Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Bloomsbury Royals CC

A good win for Eltham on a pretty damned poor batting tack. Seasoned Eltham readers may remember that in this fixture last year Eltham bowled out the Royals for around 120 - and then failed to chase it down in what became the first of many batting collapses in the season. Payback was needed but was the team - and the pitch - up to the task?

Well first things first and the Royals won the toss against stand-in skipper Bulpitt and decided to bat first. Tanveer, the Eltham opening bowler, was nowhere to be seen - apparently he had however phoned ahead to say he would be even later than usual! When he eventually arrived - halfway through the innings - he explained that his wife had had a driving lesson - 11 to 1. It turned out that that this was actually the time of the lesson and not, as some had surmised, the odds of Tanveer's missus surviving the lesson.

This meant that Bilau opened the bowling for Eltham and he and Ricky were straight on the money. Bilau's first ball whizzed down the leg side and a sprawling Colin let out a yelp as he took the scab off his knee from the week before and got blood on his whites and pads. From this inauspicious start however, things got better and Eltham found themselves stifling the run rate and claiming the odd wicket here and there. Pradeep got a nice catch from Ricky, and Bilau bowled the Bloomsbury 3 and 4, and with the score on 61-3 and the pitch playing up, Eltham were starting to wonder what a hard chase this could be.

Omer soon put a stop to that sort of thinking however. His inswingers started off too short, but as soon as he started bowling them fuller he got his just rewards. There were - it has to be said - some unwise shot selecion, but with the old adage "if they miss I hit" ringing in his ears, Omer got his best return for the club, an excellent 6 for 18. Well bowled! Pete Swain got an edge onto the batsman's chest, claimed smartly by Wouldham behind the timbers, and the score very quickly turned to 85 all out. Surely gettable?

After a tea including some rolls that were so dry several Eltham players visibly mummified, Pete and Asjad strode out to the crease. Asjad was soon back, a victim of the confusion that sometimes occurs with his running and calling technique! Pete didn't last much longer, a victim instead of our umpiring technique, being given out by Pradeep to a ball that pitched outside leg - a rule which Pradeep was sadly unaware of! You know now Pradeep ;)

There was a brief interlude then which saw Tanveer trying to reinvent himself as a batsman, promoted up the order due to the driving lesson-induced lateness. His innings lasted significantly less than than his wife's driving lesson however!

Nik Pearmine managed to hit 4 sixes - and in the process cause Pete Swain to declare the annual sixes competition done and dusted in only Nick's second game of the season. He got out trying to bring his 50 up with possibly the worst ball he faced all day - next time Nik! With Matt Bulpitt protecting his injured groin by hitting fours at the other end, Eltham were nearly there. Wouldhm tried to prolong th match by playing for the draw, but Pradeep showed him how it should be done by smacking his first ball for four to win the match.

A decent oppo but a bad pitch, but still a good game. Well played guys.