Lamb ends 18-year run with Bears

CRICKET: Warwickshire batter Matt Lamb has joined Derbyshire on a two-year deal.

The 26-year-old ends an 18-year affiliation with the county, having joined the Warwickshire Pathway at the Under-9s age group.

Lamb secured his first professional contract in 2016, subsequently making his First Class debut versus Somerset in September that year.

Lamb extended his deal in 2020 following a breakthrough in all formats, which saw the right-hander score his maiden First Class century as well as nailing down a T20 middleorder spot.

During the 2021 County Championship winning season, Lamb added significant contributions throughout the campaign, scoring 565 runs with three centuries.

In total, Lamb has played 70 matches, hitting 2,560 runs with four centuries.

Lamb said: “I leave Edgbaston with a heavy heart, but I’m incredibly excited for the next chapter of my career.

“I will be forever grateful and thankful to everybody at the Bears who helped and coached me from an eight-year-old cricket lover to a County Champion. I have made friends for life at the club and will always look forward to returning with Derbyshire.”

TENNIS:

Dan Evans missed six match points in a painful second-round defeat by Miomir Kecmanovic at the Japan Open in Tokyo.

The Solihull star fought back from a set down and then recovered from 4-2 down in the deciding set against his Serbian opponent to leave himself serving for the match at 5-4. Evans was 40-0 up and held three further match points in the same game but was unable to take any of them as Kecmanovic, who saved one chance with a between-thelegs shot, broke back. The Serbian then had his own chance at 6-5, which Evans saved, only for Kecmanovic to win the final four points of the tie-break in a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (4) success.

“That was the first time that I was able to do that,” said Kecmanovic, who is ranked eight places below Evans at 33. “I was completely tuned out of the match and I just went for it in that moment.”