London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 4 August 2002
London Erratics v Black Rose
in Edmonton

True grit
A ‘home’ match. Giles Middleton won the toss and elected to field.
Most of the innings was played in the rain, frequently to the accompaniment of thunder and lightning. The ball was pretty much a bar of soap throughout — Brian Berrigan was the only bowler who managed to keep a firm grip on it. He and Giles started well, kept the early Black Rose batsmen unusually quiet, and picked up a couple of wickets. The first batsman to fall sliced the ball high into the covers; the team watched as Matthew Huxham stumbled backwards unpromisingly, then stuck out his right hand to take an extraordinary catch.
An effective partnership for the 3rd wicket got the Black Rose innings moving, until Brian removed the No. 3 with a shooter. With the small towel now doing not much more than smearing water and mud over the surface of the ball, Matthew Eltringham had problems with accuracy, but claimed two useful scalps — the second of them a well judged catch by Matthew Neal at deep mid-on.
Richard Heller came on after Brian and secured the prize wicket of the Black Rose skipper, to the delight of the team. But he was replaced by another hard hitter and, even with the field set back, the partnership breezily added 48 in double-quick time.
BLACK ROSE — batting
1   b Middleton G 6
2   c Huxham b Berrigan 3
3   b Berrigan 27
4   c Neal b Eltringham 39
5   c & b b Eltringham 4
6   not out 31
7   b Heller 10
8   not out 28
9  
10  
11  
161 for 6 dec
Fall of wickets: 1–9, 2–14, 3–59, 4–79, 5–92, 6–113

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Middleton G 9 0 33 1
Berrigan 11 3 27 2
Eltringham 5 0 50 2
Heller 3 0 21 1
Huxham 3 0 21 0
After James Rivington had gone first ball, Brian came in and played some nice shots. Tony Poulter then joined Alastair Baird, and together they played with great care. When the last 20 overs were signalled, the Erratics had scored just 46 and needed getting on for six an over to win.
In the next few overs, Alastair and Tony let rip and the Black Rose team was visibly shaken. Alas, the two batsmen fell in successive overs, and the fifth wicket followed soon afterwards. Matthew E and Matthew H put together a nice little partnership, which had just seen the hundred up when Matthew E was well snapped up in the gulley.
This precipitated a classic match-losing collapse by the Erratics. A wicket fell in each of the next two overs, and to compound matters Giles was rapped on the finger by a delivery from the opposing skipper and came off to spray something on it. With the 9th wicket falling almost immediately, the Black Rose team slapped each other on the back and headed for the pavilion ... only to have to turn round, as Giles rammed a glove on his damaged hand and went back out to face the last six overs. With nine fielders clustered round the bat, Giles and Richard resisted everything that was thrown at them, including a final over from Giles’s brother, Felix. The last ball satisfyingly went for four byes, and the two batsmen were greeted from the field as heroes.
Giles later found out that his little finger was fractured.
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
Rivington bowled 0    
† Baird caught 15 1   
Berrigan bowled 15 2   
Poulter bowled 24 2   
Eltringham caught 25 3   
McLean caught 2    
Huxham run out 13    
Neal bowled 0    
Riedel bowled 0    
* Middleton G NOT OUT  1    
Heller NOT OUT  5    
115 for 9
Fall of wickets:  1–0, 2–20, 3–61, 4–66, 5–71, 6–100, 7–101, 8–105, 9–105
Match drawn
2002 Season
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