Doug Crowell's perennial support of the Bective East club has not gone unnoticed.
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And yesterday, the nonagenarian was perched in a folding chair by the side of the field, as he is every weekend, watching on while his grandson, Abel Carney, thrashed a match-winning innings of 65.
"He's here, week in, week out," Carney said.
![Abel Carney played a sterling innings on Saturday to guide Bective to victory, and was proud to do so in front of his grandfather, Doug Crowell. Picture by Zac Lowe. Abel Carney played a sterling innings on Saturday to guide Bective to victory, and was proud to do so in front of his grandfather, Doug Crowell. Picture by Zac Lowe.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ijfQKXbsEKgSKGW5xB5NiF/a9aa25d7-7a0d-4e68-bbbb-f65b4dfc1509.jpg/r0_18_2048_1242_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I played a lot of cricket as a kid with him, growing up ... It's good to have him here, it keeps him young.
"He still gets into me every now and then, you know, 'Play straight, watch the ball'. He's been playing a lot longer than me, I suppose."
Carney's innings, which was the driving force behind Bective's successful chase of 122 on a very difficult Riverside 1 wicket, came just days after the club made a "special" gesture to recognise Crowell's support.
"He got one of our premiership baggies the other day," Carney said.
"They gave us premiership baggies for winning the comp last year, and they gave him one."
Up against an Old Boys outfit that possessed a seemingly unending reserve of spinners, Bective looked to put on a good performance on Saturday while Crowell watched on.
And, initially, they believed themselves ahead of the game, captain Jye Paterson said.
"We were aiming to bowl them out for 150 at drinks," Paterson said.
"We thought we were got them a bit below par, but in the end it was probably right on par. If they'd gotten 130 or 140, it would've been a really hard chase for us."
Only extras (22) contributed more than Old Boys captain Ben Middlebrook (20) as their innings folded for 122.
Luke Paterson (3-21) took the lion's share of the wickets, while Nick Hird took two and a trio of run-outs dotted the innings.
But the chase was never going to be easy for Bective, with the already dry wicket covered in a layer of silt from the flooding earlier in the season.
This allowed the Old Boys spinners, particularly young leggie Zac Craig, to turn the ball square and make life nightmarish on a wearing surface.
Carney opened the innings and was the only batter to offer resistance early. It wasn't until Luke came in at number seven, with the score at 5-54, that Bective was able to create some stability.
"We were short a few batters this week," Carney said.
"I don't change my game too much, but I just tried not to be too silly ... I wanted to try and steady the ship a little bit."
He and Luke put on 52 for the sixth wicket before Carney was roughed up by a short ball from Tim Kensell (3-22) and bowled around his legs in Kensell's next over.
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That triggered another collapse from Bective, who stumbled from 5-104 to 8-110 in the space of three overs.
But young Charlie Whale (9*) and Nick Hird (8*) made the most of some good fortune to guide Bective home.
"Charlie's a talented kid, he took it all in his stride out there," Paterson said.
"Hirdy's kind of a hit-or-miss player, but luckily today it worked for him."
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