London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 24 August 2003
London Erratics v Bampton
at Bampton

Big hitting
A couple of late recruits from the Bank of England touring team brought the Erratics up to strength for this Bank Holiday fixture. A 35-overs match. On a warm day, the Erratics won the toss and elected to bat.
The artificial strip offered the bowlers some bounce, but Peter Andrews and Nasir Khawaja put together a fine opening stand. They breezed past the previous record for the season, brought up the hundred in the 16th over, and both looked on course for half-centuries. But next over Peter missed one; and in a classic example of ‘after the lord mayor’s show’, Jonathan Green was unlucky to receive the best delivery of the day next ball.
David Miliband contributed to a useful partnership with Nasir, the latter safely negotiating his fifty. The departure of both of them in consecutive overs threatened to stall the innings.
But Ketz Haria, in his first game of the season, and Bank-recruit Ian Short didn’t let the run rate drop. The combination of Ketz’s exquisite shots and Ian’s brutal hitting crushed the morale of a young Bampton side. A surprisingly quiet final over denied Ian a fifty and the pair a hundred partneship — but this was still an Erratics total unmatched in the last ten years.
LONDON ERRATICS — batting 4s  6s 
Andrews bowled 47 7   
† Khawaja caught 69 13   
Green J bowled 0    
Miliband bowled 15 2   
Haria NOT OUT  39 5   
Short NOT OUT  47 9  1 
* Rivington    
Green T    
Hattam    
Down    
Stewart    
256 for 4 in 35 overs
Fall of wickets:  1–105, 2–105, 3–153, 4–160
In his first outing of the year, Mark Hattam settled nicely into a rhythm, and Tim Green started well from the other end. But the Bampton openers were more than competent, and began to get the innings going with one or two good overs; Mark definitely had one more than was good for him.
Spin twins, Ketz and Richard Down (of the Bank), gave the batsmen something new to think about. Sometimes this resulted in the ball disappearing to the boundary — but it also brought the first wickets. And a smart piece of fielding by Tim earned the bonus of a fourth wicket.
With the Erratics now making inroads into the batting order, and with the required rate climbing, it was time to spread the bowling around. Skipper James Rivington shamelessly picked up three cheap wickets (only two of them were small boys), and David benefited too. And Peter made the rest of his Bank tour bearable by managing to take a catch at mid-on off Ian’s bowling. Some big blows from the No. 11 thwarted a three-figure victory, but a suicidal run out wrapped up a game where the Erratics had competed strongly in all departments.
BAMPTON — batting
1   lbw b Haria 31
2   b Haria 40
3   b Down 18
4   run out 4
5   c Green T b Rivington 22
6   c Andrews b Short 19
7   b Rivington 2
8   lbw b Miliband 1
9   b Rivington 0
10   run out 5
11   not out 9
164 all out in 32.3 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–69, 2–94, 3–96, 4–112, 5–125, 6–137, 7–138, 8–143, 9–149

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
Hattam 6 1 28 0
Green T 8.3 0 43 0
Haria 5 0 25 2
Down 5 1 25 1
Miliband 3 0 16 1
Rivington 3 0 8 3
Short 2 0 14 1
Erratics won by 92 runs
2003 Season
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