London Erratics Cricket Club

Founded 1974 for recreation and refreshment

Sunday 12 May 2002
London Erratics v Alvington & Woolaston
at Alvington

Victory, but hero Brian pays too high a price

A 40 overs match. Alvington won the toss and elected to bat.

David Brook and Richard Heller bowled well and were both unlucky to be let down in the slip/gulley area. The opening batsmen (one of them a Gloucestershire Under-19) batted with care to see off the initial threat, and had only just posted the half century by the time David and Richard had finished their stints. In a sudden acceleration at the expense of the change bowlers, the batsmen took the score to a hundred in the next seven overs, and a big target was looming.

It was Brian Berrigan who finally achieved the breakthrough, trapping the Under-19 when he walked across his stumps. The unconvincing No. 3 then gave a simple catch off the bowling of James Rivington, and Nasir Khawaja (who had taken over the gloves from Tristan Ward) completed the double-wicket maiden by nimbly stumping the other opener when he tried to give James the charge. Brian took a wicket in each of his next two overs, James claimed another one too — and in five overs Alvington had crashed from 101 for 0 to 106 for 6.

While a young lad with a good defensive technique propped up one end, the Alvington No. 7 tried to restore some sanity. But Tristan snuffed out this flicker of resistance with three wickets in the 34th over (including another Nasir stumping, this one in slower motion), leaving Chris Dunabin to finish off the innings.

Eleven happy Erratics and a shell-shocked Alvington team repaired to the Globe Inn for tea — where James explained that everything had gone exactly according to plan.

ALVINGTON — batting
1	st Khawaja	b Rivington	46
2	lbw	b Berrigan	45
3	c Devasish	b Rivington	1
4		b Berrigan	0
5	c Dunabin	b Rivington	0
6		b Berrigan	2
7	c Heller	b Ward	12
8	c Long	b Dunabin	1
9	st Khawaja	b Ward	2
10		b Ward	0
11	not out		0
125 all out				in 35 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–101, 2–102, 3–103, 4–103, 5–103, 6–106, 7–121, 8–123, 9–123

LONDON ERRATICS — bowling
	Brook	8	2	25	0
	Heller	8	1	25	0
	Jaggi	2	0	20	0
	Berrigan	6	1	21	3
	Rivington	5	2	11	3
	Ward	3	0	8	3
	Devasish	2	1	8	0
	Dunabin	1	0	2	1

The lowering clouds had largely passed by when the Erratics began their innings. After Chris fell to a sharp catch, Peter Andrews and Nasir looked comfortable — Peter doing well to keep up with Nasir between the wickets, until he sliced one to gulley. Tristan kept the momentum going, even when the Under-19 started bowling briskly. Nasir seemed well set, but suddenly dollied a catch into the covers. Mike Long, who had fielded for so long on the boundary that he must have wondered what the pitch looked like, got too brief a glimpse of it as, in the very same over, he played back to a ball that turned sharply.

This little flurry was never likely to signal an Erratics collapse, not with Brian striding to the wicket. He and Tristan picked off the runs ... until the Under-19 (now experimenting with leggies plus some other stuff thrown in) induced Tristan to sky one to mid-on, and even then an excellent catch was needed. The hundred was passed and Brian set about winning the match in brisk fashion. With eight to win, he swatted one ball to the backward square leg boundary. When he tried to repeat the shot to the next ball, a high full toss, he missed and the ball crunched into his right cheek. Brian retired (bloody), and the game was won in the next few balls with some scrambled singles.

James drove Brian to casualty, first in Lydney, and then back in London. A fractured cheek bone is no reward for a match-winner.

LONDON ERRATICS — batting				4s	6s
	Dunabin	caught	1
	Andrews	caught	18
†	Khawaja	caught	30	1
†	Ward	caught	22
	Long	bowled	0
	Berrigan	retired hurt	30	2
*	Rivington	NOT OUT	7
	Brook	NOT OUT	1
	Jaggi
	Devasish
	Heller
126 for 5				in 34.1 overs
Fall of wickets: 1–10, 2–46, 3–65, 4–65, 5–93

Erratics won by 5 wickets

2002 Season

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