DAVID KELLY + JEFF BENTON thier best partnership

[mal]

David Kelly ex SA keeper batsman
Jeff Benton ex SA hard hitting middle order batsman
Both former Woodville District cricketers
Both made centuries at state level
These guys have been involved in a few partnerships in thier careers

Last week was a partnership that can not ever be forgotten.
This is the story as I understand it :
Both saw thier former club beat Kensington at Kensingtons ground
After the game had finished a commotion started
A young boy ran to his mother screaming about 3 boys being trapped in a duck pond.
Kelly + Benton went to the pond and there was a hand in the air as a kid was submerged
Benton jumped in and saved the boy
Another boy was found underwater and saved
One more boy was underwater as Benton + co searched for him
This last boy was extremely fortunate Benton only found him when he stepped on him.
Kelly revived one of the boys with resusitation

All 3 boys were between seconds/minutes of all drowning.

David Kelly was on radio tonight describing the instance
Kelly a father of 3 said he only learnt CPR last year through his employment.

This is one of the great cricketing stories
Benton+ Kellys heroics will never be forgotten

PS I remember seeing Kellys century against QL at Adelaide Oval.
He made it against arguably the fastest bowler in history Jeffrey Thompson + Carl Rackeman

Both Kelly + Benton are both premiership players at Woodville in the John Nason era from memory.

Great story

[spell_check]

A good news story overlooked by the presses. Hardly surprising.

[mal]

Agree SC
Particularly when it involves a state selector

[GWW]

Well done David and Jeff, good stuff. Nice to see a feel good story.

[heater31]

Hopefully after this near tragic event the bloody council do something about that pond and creek at Kensington. Its a bloody disgrace

[Pup]

Terrific story.

[Hondo]

Well done lads a great story

[bulldogproud]

Well done, Dave and Jeff. Hoping that the press still pick up on the story as it is far more important than the game of cricket itself.
Cheers

[Keefy]

Here's the link to the story on Adelaide Now

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22879251-5006301,00.html

[JK]

Was lucky enough to hear the story aswell last night and you could hear the emotion in David's voice re-living the situation ... Wouldn't ever wish to be in either of their shoes, but hope I'm as prepared should it happen, as they were.

A Fantastic story, thankfully, due to the happy ending.

[panther]

Both Dave and Jeff are good friends of mine, I have played junior cricket and footy with Dave. Both Kells and Benny are typical Aussies love playing competitive sports love having a beer and spinning a story with thier mates.Im thrilled to see they have saved those kids lives and proud to say they are mates of mine.I will pass on the thoughts of all of the guys that have posted on them.

[mal]

SUNDAY MAIL
09/12/07
PAGE 21
CRICKET HEROES

Worth a read
Can anyone cut + paste the article and put it on SAFOOTY ?

The picture in todays press tells a million words

Also a mention to Casey Tanner the 3rd former Woodville cricketer involved for his part.

Those kids are 10+10+7 years old
So much life still in front of them.

KELLY/BENTON/TANNER

[magpie in the 80's]

Cricket heroes save boys

December 09, 2007 12:15am

THREE retired cricketers – two who played for South Australia – have heroically rescued three young boys from drowning in a suburban duck pond.
The men pulled the young boys from the bottom of the pond and had to resuscitate two of them.

Former state cricketers David Kelly and Jeff Benton, along with retired Woodville cricketer Casey Tanner, were yesterday reunited with the boys they saved and their eternally grateful families.

Mr Kelly, a Redbacks selector, said he and his two mates were watching the Kensington v Woodville game last Saturday at Kensington Oval when they heard a woman screaming.

Four young Japanese boys – whose parents are based in Adelaide for work – were playing with a tennis ball near where their parents had gathered for a barbecue when the ball landed in the pond.

The boys, two of them brothers, are all aged 10 or under.

One fell as he reached in to get the ball and two jumped into the sludge-like water in an attempt to save him.

"All we heard was this screaming from the oval behind us," Mr Kelly said.

"We raced down there to find the family of these little Japanese boys screaming at decibels you wouldn't believe.

"One lad had gone under but he had the foresight to hold his arm in the air as he sank."

Mr Benton dragged the first boy out and threw him on to the bank, but the mother – who did not speak much English – continued to scream more children were missing.

"There was absolutely no visibility and the water was seven foot deep in the middle," Mr Kelly said.

"Jeff was in there with this Japanese man and they were both walking around swirling their arms around. They found another boy floating under the surface, grabbed him and hauled him up to me."

Mr Kelly rolled the boy on to his side, whacked him on the back and noticed some signs of breathing.

Back in the pond, Mr Benton frantically asked the mother if there were any more children in the water.

"The mum just screamed back – it was a scream I'll never forget – and said yes, another one," he said. "I yelled at him to move around and keep looking and without a word he went under the water and came back holding the boy by the pants.

"Jeff is 6'2" and couldn't touch the bottom where he was but he stood on that boy.

"I'm not religious, but it was a miracle we were able to save that boy."

Recounting his search through the sludge, Mr Benton said he was thrashing his feet across the floor of the pond in a desperate attempt to cover more ground.

"And basically I just stepped on him," he said. "It was pointless going under water to look – it was just black oil, filthy sludge. I just went down and grabbed whatever I could grab hold of.



"But he wasn't alive. His legs and arms were just dangling."

Mr Benton said the boy's mother was hysterical with grief and had to be dragged away. "His family just wanted to hold him, I think," he said.

"They thought he was dead."

While the third member of their group, Mr Tanner, called an ambulance and the police for help, Mr Kelly commenced CPR. "Somehow I revived him," he said.

"He was purple when we pulled him out. I'm no doctor, but he was dead.

"I did a CPR course with my company, Spotless, about 12 months ago and I'm indebted to them for making me do it.

"But even as I was going through the motions I was wondering if I was only reviving him to spend the rest of his life a vegetable. It's a miracle that little fella is alive."

In the days following their rescue effort, the men visited the boy in hospital. But it was a phone call late in the week that meant everything to Mr Kelly.



"He reduced me to tears, the little bugger," he said.

"He said `Hello David, this is Taito. I was just ringing to say thankyou very much for saving my life'."



In an emotional reunion yesterday the boys gave Christmas presents to the men as a token of thanks for saving their lives.

Masa Sasaki, whose son Taito was the last child rescued and who spent several days in intensive care recovering, paid tribute to the bravery of the men.

"They are heroes," he said.