Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment
Saturday 2 June 2001
London Erratics v The Times
at Boston Manor
Cometh the hour, cometh the man — unfortunately
The Times won the toss and elected to field.
|
LONDON ERRATICS — 86 all out |
THE TIMES — 87 for 9 |
| Rivington | bowled | 0 | Meller | 7.2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |||
| Bingham | bowled | 0 | Ulhaq | 9 | 2 | 20 | 4 | |||
| Meller | caught | 8 | Haria | 5 | 1 | 12 | 2 | |||
| Ulhaq | caught | 23 | Hattam | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |||
| Ward | bowled | 7 | Ward | 5 | 1 | 14 | 1 | |||
| Haria | lbw | 23 | Middleton G | 4 | 1 | 10 | 0 | |||
| Hattam | caught | 1 | ||||||||
| Evans | caught | 3 | catches: | |||||||
| Middleton G | caught | 11 | Meller, | |||||||
| *† | Walker | bowled | 0 | Ulhaq | ||||||
| McKay | NOT OUT | 0 |
Lost by 1 wicket
| NARRATIVE |
| Richard Heller had recruited the team. However, he invited Jeremy Walker to captain because he had broken his thumb in pre-season nets and was therefore unable to play (remember this, we will be coming back to it). The Times fielded only ten men (remember this too). The ground was under-prepared: the pitch was poor with variable bounce, and the outfield was covered in cut grass. Weather: warm and sunny. |
| The Erratics innings got off to a poor start; by the end of the 4th over the score was 14 for 3. Assad Ulhaq and Tristan Ward restored some order with a partnership of 27 — until the fall of 4 wickets for 12 runs put the innings back into crisis. Ketz Haria and Giles Middleton batted combatively to put on another 27 runs for the eighth wicket. The innings ended when the last two wickets were lost in the 25th over. |
| In reply, Felix Meller and Assad bowled with fiery pace to exploit the conditions to the full. By the end of the 8th over, the score had crawled to 13 for 1. Then, in consecutive overs, Felix bowled one batsman and Assad bowled another three, to leave The Times reeling at 15 for 5. The other Michael Evans came in to play a captain’s innings in a partnership of 26, but Ketz responded with two wickets to keep the Erratics on course. The tail wagged and the score climbed, and when Assad ran in from long-on to cling on to a catch off Tristan, to make it 65 for 8, there was much relief. Erratics captain Jeremy Walker showed much nerve to allow the final Times pair to get close, before whistling up the opening attack to finish the job. With the score on 83, Assad bowled the last Times batsman, and the Erratics had won a great victory. |
| But no. Striding to the wicket comes Richard Heller, to the bemusement of all (including the Times captain — “Hasn’t he got a broken hand?”). The game resumes and Richard survives the last three pacy deliveries of Assad’s over. In shaping to deliver the first ball of the next over, Felix ran Richard out backing up — but the appeal was withdrawn. Felix’s second ball beat everything, including the keeper, and agonisingly went for four byes, and bizarrely the Erratics had lost. More bemusement all round. |