London Erratics vs Horningsham

11 September 2010

Report by PG

With the match scheduled for a 1.30 start it was not surprising that nothing much happened before 2.15. Neither side was quite sure who from their squads was going to turn up and play. Horningsham batted first, irrespective of who had won the toss (in fact won by Tony) as only The Erratics could assemble enough of a team to field, but even then still needed a sub on loan from the home side as they awaited late-comers. As the match was to be 35 overs the late start did not matter.

Continuing a recent change in which David O’Connor has been promoted down to our middle order, to bring urgency and cohesion to that part of our innings, Paul opened with James. A hectic first over produced 14 runs, helped by a geriatric fielder (Patrick Cobb, who may object to that description) whose slow pursuit of the ball to the longest boundary enabled the batsmen to run 4, which induced exhaustion. After a short pause for breath, James set about the bowling, taking 16 off one over, whilst Paul dug in. James went in the 10th over for a bright 48 with the score on 67. Uncharacteristically Paul then took the lead in a 91 run partnership with Tony. The scorebook tells us that Paul scored more than half his runs with boundaries as opposed to his usual habit of running them all. As we entered our last ten overs, Tony sacrificed his wicket, stumped for 29, in a selfless attempt to accelerate the scoring, and Paul (64 not out) succumbed to relentless pressure from James to retire with the score on 158. Lardy (39) and David (26) then added another 71 off 8 overs to bring the total to 229 for 2. A very respectable effort.

Tea was slightly extended by a sharp shower, which may have sufficiently slowed the outfield to give Horningsham a 20 run advantage. Jim Head and James Rivington opened for the visitors, and Christie drew first blood with his first ball (the seventh of the innings), flattening the off-stump of a surprised looking Rivington for a golden duck, with the score on 4. Brian Berrigan (5) and Penfold (7) fell cheaply to Callum in the 4th and 5th overs. The new batsman, Peter Andrews, and Head tried to steady the Erratics innings, which they achieved, at a cost to the run rate. Unable to hit boundaries, they were forced to take most of their runs in singles, which exhausted them both and gave one of them a severe attack of wind, releasing a crescendo of sounds like the love-grunts of an amorous hippopotamus between each delivery. Later he claimed it was the sandwiches. In fact the reluctance of these batsmen to hit out was somewhat puzzling, as the draw was not an option, and Nasser Khawaja, who has plenty of shots as he demonstrated in his two fifties against us last year, was still waiting to come in. After the required run rate reached 14, Tony brought himself on for a rare spell, and in a devastating second over dismissed both Head (60) and Andrews (36). He also accounted for Bill Bush first ball. This brought in Khwaja, but it was by now too late. Eschewing the chance of a hat trick (and preserving unbeatable figures of 2-0-6-3), Tony brought back Christie who knocked out Khawaja’s middle stump for 7. Despite Tony forcing/allowing Paul to bowl the last over, at the end of their 35 overs, the Erratics could only muster 144.

This was an all round team effort with bat, ball and in the field to produce an emphatic win.

Scorecard

Horningsham

Oborne B Penfold 48
Grugeon Rtd 64
Reeves St Khawaja Head 29
Abrahams not out 39
O’Connor not out 26
Lambert Goren
Widdows
O’Connor C
Reynolds
White

Extras 23
Total (for 2 wickets) 229

Bowling O M R W
Penfold 7 2 41 1
Berragan 6 0 48 0
Mufti 7 1 27 0
Head 6 0 39 1
Cobb 3 0 27 0

Errattics

Head Ct Reeves 60
Rivington B C O’Coonor 0
Berragan B Widdows 5
Penfold B Widdows 7
Andrews C Reeves 36
Bush B Reeves 0
Khawaja B C O’Connor 7
Dunabin not out 10
Cobb not out 0
Mufti
Heller

extras ?
Total (for 7 wickets) about 140

Widdows 7 1 20 2
C.O’Connor 6 1 19 2
Reynolds 5 0 17 0
Lambert-G 4 0 17 0
White 6 0 25 0
Oborne 4 1 21 0
Reeves 2 0 6 3
Grugeon 1 0 7 0