London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 6 July 2003: EVENLEY TOURNAMENT
London Erratics v Great Houghton
at Evenley

From heroes to zeros
Click on (Þ) symbol for photo image
Evenley Tournament, losers play-off. The Erratics won the toss and elected to field. As in the Captain Scott match, a succession of Evenley players acted as sub fielders.
Timothy Green instantly settled on an excellent line and length and was rewarded with a wicket in the first over. In contrast, the other opener took a liking to Jeremy Walker’s bowling, and brutally knocked him out of the attack.
The fall of three wickets in the fourth and fifth overs —all catches — briefly brought the run rate back below 10 an over. But in truth the only significant restraint on the Great Houghton onslaught was the rule that batsmen should retire when they scored 25.
A wicket for James Rivington in the tenth over represented a rare glimmer in a generally dismal Erratics performance. Captain Michael Evans assumed responsibility for the last over — the sight of a portly Houghtonian trying to get a bat on the world’s loopiest bowling brought a little light relief at the end of the innings.
GREAT HOUGHTON — batting
1   retired 27
2   b Green T 1
3   c Evans b Eltringham 8
4   c Rivington b Green T 2
5   c sub b Green T 0
6   retired 25
7   retired 27
8   b Rivington 15
9   retired 26
10   not out 7
11   not out 0
163 for 5 in 15 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–3, 2–43, 3–44, 4–45, 5–108

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Green T 4 0 33 3
Walker 1 0 19 0
Eltringham 3 0 31 1
Neal 2 0 25 0
Rivington 2 0 16 1
Heller 1 0 11 0
Dunabin 1 0 8 0
Evans 1 0 7 0
A confident Great Houghton side served up a diet of slow spin, much of it from occasional bowlers. Only the Erratics openers failed to take advantage of this to score some runs.
With a powerful display of hitting, Jonathan Green achieved the distinction of being the only Erratic in the day to be obliged to retire — and then worryingly started talking about retiring more permanently ‘on a high’.
Bizarrely, the Erratics ended up posting the second-highest total of the day, and some face was saved (Þ) . But the truth was it had all been a pretty public humiliation for last year’s champions.
After tea, in the final, the Captain Scott XI narrowly beat Evenley to win the tournament.
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
Rivington bowled 1    
Neal bowled 3    
Eltringham caught 24 6   
Walker bowled 11 2   
† Green J retired 27 4  1 
* Evans bowled 20 4   
Green T NOT OUT  19 4   
Dunabin NOT OUT  2    
Heller    
126 for 5 in 15 overs
Fall of wickets:  1–3, 2–6, 3–43, 4–77, 5–109
Erratics lost by 37 runs
2003 Season
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