One’s give everything but come out second best in a fiery encounter

Bramshaw CC 1XI vs Kerala 1XI HCL Div 1. Match report by Bailey Loveless

What do Lance Armstrong, Ryan Giggs, Kerry O’Keefe umpiring for a club in Hampshire, and the fastest land animal on earth all have in common? They are all world-class athletes.

With Ethan in New York and Ritesh appearing in the crowd for a BBC Question Time special (see below), we had a seam-heavy bowling attack.

On a scorcher, Tom Arnold won the toss and elected to bat as we had a girthy lineup batting down to 10. Daniel Eckton opened up with the skipper, but the former left a gap bigger than the Grand Canyon to be castled for a duck. Jack Booth came and went (rumors circulating that the pressure of his girlfriend watching was too much)as we found ourselves 12-2.

Ollie Vincent, who had hosted his years after prom and worked the morning in a call centre, had a coffee and a Red Bull to stay awake as he joined Arnold at the crease as the two kept the scoreboard ticking with a 50 partnership before the phone call middled one to deep point to be removed for 19. It was a difficult wicket with their coach/umpire getting them to bowl slower which made it hard to get the ball away.

Senior Booth joined Arnold in the middle and the pair looked solid before Arnold chopped on, playing his weird little dab for a hard-earned 37, as Beth says to you Tom “Put that away”. Booth followed for a quick 29. This brought breakfast boys Micheal Kingston and Kaushal Patel to the crease. Kingston played his usual aggressive game, which was in vast contrast to Patel who tried 3 different bats, none of which he found in the middle, as he mistimed a 6. Kingston ran down the wicket and was stumped for 26. Coombs hit a few bombs larger than his new training top but then departed. Whilst Patel traded words with the opposition.

At 171-7 with 10 overs left, we wanted to see out the overs but Sergio D’monte and Patel, who made a key 24, fell in quick succession. Jamie Martin and Bailey Loveless had a task on their hands. Martin looked scratchier than his neck but hit some vital boundaries as we were all out for 193. Despite being very noisy, Kerala did catch very well as we felt we were 50 below par.

We then tucked into a splendid tea courtesy of Ali D’Monte. The wraps in particular were delightful. Thankfully, the flapjack wasn’t left in Sergio’s car boot this time.

Kingston and Coombs opened up with the new ball. Kingston clean bowled their opening bat, who got 185 the week before. Coombs then got 2 wickets as Kerala were 50-3. Their number 4 batted aggressively and quickly progressed to 50 against the bowling of Martin and D’Monte.

Jack Booth and Loveless came in with the wickets needed. Booth bowled a ball to their number 5 that made a sound as loud and woody as an oak tree falling as it past the bat, with Julian Assange, back in Australia as a free man, reporting that he heard a noise as Arnold snaffled the ball behind the stumps. However, Kerry O’Keefe made the correct decision and gave it not out.

Loveless got tapped for the second week in a row and needs to take a long hard look at himself. Kingston returned and took vital wickets as he and D’Monte applied the pressure. Kerala got over the line with 4 wickets and 12 overs remaining and credit to them for, as Dumbledore once said, playing the game with outstanding moral fiber. Kingston bowled very well and finished with 4-51.

Big thanks to Theresa for scoring in the heat and thank you to the panel umpire.

See the full scorecard here

https://bramshaw.play-cricket.com/website/results/6082695

Next week we are at home to Compton and Chandlers Ford.