Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Trinity Oxley CC

With players on holiday or unavailable, an Eltham XI was scraped together after a week of hard work by Pete Fisher and many texts with Gary and Andy Redman trying to find an 11th player we were ready to go.........

Or so we thought a text from Adam on Sat telling us he thought he had broken his hand ( caused by punching a train whilst drunk!!!), Will was still doubtful, with an illness. Luckily Andy had got his landlord Steve from The Bull to play.

So on to game day and whilst skipper for the day Gary and Pete were moving picnic tables to the bottom pitch, Pete got a text from Al saying he could not play, Will turned up and was not great but well fuelled up on painkillers and Adam also playing, we had 10 despite a couple of frantic phone calls to find an 11th player.

The oppo arrived and Gary went to the middle with the Trinty skipper and tried to tell him how weak we were today, but up went the coin and Gary promptly loss the call and we were put into bat.

Gary's first decision then as Eltham captain was his batting order, did he go with Will and Pete and hope they come off or split them and put rest of team around them?? This choice was made easy as nobody fancied opening.

So out went Will and Pete and both looked good from the off, solid in defence and putting the bad ball away when it came from a good opening spell of bowling. After seeing off the new ball pairing, both started scoring more freely, Will playing some lovely cover drives and cuts and Pete his trademark flicks through mid-wicket and pull shots. But it was one hook shot that stood out from Pete which bought him his first six of the season but it was not just any hook shot but played ONE handed!!!

The pair took the score and partnership past 100, but then on 109 Pete tried to go over the top and was caught off the bowling off Seymour for 61. Gary came to the crease and after pushing a few singles was caught off a leading edge at mid-wicket, still at the other end a spaced out Will was going well and was key to us getting a total.

Then came a Seymour over which knocked us off track, with him picking up Will for 66, Greg and Steve for ducks. Henry then got a good ball which clipped his off stump for 0 before Andy was casually C&B one handed by Driver. Del, Tan and a few extras got us to 152 a/o and at least something to bowl at.

So after a good tea made by Chloe Fisher (or so she said!! :-) ); we took to the field, Tan and Steve opened up and started well even though Sharpe was looking to attack and hit a few early 4's.

The first bowling change bought the first wicket though, when Greg got a ball to turn sharply, through the gate and hit off stump, at the other end Tan was still toiling away and should have had Sharpe but Gary put down a steepling catch at mid off.

The scoreboard was moving along now, with both Sharpe and Springer hitting some big shots. But then we thought we had Springer stumped only for it not to be given, I think DRS would have given us a different answer.

With the score past 100 now, Gary finally got Sharpe stumped for 58 before Tan finally got a couple of well-deserved wickets and Steve got his first Eltham wicket, but it was Springer who saw Trinty home by 5 wickets.

Overall though a good Eltham team performance with outstanding contributions by Pete and Will against a great and very friendly oppo

Reporter Gary (skipper for the day) Bill