Ginge rips through the top order, Coombs goes large on the pitch, J-mac goes even larger off it

Bramshaw 1s vs Lymington 2s HCL Division 2B Match Report written by Bailey Loveless.

Bramshaw XI: Charlie Anderson, Tom Arnold * +, Ben Chandler, Ollie Vincent, Dylan Hatton, Kaush Patel, Johnny Murray, Mike Kingston, Joe Coombs, Jamie Martin, Bailey Loveless

Scorer: John Barrett

With TA back from Paris to skipper and Joe back from “Greece”, we had some good depth in our batting. However, Tom lost the toss and we were sent into the field. Ginge and Joe, who had missed each other deeply since last season, opened the bowling. Coombs removed their opener with a great catch from Dyl. Ginge carried on from last week and removed the rest of the top four (including their overseas) with Arnold snaffling all three behind the stumps.

Coombs and J-Mac then got a wicket each to leave Lymington around 60-6, which brought their skipper to the crease. Their 7 and 8 batted conservatively and built a much-needed partnership. Jamie, Dyl (who also did some high-level gymnastics in the field), and I tried to break the stand. Thankfully, J-Mac got the number 7 leg-before for 32.

Ginge came back on for his last two but couldn’t grab another, finishing with an excellent 9-4-19-3 to keep his early season form going. Chandler bowled in tandem with me and broke another mini-partnership, removing their number 9. We then wrapped up the innings, getting 10 and 11 between us to bowl them out for 153 in 38.5 overs. It felt 50 below par, but we knew, after bowling Hythe out for 55 last week, that their bowling attack was very good.

We had a lovely tea thanks to Tom, Beth, Marian, Bella, and Zola, which we all tucked into—especially J-Mac.

Charlie and Tom opened up, and the former hit some crunching drives before feathering behind for 16, with “our only batter” Arnold going soon after for 7 in the same manner. This meant Chandler came in at 3, with Vincent then joining him in the middle. Chandler was getting a lot of stick from the opposition for his lack of footwork, but this didn’t stop Ren as he crunched some agricultural fours before departing for 16.

Hatton joined Vincent and went aggressive from ball one, swinging from the hip. He found a few boundaries before being given LBW for 12. Patel came to the middle with no lid, as per usual, but with the oppo saying “aim for his head when the opener comes back on,” Patel swiftly put one on. This was allegedly due to now having a girlfriend (yet no one can verify this), as he now wants to protect his face. He watched some Vincent fireworks, including a large six, before Kaush was given LBW—though he claimed to have hit it (again, nobody can verify this claim). We found ourselves in the mud at around 80-6.

In amongst all this chaos, J-Mac went to the toilet to get rid of the butterflies, but he produced a monster that just would not flush. It was a real spectacle, with many of us going to see the damage. Linno commented that, upon inspection, it was the biggest log he’d seen in the post-war era at the cricket club. However, Zane later said that a Ben Arnold whopper in the 2015 season at Paultons was bigger.

Back to the cricket now, Johnny “Muzzer” Murray came to the crease and went for a quick single, but Vincent said no. Johnny slipped, and a great bit of fielding left him short of his ground. Kingston joined Vincent and watched the fireworks before Vincent went for one too many, departing for a crucial 33. Kingston then departed for one after being triggered. At around 100-8, and still needing a lot of runs, Joe and Jamie were at the crease.

Coombs went for it, bashing any bowling coming up the hill for six, and the score started to whittle down. I was getting nervous about having to bat in a tense situation. However, Jamie was more resolute than his bowels as he hung in there for Coombs. In the end, we won by two wickets with exactly nine overs left.

Another great win against a very good side, who I would guess will finish towards the top of the league. A cracking atmosphere after the game capped off a great day.

Thanks to JB and the Lymo scorer and you can see their work below:

Bramshaw CC

We travel to Havant next week hoping to keep our record in tact!