London Erratics Cricket Club

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling

Stephenson

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 19 August 2007
London Erratics v Bampton in the Bush
at Bampton

Horizontal rain

BAMPTON — batting
1	c Poulter	b Down	63
2	c Khawaja N	b Heller	41
3		b Green T	61
4	st Khawaja N	b Down	16
5	not out		10
6	not out		2
7
8
9
10
11
211 for 4				in 35 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–101, 2–132, 3–169, 4–207

Match manager Nasir Khawaja nobly cobbled together a team of ten Erratics. He handed the captaincy to a reluctant Michael Stephenson — who won the toss and elected to field. On a grey day, with every prospect of rain, a 35 overs format was agreed.

That Michael felt oppressed by the burden of leadership was all too obvious, and a couple of long hops in his first over were pulled for four. Familiar with their artificial track, the two openers went after both Michael and Tim Green, and after six overs they had already put on 49. James Rivington now assumed control — and his first responsibility was to drop the No. 2 at backward point. But at least Michael regained composure and the scoring slowed with some of the cheap boundaries cut out.

It no longer seems appropriate to talk of "young" Jaspar Khawaja, because he bowls with such steady maturity for an 11-year-old; his introduction lifted the fielding side, and he conceded just 19 in his first 4-over spell. Richard Heller had rediscovered his own sureness: in the 19th over the No. 2 top-edged high, and Nasir ran half way up the pitch to catch it safely in the gloves.

This was a welcome moment of joy, now that there was light rain driving horizontally across the ground. But it was never quite hard enough to trigger a stampede to the pavilion, so the Erratics stuck gamely to their task in increasingly slippery conditions. Richard Down had the other opener well caught at deep backward square leg between Tony Poulter's arm and chest — the only safe way to catch the ball under the circumstances. The next pair sent the Erratics sliding around in the tufty outfield — the ball seemed to follow Tim, James and Peter Andrews — until Nasir's pads earned him another stumping.

Those members of the team more numerate than James ensured that he didn't end up having to bowl an embarrassing final over himself. The penultimate over of the innings damaged Jaspar's figures (and brought up the 200), but this was the longest bowl of his life. Tim had the satisfaction of clipping the bails in the final over.

LONDON ERRATICS — batting				4s	6s
*	Rivington	NOT OUT	1
	Andrews	NOT OUT	1
†	Khawaja N
	Green T
	Poulter
	Stephenson
	Down
	Green J
	Khawaja J
	Heller
5 for 0				in 1 over

As they sipped their warming brew, the Erratics debated (1) batting orders, (2) whether they should resume at all. Some saw the opportunity of escaping with a draw; others wanted to see the opposition get wet too — the opposition looked in no hurry to oblige, particularly as the rain now seemed harder. Just as Nasir and James concluded that it was time to call it quits, other Erratics divined a distant lightening of the sky and urged a wait of a further five minutes. This unexpectedly stirred the locals, and they arranged themselves in the field. James and Peter were now under an obligation to join them. But with the ball splashing as it hit the pitch, the farce was obvious, and after the ninth delivery (there were three wides), James marched off.

Match abandoned as a draw

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