Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Gravesend CC

A big win for Eltham against a weakened Gravesend side saw a new Eltham skipper - Toby Hanington - having to negotiate a crucial toss. Toby won this with aplomb (Should really have used a coin - Ed) and had no hesitation in letting Gravesend have a bowl first. The fact that five ex-skippers had been in his ear had nothing to do with it ;)

Pete Fisher continued his run of fine form - two consecutive innings of double-figure scores constitutes a run at this club - shrugging off the early dismissal of Bulpitt (more from him later) to score a nice 42. Swain, in his first outing of the year, raced to 38 from only 23 deliveries, grinning as he hit the first Eltham six of the season and realised he was already leading the annual sixes competition. Toby came in and looked good until he chanced a single to mid-off, who rocketed a direct hit to run Tobes out. Asjad also looked good until he was undone by the pitch and a "Barnes Wallis" delivery which completely died on him. Better luck next time Asjad!

Colin took a while to get going but seemed to regain some of his old fluency (by old, we are going back around 20 years obviously) and by the end of the innings he had scored his first 50 for a couple of years. Andrew had come and gone by this stage but celebrated his first run for a number of innings. Zahid partnered Colin through to the end and was also finding the middle of the bat. 209 for 6 seemed plenty on this pitch.

Following a lovely tea from Pad, in which he was heard admitting that his main role had been in "chopping the crust off the bread", Eltham strode out, bolstered by samosas so good that your correspondent understands that Bulpitt had secreted two under his cap. Pad himself opened the bowling and clearly was on top form, consistently beating the bat with prodigious movement and good pace. Take a look at his figures - not one scoring shot during his 8 over spell. Not only was he economical, but he also took 4 wickets. Fantastic bowling. Bulpitt was claiming a lot of the credit for this performance, advising Pad at one point to bowl "chest on" and being immediately rewarded with a wicket - so much so that he started charging consultancy fees in the bar after the match if anybody asked him a question.

Shaukat was bowling at the other end, probably confused by the myriad of pronunciations of his name, which at one point lead to Bulpitt doing the rap from "I feel for you" by Chaka Khan. A dicey opening over, in which Asjad was heard to state that it wasn't surprising as he hadn't bowled for 20 years, Shaukat found his length and bowled a spell that promises better returns as the season progresses. Zahid similarly looked good without any luck - on another day he'd have picked up a number of wickets.

Once Pad had finished his spell, Toby picked up the mantle and got his best return for the club - 5 for 21 - nicely done Tobes! We do have to say mind you that he made a meal of his caught and bowled, at one point having to chest it back up in the air before hanging on. Shaukat took an impressive catch in the deep - impressive mainly because he was the only player without a cap and it cam straight out of the sun [Note to Ricky - get some caps in pronto, we have a customer! - Ed]. Colin had been fielding at slip for 27 overs and said to Matt that he was bored, so "The Guru" kindly swapped places with Colin. Of course, it only took 2 balls for Matt to get a catch at first slip - game over!

An enjoyable few beers followed with lots of laughs - another good day at Eltham CC.