Eltham CC

Match Report

Match report Eltham CC Vs Chelsfield Park CC

After a week of extreme British weather reaching highs of 28c, it was a cooler 24c predicted on one of the weather apps with sunny intervals for this fixture against a team that are on the same level as Eltham cc, a couple piss heads, some big swingers, a few decent bowlers and a few that make up the numbers. Perfect opposition. 
We lose the toss and are put in to bat first. The out field daisy's are growing in this glorious sunshine, this could be a slow out field with the length of the pesky weeds, in true Eltham fashion beer is offered out to those batting later down the order and Elliott to cool us down. There is not a NO to the usual suspects. The sit on roller is brought out to roll the wicket.
 A few chit chats here and there and the roller is brought back to park in the storage space, this being on an uphill proved difficult, the roller kept cutting out and kept running backwards where Greg was observed to have moved faster than he ever has to miss being crushed by this monster of equipment.
As the beers were being taken from individual cool boxes, it was eagle eye Elliot that noticed the admiral had some Holsten Pills from his hesky "some 5% larger there, everything alright at home"? This set the tone for the banter of the afternoon. Greg and Swainy get padded up and walk out to the middle to begin the first innings.
First ball is bowled down the leg side and smacked for 4 by Greg, this out field seems to be fast considering all these daisy's. Next ball is a no ball for 4, there was so much discussion as to how many that was for still only one ball bowled. this is a great start. Could Swainy forget his duck from last week and get a few runs? it was only after Greg was on 9 that Swainy got his first run.
 The first 10 over go by with the openers scoring off singles and boundaries with ease, this partnership is working well and Elliott is to side on the side waiting to get in alongside Andrew, who is batting in third. 10 0vers go by and we scoring well off their faster bowlers. Time for a bowling change and the spinners are brought on, this slowed the Eltham innings down a bit but no much and the runs are racking up.
 We are all enjoying watching this batting innings from Eltham, not as much as Callum who started nibbling on a block of cheese, who is thinking about his rise in the batting order from 10 to 9. The chat amongst us was casual as the opening pair looked to be batting out in a test match, they wanted to bat out the day. 
We chattered about the youth of today not know what it meant to carry a pen or pencil in your pocket to be able to fast forward your recorded TDK 90 cassette in your Walkman to save battery, as there was no rechargeable batteries back in the day (youth of today with their battery packs and usb chargers will never understand what we went through) to, if you eat beef monster munch you are a wrongen. We reach drinks after 20 overs without losing a wicket. Greg and Swainy are batting really well.
Swainy reaches his 50 and there is an applause, next ball and Greg has reached his 50, WHAAAAAT, Greg got his 50 0ne ball shy of Swainy, this tells you that Greg was playing some decent shots and both where scoring at  will.
A couple overs after drinks and Greg is bowled by the bowling change, from the left arm Trosky. Andrew is batting well and calling really loud when a run is there.
its not long and Swainy is bowled by Trosky as well. Elliott in and bangs a six, whoa this is Eltham's day, oops, spoke too soon Elliot is out, he has been caught. Net is is George who starts off well and starts to pick off the balls, he hi picking up runs in singles and boundaries, Andrew is out before he manages to moan about some high no balls and wants to have a chat with their captain, Daniel in and he to get off the mark before being dismissed for 10 by Trosky for 10. Next in Charlie who gets seven not out. The innings ends with both Boylan's not out, its a pity Bernie wasn't playing today he might have got a not out as well! Eltham end on 214. Its tea and we all tuck into our own tucker as there is no teas provided.

Eltham take to the field, the opening bowlers are Ricky and Callum, Ricky takes on in the first over, where have you been all season Ricky? This is some good bowling and Callum adds another wicket to his total wicket haul for the season. Everything is looking like an easy win for Eltham. Ricky takes another and this is looking like men against boys here. Time for a bowling change, its Daniel and the admiral on next. 
Daniel is bowling well buts concedes a few runs off Trosky, in steps the admiral. Should this be the time that he is introduced when this left handed batsman is swinging at everything? Yes bring it on, we are on a high total and everything seems to be going our way. Clearly Trosky didn't get the script. First ball six, boundaries started flowing for Trosky. At one point the admiral had the longest over, no not wides or no balls but so much time taken up looking for the ball in the bushes, Trosky saw the ball like a beach ball as was slogging everything out the ground. 
Please take me off skipper! Thankfully George made the change after just four overs and numerous runs later, what was a winnable has been turned into trying to salvage something. The change came, Charlie and George were now the bowling attack. Trosky still smacked some balls before he hit one up high and was caught at mid on, YES, YES was the shout from deep long on, enough for the neighbours hear (you guessed it, it was the admiral) Trosky had to walk pass the admiral to get off the field. Both had a laugh, fist pump and and a brotherly hug as he had to walk off. 
As everyone gathered in the middle the joke was from the admiral, rolling his shoulders "skipper I'm ready for a second spell now that he's been dismissed). The admiral had to field from deep long off to deep long on as punishment. 
Bowling change as the game was almost done and in come Dan Osgood, who bowled some tidy overs. The admiral got a second spell and in his first over got a wicket, this made today seem ok now, it took some of the pain away from going for 60 from 5 overs (that's T20 scoring) games over and we have lost. Let the beers begin. " I think i should bat up the order so I don't have to bowl", you could have said that before the game Clinty. That's just the begging of the social drinks banter that went on. I win the six league for bowling at the moment. trosky says thanks for bowling today, I havent many many runs this season, wait, I'm supposesed to get a ribbing from my team mates not the oppo.

Over and out the Admiral