With round one abandoned the previous week due to torrential rain, the Eagles finally saw a ball bowled at the weekend against Romsey, welcoming last year’s third-place finisher to Kings Park for a one-day contest.
Despite what the final scoreline may suggest, Eastern Hill was right in the fight for victory on Saturday, being in a winning position midway through Romsey’s run chase, before ultimately falling to a five-wicket defeat.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, the Eagles were looking composed early with skipper Seamus Feery and Daniel O’Sullivan at the crease for the first ball, each hitting boundaries in the second over, as they saw off the new ball and steadily progressed the scoreboard.
They faced the first 10 overs of the match without any drama, scoring 27 in tandem before O’Sullivan was bowled for 12, bringing Ben Bryant to the crease, and both he and Feery dug in.
For 25 overs the duo frustrated the Romsey bowling attack, and while scoring wasn’t done at an overly quick rate, it was consistent, with the pair passing 50, then 75, before bringing up the 100-run milestone in a brilliant partnership of 87.
Feery played a real captain’s knock, raising the bat to salute a half-century and going on to score a team-high 60 before he was eventually dismissed in the 36th over, leaving the Eagles at 3-114 with nine full overs remaining in the innings.
But one wicket brings more and Bryant (39) followed Feery back to the sheds two overs later, the home side slumping to 4-121, and while Matthew Collard and Ollie Bryant added 16 together in the middle, their partnership was short-lived too.
Both Collard and Ollie Bryant departed after scoring 11 each, as the Eagles’ tally fell to 5-143, while Brayden Speechley and Michael Brown fell cheaply in search of quick runs at the end of the innings, with Eastern Hill posting a total of 7-152 from the 45 overs.
In reply with the ball, the Eagles got off to a flyer and looked to be in a position to claim a sensational first victory at the very first opportunity in the top flight.
Fraser Lewis struck in only the third over to leave Romsey down 1-11, and over the next nine overs both he and Ben Bryant suffocated the visitors’ ability to score, which O’Sullivan took full advantage of in his first over, claiming his first scalp to leave Romsey at 2-29.
It soon became 3-35 as Lewis (2-27) again found a wicket in the following over. While Romsey attempted to fight back, finding the boundary rope multiple times over the next four overs, Feery threw the ball to Tim Rudd-Schmidt, and it looked to be a masterstroke.
With his first delivery, Rudd-Schmidt found a breakthrough to reduce Romsey to 4-52, and just four balls later the intense pressure the Eagles were heaping on the visitors bore fruit, with a mix-up at the crease resulting in a run out, and Romsey slumped to 5-57.
The Eagles looked well on top of the situation, needing only five wickets for victory, while the visitors still needed 96 runs, but that is where the fortunes began to change.
Romsey’s number six and seven flipped the contest on its head, combining for an unbeaten 96-run partnership to pinch the win, although Eastern Hill should be soothed by the fact it was instantly competitive in the top grade and will no doubt taste victory soon enough.
The Eagles also suffered defeat in the McIntyre Cup seconds against Romsey, with number 10 Jack Kennedy top scoring, unbeaten on 23. The Eagles posted 102 all out after winning the toss and electing to bat, before Romsey romped to the win by seven wickets, reaching the 103 runs required for victory in 26.2 overs.
The Eagles’ Jensen Shield side also went down in its clash against Woodend by four wickets, with Alan Loweke’s 23 the top score in a total of 10-118, while vice-captain Chris Russell returned the best figures of 2-18 with the ball.
