Old Basing fire shots, but rain Trumps both sides

HCL Division 1 Old Basing 1 XI vs Bramshaw 1 XI. Match report by Bailey Loveless.

On an early Saturday morning, we made the hour-long trip north to Basingstoke to take on Old Basing. We were missing Coombs and Kingston, who last year against this opposition resuscitated us from 80-8 to chase down 200. Patel and Martin were also unavailable as they were on a double date at Stonehenge (see below).

We won the toss and chose to bowl first. With a lack of seamers available Tom Arnold, who seemed surprisingly knackered from his 9 till 3 teaching job, gave up the gloves to open the bowling with Sergio “Shagaluf” D’Monte who had just got back from Spain where his hard hands were finally to his advantage.

Arnold took a wicket with a full toss in his first over as Old Basing made a positive start due to a few extras. Jack Booth came on and bowled good line and lengths as he had their hard hitting opener caught by Jonty Loveless. Arnold then removed their number 4 as Ollie “Pepe Reina” Vincent took a good catch behind the stumps. Arnold finished with 2-31 off his 9, hopefully his energy levels will get better during a well deserved 6 week break from the 9-3 shift.

Drinks were taken and the squash provided was delightful and I wish they had it on draft but more on that later.

The Loveless brothers then came on and started well, with their number 5 very lucky to not be bowled a few times before he was plumb in front of middle. Their number 6 batted well and took a liking to some Bailey Loveless Steak and Kidney Pies. Their number 3 eventually reached 50 before Dec Mason caught him out. Jonty Loveless removed their number 6 for a well-made 40 to finish with 1-35 off his 9.

Old Basing closed on 209-7, which felt slightly below par, after some good death bowling from Booth and D’ Monte. The rain then came as we waited 91 minutes before the game could be called off as we debated many topics including whether you go sock shoe sock shoe or sock sock shoe shoe to get dressed in the morning.

The game was called off and I was lucky enough to shower with Ben Chandler. The bar was opened and Declan and I had a draft beer but it smelt like the silage in George Gray’s field. Declan got through his pint but I just couldn’t. In fairness I think it would have been fine if we’d waited for a few more beers to be poured.

Many thanks to Old Basing for a great half game and being a good bunch of lads. Cheers to Teresa for scoring. It would have been interesting to see if we had chased 209 down.

See the full scorecard here:

https://bramshaw.play-cricket.com/website/results/6082774

We take on Hayling Island at home next week if it’s not rained off!