Match Report – Southampton Travellers v Bramshaw 2nd XI

Southampton Travellers v Bramshaw 2nd XI 14 June 2014
by Tom Mason

2’S claim second victory in succession

On an extremely hot day, Bramshaw won the toss and elected to bat first against Southampton travellers. Got off to a solid start thanks to some great resilience from Andy and John seeing off the new ball. Andy and John continued to pile on the runs approaching the 15 overs mark where John was taking control of this partnership. Andy V was then out just before drinks which brought in John Roberts who wasn’t ever going to waste any time and so it proved that after drinks the two Johns sent the ball to all parts. They both continued to bat well and first John W passed the fifty mark with numerous boundaries and we looked well on for a score of at least two hundred. Soon after John W departed for a superb 91 an innings which did deserve a century. That wicket brought in Mike who started very while whilst John R had just passed his fifty. Soon after reaching his fifty John was out for an excellent 66. This brought in young Matt Rowland who played some decent shots before skiing one in the air. This meant that John R brother George was in and he didn’t last long before getting out for a duck.

This brought in the experienced Ben Arnold who should have had his experience by only playing off the bad balls before Mike was ran out after a solid innings. This brought me in for the final three balls but I didn’t face as Ben saw off the last few balls collecting a couple of runs taking us beyond 200 and on to 208-6 from our 42 overs.

After an amazing tea, John W and Ben A opened up keeping the runs quiet before we got our first wicket John got it and then the most obvious of edges behind wasn’t given much to everyone’s frustration. The run rate then picked up with Phil and J Roberts bowling but they did manage to pick up a couple of wickets between them. At this stage, it was clear that it would go down to the last ball. Then on came T Wall who kept it very tight at his end and also picked up a wicket. With wickets continuing to fall it was down to Ben and John W to keep it tight to see us across the line and they both bowled very well going down to the last ball they needed six to win and they only got a single so we managed to pick up a narrow win against a team which hadn’t lost before the start of the day.

This was a great all round team effort which is what made the difference between the two teams in the end.