Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Streatham and Marlborough CC

Having lost our regular fixture with Streatham & Marlborough 7ths during the off-season, who should be available for a game this week but Streatham & Marlborough 6ths!! Pete Fisher snapped them up straight away to avoid another frustrating weekend following a number of letdowns caused by oppositions in the previous couple of weeks.

With the weather holding, the Eltham hordes (well, Redders and Bulpitt but from a distance you could easily mistake them...) started gathering at a pitch so green I thought I saw Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan setting up cameras on the boundary.

Skipper Bill won the toss and decided, following the previous match where we failed to set a decent target, to give Streatham the opportunity instead. From the outset, the Eltham bowlers seemed on top of a relatively negative batting lineup (though as always there were exceptions!) Two run outs probably weren't what Streatham wanted but that can happen when runs are hard to come by, so the bowlers can take some credit for that.

Tanveer, as always it seems, bowled accurately and with no luck. Bulpitt, guesting as an opening bowler due to catching the skipper's eye in the changing room with a Mr Motivator style warm up ending in a whirling of the shoulders which nearly took out two of his teammates, bowled with Pace and Vigour (distant cousin of Flight and Guile) and got a nice caught and bowled for maximum fantasy points. Ricky was out of luck with no wickets from a decent spell, but his luck was bettered by Zahid and Colin with a couple of wickets each (Colin benefitting with the batsman leaving one which turned sharply behind his legs to bowl him). Shaukat got a wicket with his first ball, a rank long hop which the batsman whacked straight to Zahid at square leg, then mopped up the tail to finish with Eltham-best figures of 3 for 3. Nicely done sir! 64 all out meant Eltham were pretty confident of a successful chase.

And so it transpired. Despite losing Gary early and then Pete Fisher unluckily finding a fielder, Toby and Pete Swain guided Eltham home, Toby particularly beginning to look fluent. Eltham reached their target in the 18th over and Redders was able to confirm his plans for the evening with Sarah for extra Brownie points.