Another big run fest as Bramshaw beat Posties!!!

21 July 2013 Club XI v Royal Mail

by Tom Mason

We batted first with Tom Houlder and Matt Clasby opening up both getting into their stride before Clasby was out lbw for 5. It was Harry in next who batted well before the second partnership was broken with Tom edging one to the slips meaning we were in serious trouble when Coombs came to the wicket. In their team, they didn’t have an awful lot of pace bowlers and so these two were finding it easy to accumulate runs and we were soon up to 83-2 after ten overs with this being a 40-over match we were well set for a score of well over 300. Soon after Harry holed out to probably one of their only fielders who would have caught it, Booth. This brought in Declan who stuck around for a while before giving another easy chance which was duly taken he fell for 8 meaning we needed another partnership that lasted for about 20 overs and this came with Coombs and Vane smashing it to all parts. These two started fairly cautiously but after that, they never looked back and were batting for ages with both easily passing their 50s. It did look as if they would both complete their centuries which Joe did his first ever in fact. He hit 3 consecutive sixes and was trying to hit 6 in the over but was unable to do this so retired to give some others ago. This however sparked a collapse as once Kaush was out the next two balls resulted in wickets meaning their bowler had picked up a hat trick. Also soon after Taylor fell for an excellent 93. This meant Dave and Phil were without any batting equipment apart from a bat where in adding a few runs before Phil was out and Joe didn’t want to go back in meaning we finished with 369-9.

After another excellent tea, it was me and Phil opening up both picking up an early wicket each reducing them to 12-2. They also found a useful partnership which most certainly had its luck throughout especially on my behalf I should have taken a catch at deep square leg and there were several others as well. This partnership appeared to last for a very long time until Kaush bowled Booth in the sixties. They lost frequent wickets at the other end with their no3 getting limited support from the others. Soon after there was the second century of the day which gave them the faintest of hopes that they could pull off this remarkable victory. He kept on going with limited support at the other end and was then retiring to give some of the others a chance to bat. The game seemed to liven up from this point with crazy shots, and different variations of bowling one of their batsmen named Tony was loving it out there and he and their young kid batted out until the last ball when Tony got bowled for 10 already being halfway up the pitch when he was going into bowl.

This was an excellent match and was an interesting one to be involved with because at one point it had threatened to be all over within the first 20 overs of their reply.