Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs LESSA Aquila CC

Having spent the morning watching the rain come down and seeking out as many weather forecasts as possible, it was actually a surprise to arrive at LESSA to find the sun out.

For other club members their morning had been spent hastily trying to find additional players to help out our opponents who had sadly suffered a bereavement and were three short. In true Eltham style, our members rallied around; indeed, with an extra player in attendance, Gary Bill was able to watch his beloved West Ham, (who rather ruined his afternoon by getting tonked (technical term) by Man City.

And so to the game ~ quite unbelievably the Skipper won the toss and chose to bat and LESSA took to the field with Messrs Fisher, Mir and Kashif in their ranks. The new opening partnership of Bisley and Swain strode to the crease and the Eltham team waited with bated breath to see whether the latter would remember our parting words of "patience, take your time, play yourself in, forward defensive etc." Two balls later we had the answer. Heave ho!

It was, in fact, a very bright start and Pete in particular took a liking to some fairly friendly bowling. With 24 runs on the board Will played a delightful shot over mid on ~ or so he thought ~ as Pete Fisher (bless him) took a quite stunning one handed catch. Will departed, politely questioning the skipper's logic in giving the opposition one of our most gifted fielders ~ he then left the ground to go and collect Carol and declaring his game over! This brought the skipper himself to the crease and he then began to question his own logic as he faced the pace of Kashif in a particularly torrid first over. Although the scorebook shows that he scored two early fours ~ we know that they were edges through the slips!

With the introduction of a somewhat slower bowler, the faces of both Matt and Pete lit up as they sensed a run fest; a half century partnership developed with some lusty blows and it was a real pleasure to see Mr Swain reach a well-deserved 50. Kashif ended the fun by trapping Pete LBW and his exuberant celebrations were noted! Asjad was also able to help out with the Skipper's duties in the field; sorting out field placements and advising bowlers on the perceived weaknesses of our batsmen ~ this was also noted!

Richard joined the skipper at the crease and having been dropped 2 (or was it 3?) times it looked as though it might be his day. Matt continued to take a liking to the slow bowling but then contrived to miss one, with the obvious consequences.

From the safety of the boundary ropes it was a delight to watch Kashif in action ~ he caused our players considerable unease and was unlucky to have a number of catches dropped from his bowling. Despite his earlier reprieves, Richard was then beaten by Kashif's pace ~ he later confessed that he wasn't ready and looked up only to see the ball leaving Kashif's hand!

Messrs Wouldham and Seeds then took centre stage; at one point I had sensed that I might get a rare opportunity to have a bat and decided to hand over the scoring duties. Having decided NOT to allow the skipper to score (it's more trouble than it's worth) I padded up and waited my turn ~ 114 runs later I took my pads off again!

During this period, Derek (27 no) and Colin (63 no) compiled an excellent partnership. There were some nervous moments, but these were mainly for those of us watching ~ Mr Swain (who was now scoring and convinced that he had missed a run somewhere) became particularly edgy with Colin in the 40s as we all aware that Colin knows EXACTLY how many runs he has accumulated. Fortunately Colin solved the problem by hitting a four to reach his half century. This however put paid to the much more interesting scenario of Wouldham, Caught Fisher, Bowled Mir, 49!!

With 208 runs on the board, the question was, would this be enough with Messrs Mir and Fisher likely to be batting high up in the LESSA order? Adnan opened with a tidy spell of bowling and Tan, as is often the case, dismissed the opener early. This brought together our two "friends" who proceeded to score 35 and 56 runs respectively. On a serious note, it did show what a real class act these two are ~ well done chaps.

The partnership was eventually broken with Tanveer's excellent catch off Ricky's bowling. Indeed this was to set the tone for the afternoon, as there were a number of superb catches taken during the rest of the innings. Following the dismissal of the Fish, the skipper took it on himself to bowl up the hill and an excellent first few balls was followed by a wide long hop with "hit me" written all over it. Asjad did just that but straight to Pete Swain. I am trying think of a way to describe this catch but can only come up with "smothered in his stomach" as an option. "Splinters" Bisley also took 2 very fine catches again off the skipper's bowling and yours truly held on to another off Mr Wouldham.

Although wickets were falling, the scoreboard continued to tick over at the required rate and it was obvious that this game was going to go the wire. David Jones completed a useful spell of spin bowling and Ricky and Colin both grabbed their second wickets. With 3 overs remaining Pete Swain was then unleashed and was rewarded with the first ball wicket of the potentially dangerous Kashif who was well caught in the deep (and the dark) by the skipper. With the last LESSA batsmen at the crease and the number 11 professing not to have held a bat all year, an unlikely victory still looked possible.

Despite our best endeavours, and in seriously fading light, it soon became apparent that the last man at the crease DID know which end of the bat to hold and with a handful of runs need from the last over he hit a four to secure the 1 wicket victory.

Cricket was the real winner in this very enjoyable game and LESSA were genuinely grateful at the spirit in which Eltham played the game. I wonder how many clubs would have been generous enough to provide 3 QUALITY players to the opposition? Our thanks and congratulations to the guys who generously played for LESSA ~ the decision was undoubtedly the right one as can be noted from the close finish to the game ~ well done skipper! I am sure that you will all agree that it was, once again, a privilege and a pleasure to be a part of our very special club.

Reporting: Andy Behind (please see score book!)