Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment
Saturday 30 June 2001
London Erratics v V&A
at Stonor
Good batting, good lunch — but not good enough
40 overs match
V&A won the toss and elected to field.
|
LONDON ERRATICS — 182 for 3 in 40 overs |
V&A — 185 for 5 in 32 overs |
| Dimopoulos | bowled | 2 | Meller | 5 | 0 | 27 | 2 | |||
| Truscott | NOT OUT | 69 | Middleton G | 8 | 1 | 34 | 1 | |||
| Berrigan | lbw | 72 | Walker | 5 | 0 | 29 | 1 | |||
| †(2) | Meller | lbw | 14 | Haria | 6 | 0 | 41 | 1 | ||
| †(1) | Bush | NOT OUT | 1 | Dimopoulos | 3 | 0 | 21 | 0 | ||
| Haria | Berrigan | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |||||
| Poulter | Truscott | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | |||||
| * | Rivington | Rivington | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | ||||
| Walker | ||||||||||
| Dunabin | catches: | |||||||||
| Middleton G | Haria, Meller (c&b), Truscott | |||||||||
Lost by 5 wickets
| NARRATIVE |
| Eleven a side, though neither team was complete when play started. Domestic matters delayed Tony Poulter’s arrival until after lunch. Weather: another hot, sunny day. |
| As red kites and biplanes wheeled lazily overhead, the Erratics innings made a steady start. One of the opening bowlers got unnecessarily worked up when umpire Jeremy Walker no-balled him a few times. On the fall of the first wicket (at 29), John Truscott was joined by Brian Berrigan. Together they picked off the second-string bowlers, and when lunch was taken after 20 overs, the score was a healthy 100 for 1. An excellent lunch was made all the more appetising by the prospect of a feast of runs in the afternoon. But the V&A bowling after lunch was considerably tighter, and scoring runs became hard work (the first four overs yielded just five runs). Brian was beginning to restore some momentum when he was given out lbw — bringing to an end a partnership of 113. John and Felix Meller tried to inject some urgency, but the onslaught in the final few overs never quite materialised. The innings seemed destined to reach a rather muted finish, when Felix fell to the penultimate ball. (The two lbw dismissals seemed harsher than some earlier decisions that hadn’t been given.) |
| The V&A batting line up was determined by the fact that several younger players needed to depart early for a party. This showed in their approach, as they heaved at anything hittable. Felix Meller and Giles Middleton bowled well and took wickets (Felix clinging on to a ball that was belted back at him), but we weren’t stopping the runs. At tea (taken after 10 overs), Felix took over the wicket-keeping duties from Bill Bush, who had injured a finger. Jeremy bowled quite steadily and Ketz Haria held a skier off his bowling — but this merely brought in the dangerous No. 6, who promptly laid into the Erratics bowling. Only Ketz caused him any difficulty: twice he nearly had him caught in the deep, but both times the ball cleared the fielder. It took a stunning, diving catch by John at square leg to dismiss him, just after he had reached his half century. Brian bowled without any luck against the V&A No. 5, who had been slogging away like a talentless rabbit — but bizarrely also reached fifty! James Rivington administered the last rites, including the mandatory match-winning full toss down the leg side. |
| Postscript. This all-day game was afflicted with longueurs, as both sets of fielders hunted through the undergrowth for lost balls. Two perfectly good new balls (both supplied by us) were swiftly lost at the beginning of each innings, and both sides bowled most of their overs with substandard replacements. |