London Erratics Cricket Club

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling

Stephenson

Eltringham

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 2 September 2007
London Erratics v Canbashers
at Matfield

Modest return

CANBASHERS — batting
1	c Eltringham	b Stephenson	40
2	c & b	b Berrigan	38
3	run out		36
4	lbw	b Eltringham	0
5	c sub	b Heller	33
6		b Heller	18
7		b Heller	7
8	not out		6
9		b Heller	0
10	not out		1
11
184 for 8 dec
Fall of wickets: 1–53, 2–91, 3–92, 4–129, 5–169, 6–169, 7–182, 8–182

A lovely sunny day in the pleasant setting of Matfield in Kent. The Erratics won the toss and elected to field. With the arrivals of Peter Oborne and son George delayed, the opposition generously provided substitute fielders.

An opening fifty partnership, including some fiercely hit boundaries, ended when the No. 1 miscued a Michael Stephenson delivery and Matthew Eltringham dived forward at mid-wicket to claim the catch.

This prompted the No. 2 to take the lead, but Brian Berrigan, bowling a long steady spell, finally accounted for him — another miscue off the slow surface and Brian rose like a salmon... And next over Matthew exploited the lack of pace to diddle the new bat. The Kiwi No. 5 gave Brian an early return chance — and punished the generosity with a sequence of sixes that were shocking in their power. The hundred was well past when the Obornes started arriving. Fortunately a Canbasher sub was still on the field to take a diving catch on the mid-wicket boundary to remove the danger man.

This was a welcome scalp for Richard Heller, who produced a classic spell: batsmen who tried to force the pace paid the penalty. And in between, a fine direct hit from Tony Poulter brought a bonus wicket. A couple of overs from Peter indicated that there was turn, but the Canbashers declared before it got interesting.

Congratulations to the Erratics for conceding just 5 extras, including only one wide, and only one bye (well done keeper Simon Green).

LONDON ERRATICS — batting				4s	6s
*	Rivington	NOT OUT	36	2
	Oborne P	stumped	10	2
	Berrigan	bowled	8	1
	Poulter	caught	0
	Eltringham	caught	10	1
†	Green S	bowled	4
	Oborne G	bowled	0
	Stephenson	caught	1
	Green J	NOT OUT	5	1
	Bush
	Heller
90 for 7
Fall of wickets: 1(OborneP)–11, 2(Berrigan)–22, 3(Poulter)–23, 4(Eltringham)–41, 5(GreenS)–55, 6(OborneG)–56, 7(Stephenson)–67

James, who had been given a lecture by scorer Robert Waller about batting longer, got off the mark by steering the ball through the hands of a 12-year-old at slip.

Peter got after the opening leg-spinner until he tried one swish too many. Brian was more watchful, particularly when the Kiwi came on and produced extravagant left-arm spin — one delivery snuck past the outside edge. Tony aggravated a groin strain when he ran a quick single, and tamely lobbed a catch a couple of balls later.

Matthew seemed composed until he chipped a seamer to mid-wicket. Teenagers Simon and George were undone by inswinging yorkers from the same bowler. Michael let the ball pass by outside off-stump with remarkable restraint, then he slogged one to mid-off.

James had been watching all this from the other end. He had been repetitively demonstrating (a) the forward defensive, or (b) how to read the turn off the pitch. With 7 of the last 20 overs left, James was finally joined by Jonathan Green, who brought the required adhesiveness. The Canbashers got through their overs so quickly in the final hour that they were able to fit in another — in which 10 runs were added to the total.

James' score in two hours was a modest return, but necessary to avoid defeat on an interesting pitch. Thanks to the Canbashers for continuing to play the game in a good spirit, even when we were so boring.

Match drawn

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