Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment
Saturday 22 July 2001
London Erratics v Tar Barrow
at Tar Barrow, Cirencester
Safety first
The Erratics won the toss and elected to bat.
|
LONDON ERRATICS — 158 all out |
TAR BARROW — 120 for 5 |
| Rivington | bowled | 2 | Meller | 8 | 1 | 20 | 2 | |||
| Dunabin | bowled | 13 | Ulhaq | 9 | 1 | 23 | 2 | |||
| † | Khawaja | bowled | 48 | Heller | 10 | 1 | 21 | 0 | ||
| Dimopoulos | bowled | 48 | Middleton G | 4 | 0 | 11 | 0 | |||
| Poulter | caught | 8 | Poulter | 2 | 0 | 17 | 0 | |||
| * | Meller | run out | 7 | Rivington | 2 | 0 | 8 | 1 | ||
| Ulhaq | caught | 9 | Bush | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | |||
| Bush | bowled | 1 | McKay | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Middleton G | bowled | 1 | ||||||||
| McKay | run out | 0 | catches: | |||||||
| Heller | NOT OUT | 3 | Bush, Meller (c&b), Ulhaq | |||||||
Fall of wickets: 1–6, 2–38, 3–87, 4–115, 5–133, 6–143, 7–148, 8–150, 9–153 |
Fall of wickets: 1–2, 2–27, 3–31, 4–40, 5–100 |
Match drawn
| NARRATIVE |
| The arrival of the Erratics at the ground was greeted by a Red Arrows display, which was a nice touch by our hosts. Weather: mostly sunny and warm, intermittent cloud, light breeze. |
| The fine conditions belied the amount of rain that had fallen the day before, and the pitch was soft. But debutant captain Felix Meller displayed his youthful confidence by winning the toss and choosing to bat. Chris Dunabin survived some dropped chances — one of which damaged the finger of a Tar Barrow fielder, who had to go off to hospital (remember this). Nasir Khawaja and Corin Dimopoulos showed that batting was possible, with Nasir whacking five boundaries before condescending to hit anything so paltry as a single. But then the twitchiness set in, and one run short of the fifty partnership and two runs short of his own half century, Nasir allowed himself to become the third Erratic to be bowled by Paul Grellier. Corin carried on the good work, sharing useful partnerships with Tony Poulter and Felix, before Grellier spoiled his day too. Now the Erratics were beginning to wonder where they were going to get a big score from, and impatience brought about the fall of the next wicket. Assad Ulhaq played the ball to long-on, and strolled a single; Felix ran one and a half runs before reluctantly turning back, but he was too casual and that man Grellier ran him out with a direct hit from the other end. As the innings degenerated, a Tar Barrow youngster helped himself to a couple of late wickets, and Grellier who bowled unchanged at one end picked up his sixth. Off the last ball before tea, Richard Heller contrived to get Max McKay run out. The considered opinion was that 158 would not be nearly enough. |
| This seemed too pessimistic a view when the pace of Felix and Assad showed up the true unevenness of the pitch. Assad bowled one batsman and caught another off Felix’s bowling (was it a bump-ball?). Bill Bush took a finely judged effort in the deep off Assad, and then Felix did well to reach a return catch. Could the Erratics rip through the Tar Barrow line up? The No. 4 and No. 6 batsmen were determined that they shouldn’t, and dug in. The latter hadn’t been present at the start of the game, had come along to watch, and had been allowed to replace the injured player; it was somehow inevitable that he would prove a thorn in the side. The batsmen had particular difficulty with Richard’s bowling, as he produced a succession of unplayable deliveries; quite how he didn’t manage to break through is incomprehensible. The confidence of the batsmen began to grow, and when Tony came on it looked as though they might make a belated assault on the target (now seven an over). Skipper Felix nipped such ambitions in the bud by bringing Assad back for a couple of overs that put the required run rate into double figures. Finally James Rivington got the nod, and he tempted the stubborn No. 4 into a wild swipe across the line. But victory was now beyond either side. |
| Congratulations to Felix on his first Erratics captaincy and for keeping us all on our toes. |