Shocking batting, bowling and fielding, Bramshaw Cricket must be back!

Easton 1/2XI vs Bramshaw 1/2XI, 12/04/25, 40 over a side friendly. Match Report written by Bailey Loveless.

Easton XI: Jamie Banks, Rhodes Franklin, Olly Boulton, Neil Rose, Nick Boulton, Sam Dickety, Aaron Burton, Jordan Banks, Sam Boulton, Mark Dickety *+, Adi Mandrekar

Bramshaw XI: Jack Booth, Charlie Anderson, William Ridley, Ollie Vincent, Thomas Winter +, Cameron Ridley, Jake Mills, Jamie Martin, Jonty Loveless, Ritesh Ramachandra, Bailey Loveless *

The cricket season is back and the Masters is on, life is on the up. After a March and April drier than a House of Spice Shanklin Chicken Biryani the first pre season game was upon us. We travelled north to the  beautiful David Roth Ground with the Sun shining it had all the makings for a great day. Easton skipper and friend of the club Mark Dickety won the toss and elected for the hosts to bat on a good looking deck.

As skipper for the day I wanted to make sure everyone got a good game whilst still remaining competitive. Will Ridley opened up with Jamie Martin (who looked like had been on the same diet as Kaush through the winter) and both were disappointed that it was legside wides for some reason. Martin’s first over was 10 balls long but did include the wicket of Jamie Banks clean bowled to get us up and running. Will bowled some absolute filth but got a wicket with his last ball of his 3^rd over caught by Martin at gully, I thought leave it on a high and replaced Ridley with Booth.

Booth got a wicket caught by Martin, again at gully, but Easton were flying at 74-3 off 10. Jonty came on to try and offer some control which didn’t start well with a few boundaries off his first over. Booth finished a tidy spell of 6 overs and Ritesh replaced him with the spin pair managing to bowl some dot balls, Easton found themselves at 128/3 at the halfway stage. Jonty bowled a low full toss to Nick Boulton who picked Cam Ridley at deep cow as the ball thudded into his sternum he still managed to hold on to the ball for a great catch.

Jonty and Ritesh were replaced by Jake Mills and I and neither of us could find a consistent length as Easton motored on pass 200 as Neil Rose retired with a stylish 50. Ollie and Cam managed to slow down the scoring with some accurate bowling. Jamie Martin came back on to get another wicket thanks to a great catch behind by Winter to finish with 2-31 off his 7 overs. Easton finished on a 25/30 runs above par 256/6 off their 40 which included 35 wides!

With everyone’s muscles tighter than Ben Arnold’s wallet on a night out we took a well deserved rest before Jack and Charlie opened the batting. The pair got off to a solid start with Charlie in particular going along at a good rate before being bowled through the gate by a peach of  delivery from off spinner Sam Boulton for 27. Will Ridley departed for a seven ball duck playing a disgusting shot off Boulton with his stumps being rearranged. This bought Ollie Vincent to the crease at 78-2 off 15 overs. Vincent got his eye in as Booth started to find the boundary including a large 6. With Booth on 42 the Easton scorer asked if we would be retiring him at 50 but that put the mockers on as he was plumb in front of all 3 the next ball. This brought Winter to crease who departed quickly to join Ridley in the duck department.

Cam Ridley came to the crease at 20 overs with score at 90-4. Ridley and Vincent were looking to stop the famous Bram crumble. The duo did bat for 10 overs but the scoreboard didn’t move too quickly as Cam departed for 14 due to a worldie catch from Ollie Boulton. Vincent then went through the gears and starting hitting 6s bigger than Bryson DeChambeau drives it and on 45 hit a bomb bigger than Hiroshima over the Easton club house to retire on 51 off 64 balls. Martin joined Jake Mils at the crease but departed for a 2nd ball duck in which he admitted was a disgusting shot. Jonty joined Mills at the crease and the pair found some boundaries before Jonty was skittled with 3 balls left. Ritesh got off the mark first ball and we ended on 188-7 off our 40.

Easton won by a margin of 68 runs in a thoroughly deserved victory. They look a good bet to do well in the adjacent County 2 to our 1^st team. Big thanks to Dicko and Easton for being great hosts as always. Kudos to the Easton scorer and you can see his fine work below:

Bramshaw CC

The main mission at the start of the day of everyone getting a game to blow off the cobwebs in the first pre season match has been met. The next first team run out will be on the 26^th against Sarisbury 2s.