricket was
to see Brian Berrigan clean bowl the No. 4 (joy), and trap his replacement too — another double wicket maiden. |
| Things were looking quite good. But the No. 5 was still there, the man who had blasted
our frail bowling last year. It didn't feel quite the same, because the Erratics attack this time wasn't dross (although Matthew
Eltringham and Richard struggled a bit with length). But the score was suddenly
climbing, and there was much scrambling in the undergrowth for lost balls.
Skipper Michael Evans (who nearly caught the guy at slip when he attempted a cheeky reverse sweep) was a tad slow to put
the field on the defensive, and a few other chances went down. The ball seemed to follow debutant Pete Smith. After the fifty partnership
came up, Matthew snuck an offcutter past the No. 7, who had contributed just 4 runs. |
| There had been some sunshine, then a little rain. Now the skies opened, and all players ran
for cover. An early tea was taken as the storm battered the pavilion. With there being no chance that the squelchy ground would
recover, the game was
abandoned (Þ) . |
| The Erratics team in full: Rivington, Dunabin, †Khawaja N, Berrigan, Poulter, Eltringham,
Stephenson, *Evans, Smith, Heller, Khawaja J. |
| |
| Temporary match report
lifted from the V&A web site |
|