Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Kensington and Chelsea CC

A first fixture against Kensington and Chelsea C.C. - now, there's posh you might think, but an affable bunch of lads who'd all travelled by public transport AND arrived on time! Couldn't complain about them winning the toss and deciding to bat first.

Let's get the boring bits out of the way. A fine, dry, sunny day. A 'time' match. A splendid tea - Al Roberts MUST do another one, soon! And a reasonable surface for playing on.

Now, we've had a bit recently about the LBW [Let's Be Wicked etc.] rules [Law 36] but I'd like to bring to your attention Law 25 which states :

1 (b) The ball will be considered as passing wide of the striker unless it is sufficiently within his reach for him to hit it with his bat by means of a normal cricket stroke.

I mention this because, when almost 20% of each side's total is earned in this way, it's a legitimate question to ask "Why?" Let's take it for granted that a "normal cricket stroke" includes any sort of stroke which mere mortals like ourselves might make, irrespective of the lack of any aesthetic beauty. It does NOT mean that the umpire can call a wide simply because the batsman disdains to make contact. I'll be the first to admit that some of my own deliveries were pretty wide of the mark and deserved such a penalty - but SO MANY of them? And, of course, I wasn't the only bowler - on both sides remember - who suffered this ignominy. It did seem that the T20-type rules for wides had been put into operation!

With no Eltham supporter behind the boundary line to name each bowler for the visiting scorer, it became necessary to shout the names across about 70 yards of greenery - a sort of loud "Chinese whispers" game. Now this works if your name is Jones or Roberts but not if it's "Rosenthal". [Should remember, in future, to use the monicker given him by his BGS mates i.e "Rosey".] And thank goodness "Pad" is OK for Mr. Venkatraman. "Webber" was close enough for the name to be recognised in the scorebook, but it took me a little time to translate "Mills" into "Bill".

The main features of the K and C innings. A very slow scoring rate thanks to our opening bowlers, Pad and Matt. Pad took 3 - 17, bowling as accurately as is his wont. Matt drew many "oohs" and "aahs" from we fielders with his numerous near misses of the stumps. Then Mills - sorry, Bill - was introduced and quickly sent 4 of the visitors back to the pavilion [well, back there if we'd had one.] Probably feeling like wanting to make a match of it, the captain brought on Jones and Roberts who helped K and C close on their Everest of 100 runs*. They made it, eventually, partly due to the last man, Pramod, scoring 20. Brought back on to stop the rot, Bill took his 5th and the final wicket: there's every chance that he'll need to save his pennies for other jugs if this rich bowling vein continues. Nic Pearmine was again outstanding in the field - providing a balance to the pensioner slip/gully cordon. Colin took two smart catches behind the stumps: he's really still quite athletic in this position, isn't he? Ricky took the other wicket.

[* In fact, an examination of the visitors' scorebook showed a total of only 99 - but it would have been curmudgeonly to have pointed this out! This total included 26 extras. 3 batsmen made 50 between them.]

The ECC innings. We shouldn't really embarrass the visitors' second opening bowler who, in his one and only over, conceded 21 runs - more wides etc. So, suffice it to say that his name is an anagram of "Ahmet". John Fisher CAN still get runs, as his 16 proved. Nic Pearmine added to his stature with a stylish 26. Peter Swain might have scored more if he'd won the toss and decided to bat first - but a quickfire 24 helped to bring an early finish. It had taken under 24 overs to reach the 103 target set in 36 overs by the visitors.

It's now almost midday, Monday. I've had over 40 hours to forget something important which should have been included. So, my apologies if this is the case - you can remind me next time we meet up, if you can remember!

The 19th Man [at least] DJ