Cruzcrampo Coombs goes ballistic but Bram are still winless

Bramshaw 1st XI v Bashley (Rydal) 2nd XI – HCL Division 1, Match Report by Bailey Loveless

Batman and Robin, Mario and Luigi, Fritzl and his Daughter, Coombs and Kingston. What do they all have in common? They are all iconic duos, but Tom “Robespierre” Arnold put an end to Kingston and Coombs opening bowling partnership as we were put into the field by Bashley.

Arnold announced in the changing room that Jamie Martin would share the new pill with Coombs. The mood suddenly dropped as an awkward silence lingered in the room. A few of the players seemed bamboozled by the decision, with one player in particular not taking the news too well.

Martin was unusually erratic in his first over, but he and Coombs had them scoring at a slow rate on a good deck. Coombs impressed with 1-17 off his 7 overs.

Bailey “Got whacked for 26 in an over on Tuesday” Loveless and Mike “The first change” Kingston came on and bowled decent lines without much luck as the Bashley youngsters batted well to put on 109 for the second wicket before Will Ridley did superbly to run out their number 3 for 65.

Jonty “I live in London and can’t be bothered to come back every weekend to play cricket” Loveless then came and bowled well with Sergio “Nike TN” D’monte, with the former picking up a smart caught and bowled to get 2-43 off his 9. D’monte was unlucky, Arnold thought he was quicker than his dad running to McDonald’s as he attempted to try and catch a skier that nearly went to the boundary, which was never really his catch.

At 200-4 with 6 overs left, we wanted to keep them under 250, but they batted aggressively and hit a fair few boundaries to get to a slightly above par 271-5 off 45 with some very sloppy fielding, including a few dropped catches, costing us.

A lovely tea was then devoured by all, and a big thanks to Tom and Beth for making it! Unfortunately, Nike TN left his mother’s world-renowned flapjacks in his car boot so nobody could enjoy them.

Tom Arnold opened up with Johnny “Muzzer” Murray, but both were removed before the score reached 20. Ollie Vincent, coming off the back of a hundred from the night before, along with Kingston, started to build a key partnership, with both hitting some cracking boundaries to push the score along at a good rate. However, they both fell in quick succession to put Bashley back in the driving seat.

Coombs and Ridley had to bat time at 82-4 off 18 overs, but the former only has one way to play as he hit their bowlers everywhere and particularly enjoyed peppering the fairway of the forest course as the duo put on 76 for the 5th wicket before Ridley fell.

Symonds joined Coombs at the crease, and with the required run rate above 8s, we needed some more Coombs bombs, but he then collapsed to the floor as if he’d been shot by a Martini-Henry rifle, but it was cramp and as the opposition keeper stretched his chubby, sweaty hamstring for him time stood still. Symonds played some lovely scoops off their seamers as the two got us into the 190s before both falling. Joe “Cruzcrampo” Coombs fell for a vital 80 off 59 balls.

Needing more than two a ball the tail needed to wag harder than a wedding night dick, but it collapsed pretty quickly as we were shot out for 218 in the 43rd over.

Bashley are a good side, and they’ll be up there at the end of the season. Thanks to Teresa for scoring and cheers to Johnny for cooking some sausages on the barbie!

See the full scorecard here:

https://bramshaw.play-cricket.com/website/results/6082693

We travel to Bournemouth next week to play their twos with a win very much needed. The biggest question on everyone’s mind is, will Kingston take back the new ball?