Lamb’s spin turns game on its head

AFTER a late scramble to find 11 players, and with rain having left the outfield damp for the first time this year, Bramhall’s second team faced an Urmston side who were confident after consecutive victories.

Urmston won the toss, and put Bramhall in to bat.

With only nine players at the ground at the time, this was probably a good thing, though it did mean that the batting order was never less than fluid!

Emma Lamb – in her first appearance for Bramhall this season – and Ed Daber opened and put on a useful 51. Daber struggled to time the ball, but Lamb looked classy until falling for 27.

Jack Harris’ brief appearance brought in Gavin Tomlinson, who steadied the ship while Daber got his timing working. Unfortunately, having started to hit the ball cleanly, he holed out to mid-wicket.

Ben Harris, persuaded to come out of retirement to help out, then batted fluently, making a rapid 42.

When Tomlinson was out immediately after Harris, Bramhall were in a precarious position at 131-5. Neil Hibbert kept things calm at one end, while James Davenport started scoring at a brisk rate.

Hibbert went, replaced by Chris Heppell, and he and Davenport set about the bowling, building a decent score. Heppell was out for a rapid 43 in the 49th over, and Dan Bridgeman (another out of retirement!) scored at better than a run a ball to push the total to 231-7.

On an Urmston pitch that generally favours batsmen, it was a decent total but not a guarantee of success.

And so it appeared as the Urmston openers, Haroon Pasha and Max Buckley, made batting look easy, reaching 42 off the first eight overs.

The introduction of spin, however, turned the game on its head. Lamb immediately put a brake on the scoring, taking three wickets in her first few overs.

Tom Drury, at the other end, was only marginally easier to score off, but overall the Urmston batsmen were bamboozled.

Buckley was bowled behind his legs for 31, and only Duncan Hood of the middle and lower order batsmen reached double figures.

Drury ended with six wickets, including a hat-trick (only 41 years after his only previous one), and Lamb wrapped things up to leave Urmston 84 all out.