Havant won since May… Until this Saturday!

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

Bramshaw XI: Charlie Anderson, Jack Booth, Tom Arnold * +, Ben Chandler, Ollie Vincent, Dylan Hatton, Kaush Patel, Joe Coombs, Tharanga Ranawaka, Wayne Eckton, Bailey Loveless

Scorer: Teresa Whitcher

70 days, over 100,000 minutes — it’s been a long time since the 1s won a league game, but we’ve finally done it.

Tom lost the toss and we were in the field first up. With no Ginge or Jamie (says he has retired, but it appears more likely that the soon to be married man is very much under the thumb), Dylan took the new rock with Coombsy. The pair bowled well with no reward. Jack and I followed and were both a bit loose with our deliveries. Tharanga replaced me and bowled his darts to good effect. Their opening bat got to a run-a-ball 64 before he hauled out to Charlie at long off with the score 110-1 at drinks.

This brought Shreyas MV to the crease, who had smashed us to all parts at their place and got a double ton in the league a few weeks ago, but can’t play in their first team because of visa issues. He whacked his first ball for 6, which made his girlfriend very happy — though she was soon chirping him along with us. I managed to get the other opener caught when I came back on, but then got whacked by Shreyas for three large sixes.

Tharanga then knocked over their skipper, and we knew if we got Shreyas, we were in. We heard a large amount of glove on a leg-side ball from Chandler to Shreyas, which Tom snaffled, but the umpire gave it as a wide. The Havant player umpiring at square leg was beaming with delight at the decision, Kaush on the other hand could not believe it. Tharanga did remove Shreyas for a 39-ball 67. We knew they didn’t have much left in them, but they were 213-4 with 12 overs left. We came back well at the death, bowling them out for 293, with everyone sharing the wickets around — Dylan being the pick of the bowlers with 2-39.

Jack’s Nan did a delightful old-school tea, which we all indulged in. Tom didn’t fancy opening as he was tired from keeping and only has a six-week summer holiday (as do all teachers), yet they still go on strike from time to time.

We knew 293 was a big ask but we batted deep. Jack opened up with Charlie and got us off to a solid start before their first-team spinner removed Booth for 7. Holiday Arnold joined Charlie in the middle. Charlie raced to 50 as he played some lovely drives, including three bombs, as he reached his half-century — before being absolutely barbequed by Tom. Charlie was not happy as he departed for 70.

Chandler joined Arnold at the crease with the score on 128-2 from 21 overs, with the keeper and a few fielders reminding Tom about the run-out. We were at the required rate but still needed 165 more. The pair batted freely as they put on 70 in 8 overs before Chandler departed for 26. This brought Ollie “Fendt” Vincent to the crease, and he looked scratchy before unleashing some bombs. Tom brought up yet another Bramshaw century before Ollie departed for 18, with 40 more needed in 9 overs. Kaush was due in next, but Tom thought, “No, I need someone that can run quickly.” Up stepped Dylan.

I had just been told by the long-off fielder for Havant that Bramshaw is a “s***hole” — the irony being that he lives in Havant. The same fielder then proceeded to drop Dylan at long off before Dylan and Tom started hitting boundaries for fun. With 2 needed and 5 overs left, Tom shouted up “Light up the BBQ!” — a response to the Havant chat, which had gone pretty quiet by that point. We won by 6 wickets with 5 overs left, with Tom finishing on 126 from 99 and Dylan 16*.

A max-point victory and our first win in 9 games. With 4 going down (An absolute joke!), we’ve probably left it a bit late to stay up, but we’ll try and win a few more games yet. We then left sharpish to go to another classic Mangel party!

Thanks to Teresa and the Havant scorer and you can see their work below:

Bramshaw CC

We travel to top of the league Pompey as we try and get another win on the board