Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Roffey CC

The instruction is park on the side road and walk through a wooden gate alongside the field as there is not much space in the car park, arriving early would guarantee a close enough spot to the gate. The first message arrives via WhatsApp..."struggling to find it, anyone here”? This was from Brad Frey, at which point most people who read this message were in doubt of which day the game was on. The heart skips a beat and a frantic look at the date of the fixture, all plans for the weekend would have been thrown under a bus had it been the wrong date.

Both days of the weekend begin with the letter S and end in Day so an easy mistake to make. Brad was so keen for his first game of the season he arrived early, 24 hours early. The error was cleared up and he had to make the long drive back home. No one would take the mick out of him then as the M25 had road works and was down to a 50mph speed limit. The WhatsApp group went silent for a few hours and then out of the blue, Ping, I’m sure Brad was anticipating this to happen, how did your match go today, Brad? did you win? just want to update the website! Is there a match report?

Brad took it on the chin!

The very next day we all started to arrive at what can only be described as one of the best grounds to play at considering the 2 hours round trip (4 for Brad). The outfield trimmed short, the wicket in great condition, electronic score board and lovely pavilion, not forgetting the great opposition, made up of seniors, colts and a few seasoned players, good bunch to play. Were we going to let Brad off the hook, oh no it's not the Eltham way, did you stay in a B and B overnight Brad? was one of the questions asked, this would happen throughout the game, tea and the social after drinks. 

First Innings
The oppo win the toss and elect to bat first. Opening bowlers of Callum, which he seems to have taken this in his stride and Young Daniel. The first few overs go by with Callum bowling well and fielding off his own deliveries like a man possessed, nothing was going past him today, at one point he almost did the splits stopping the ball. This set the tone for the rest of the fielders.

Daniel makes the breakthrough, it’s an inside edge smashed into the ground, trickles past the batter's feet with just enough weight on it, it kisses leg stump and dislodges one bail. The oppo started to place the ball in what was a fast out field and the runs started to rack up, time for a bowling change. Pad takes ball in hand, the batsman goes for a shot, gets the edge and flies straight into Greg's hands, safe catch at slip, and after what seems like an eternity there is a faint howzat from Greg and no one else, not given. This brought that mean streak out of the captain, he was not happy to say the least, it was deemed to have been hit into the ground.

Time to dig in and go again. Pad bowls one of his fast balls, batsman goes to flick it down the leg side and edges it, it’s in the air and so too is Colin like a Boeing 747 banking to his left, he is airborne, takes a really good one handed catch, he then felt the effects of gravity with a thud, any pain would not be felt with a catch like that. This has taken the frown from Pad's face. A few balls later Pad takes another wicket this time clean bowled.

Lindsey to the bowling attack and as usual the ball is turning this way and that, it’s not long before he takes a wicket. The next batsman in plays a shot, the ball flies high in the sky (straight up) everyone watches as Colin just stands there looking down at the batter's feet, it felt like a dead leaf falling from an Autumn tree would have fallen quicker than the ball did. All the fielders were thinking I could make it there before Colin does. It plops to the ground 2 foot in front of Colin, The chuckles rang out for an extended period.

Let the Admiral have a few overs. First wicket bowled, second wicket caught by Callum, the next 3 dropped by Pad, Pete Swain and Pete Fisher, each making their excuse as to why it didn’t stick as we trundled off the pitch, it was tea and we were to chase down 170.

Second Innings
Greg and Pete Fisher walk out willow in hand, sun shining and oppo taking up their fielding positions. First ball and Fish is off the mark with a single, it’s now down to Greg to let the bowler get five dot balls, which he obliges. Not long in, the singles and odd boundary start to add up. Greg edges one to the keeper and now makes the walk back to the pavilion, we have two Petes out there now, Pete Swain in true fashion bangs a four, he is off the mark. He has now equalled his high score for this season, crack goes the next to the boundary, with just two hits he has surpassed that very high score. Next ball smacks it to the square leg fielder and is dropped. The singles and boundaries start to flow, this was going to be a day that he gets his season underway, he was due a good score.

Ten overs gone and umpire change required, in comes Clinton, the only man to give the Swain dog LBW in two consecutive matches, not sure if he liked looking down the wicket and seeing old “trigger finger” umpiring or the Admiral standing there, thinking please get bat on every ball. Lo and behold the ball pitches, turns, Pete swings, misses, ball hits the well-worn out cushion protection bound round his legs. Thankfully that was going down leg by a margin, a shake of the head when bowler goes up with the cry of howzat.

Just before going out to umpire Clinton was informed that the Fish needed one more run to get to a milestone 14,000 runs for the mighty Eltham. Last ball of the over Fish gets a single and instead of calling “over” the admiral goes over to congratulate the man on his mountain of runs, This was an honour to not only be at the ground, but umpiring when he had achieved this, he replies with no I'm 20 behind. Bloody hell who is doing the maths here.

Both Fish and Swain are showing no sign of fatigue and picking up the runs, there is a six for Swain. Fish passes 14,040 runs for his career as an Eltham player, doing so and becoming the all-time record runs score for Eltham, what a day to be there. Eltham give out the longest applause to the man, the living legend. As the total required now into the twenties, both batters looking like they were there for the duration.

The talk on the side was all about Brad now, (Pete Fish had been forgotten about, we wanted a laugh, now that the serious stuff was done) who is batting at number four, what if he doesn't get to go in to bat?, considering he had been to the ground twice this weekend, Swain takes two steps down the track to belt one out the ground, misses and is stumped on 71. As he walks off the field everyone applauds his innings, out of nowhere comes "yeah but you only got one six" from Elliot.

Brad steps up, first ball was close to being a really bad weekend for him, he goes on to make a hand full of runs until he is out.

In steps Elliot who was hungover, did that stop him, no, six runs required to win, Elliot bangs that cherry for a four, was he now wanting to get a six to end it, the cheek. Pete Fish scores the remaining runs. I think I speak for everyone in saying Congratulation Pete Fisher on this achievement, well done indeed.

Two champagne moment of the season contenders this weekend, one being Fish becoming the highest run scorer for Eltham which I'm sure will not be beaten and the second Brad turning up 24 hours too early for a game - which is the sort of thing that could easily be repeated by any number of players at our beloved club.