Hambledon’s Henry gets slapped down with ball but gets back up to knock ‘Parish out of plate with blistering 33 ball ton

Bramshaw vs. Whiteparish – Border League Plate Semifinal, 23/07/24 – Match report By Bailey Loveless

On a sunny Tuesday evening, Tom “T-Dog” Mason lost the toss, and we were sent into the field.

Laughland and Loveless opened the bowling against Babidge and Ball, and after Laughland found his radar, the two did a good containing job. Loveless found the edge of Ball’s bat but Patel, at slip, stood there like the Statue of Liberty as the ball went away for 4.

Glanfield got tapped in his solidarity over down the hill as Laughland finished with a very respectable 30 off his 4. Ridley came on down the hill, and the first ball removed Babidge with a low full toss, with Declan “Milan” Mason taking a great catch at cover. As always with this particular batsman, he never leaves the pitch quietly as words were exchanged.

Former Bram player Paul Cass walked in at 57-1, and from ball one, he was striking the ball cleaner than prime Peter Odemwingie. Laughland then produced the worst bit of cricket many of us had seen; they ran for the second after a miss field, and Laughland, 5 metres from the stumps, went and threw it  10 metres above the stumps for four overthrows (6 including the 2 runs).

The game was getting away from us, with Ball and Cass hitting Arnold and Glanfield for some large 6s. When Glanfield dropped Cass, we thought it wasn’t our day, as he rolled back the years to bring up his rapid 50. Before he fell victim to Ridley in the last over for 61.

Ball batted through the innings to end on a superb 90* as Whiteparish finished 193-2 off their 18. Ridley and Loveless bowled a combined 8 overs (2-47) to stop further damage. This felt like a mammoth score and we were deflated at half time.

After a quick break, Cam Ridley and Glanfield opened up, knowing we needed nearly eleven an over.

Friend of the club, Terry Harrison, opened the bowling for his 12th club, and Glanfield took a liking, hitting him for three sixes in his second over. Glanfield brought up his 50 off 16 balls.

Glanfield continued to go for it, and Ridley provided great support as the 100 partnership came up before the latter departed after some tidy Babidge bowling. Mason came to the crease but was bowled by Babidge pretty quickly.

Arnold came to the crease to aid Glanfield as he brought up his 100 off just 33 balls. Many of his sixes landed on the forest course. Arnold departed for a quick fire 24. When Patel joined Glanfield at the crease, we needed 20 off 5 overs.

Glanfield stepped away from a Cass delivery as the ball was released due to having something in his eyes, and the ball crashed into the stumps, but after deliberating for a minute, the umpires gave him out. Thankfully, Cass called him back, and kudos to him for that.

Glanfield and the Statue of Liberty saw us home with 3 overs left as Glanfield finished with 138* off 46 balls to have a strike rate of bang on 300. Patel told him it was basically 80 after getting whacked for 58 off 4 earlier with the ball. A superb innings, which Gary Loveless said he’d of paid to watch.

A game that would have been befitting of the final, with both sides batsmen having a day out. Our games with Whiteparish are normally heated, and this was no different, but it was great to share a few beers with them after the game. Big thanks to them for bringing a crowd and putting money behind the bar, which is needed after all the rain recently. Good luck to Whiteparish for the rest of the season with their ones vying for promotion on Saturday’s.

Thank you to JB for scoring, and see his work here:

https://bramshaw.play-cricket.com/website/results/6627387

We will take on Lyndhurst & Ashurst in the final in two weeks, and it would be great to see as much Bram support as possible!