Bramhall edge closer to safety
BRAMHALL 1st XI’s fixture at home to Cheadle – kindly sponsored by Kevin Webb – was key for both sides, given their relative proximity to the Premier Division relegation zone.
Given the preceding days’ wet weather, the players were faced with a green surface and lush outfield at Church Lane.
Upon winning the toss, however, Bramhall skipper Nick Cantello did deliberate hard about what to do – possibly based on his side’s dismal run chase at Cheadle earlier on in the season.
However, he did eventually decide to bowl first, despite missing allrounder Danny Lamb who was on 12th man duty for England at Old Trafford.
After three overs, Cantello was seriously wondering if he had made the correct decision.
Cheadle were 29-0 and looking to throw the bat at anything vaguely offline on the slow surface.
Then, however, paceman Chris Sanders found a good ball to take Dixon’s middle stump, and the Beavers sensed a chance to get into the match.
One more had been added to the score when Matt Higginbottom struck from the other end, to give wicketkeeper Sam Johnson the first of three catches. The score had then trickled on to 35-2, before the unthinkable happened – Cheadle lost five wickets for no runs in a scarcely believable run of play.
Whilst not entirely conducive to stroke-making, the pitch was largely blameless as a succession of misjudged shots put the visitors in the mire.
Higginbottom suddenly found himself with a five wicket haul, and Sanders was unlucky to only pick up one more with an accurate spell of seam bowling.
Cheadle limped through to 52-7 before Higginbottom struck again, and it was soon 58-9 as he collected his seventh and final wicket. Simon Wilkinson’s offspin was responsible for the last dismissal of the innings, to see Cheadle all out for 62 in the 22nd over.
Turning straight around, the Beavers soon found themselves offering Cheadle some hope after losing an opener in the first over.
Iftkihar Naseer was promoted to bat at three, and a succession of typically powerful drives managed to take the score through to 32, before he played on for 21.
Opener Adam Wilde stood firm at the other end, diligently mixing defence and attack – even with only 31 more runs required, Bramhall were still no better off than their opponents had been at this stage of their innings!
Another blip came 10 runs later, as the Beavers lost two wickets in two balls to give Cheadle a little more hope, and a point, at 42-4.
But Wilde was in no mood to provide an more freebies, as he added the lion’s share of remaining runs required to see Bramhall home by 6 wickets in the 12th over and finish on 34 not out.
Man of the Match Higginbottom, fittingly, was unbeaten on eight at the non-strikers end to add to his earlier brilliant bowling figures of 11-3-28-7
Bramhall picked up a crucial 25 points to put some breathing space between them and the drop zone, but remain in eighth position.
Things still remain tight in the bottom half of the division, and a tough challenge away to Toft awaits the Beavers next Saturday.
After the heavy rain of the preceding days, it was a pleasant surprise to see the sun shining on a firm track at Cheadle for the seconds’ match.
This was followed by another surprise, when Bramhall won the toss for only the third time this season.
After the frustration of the previous week, it was an easy decision to ask Cheadle to bat first.
Chris Heppell and Jack Harris opebed the bowling for Bramhall, and soon had Cheadle in trouble. 7 for 1 became 23-32 and 29-3, as wickets fell at regular intervals.
Only captain Aaron Wall held out for any length of time, scoring 23 as his team mates struggled around him.
Harris had taken two of the five wickets to fall before he was replaced by James Davenport, who proceeded to mop up the Cheadle tail.
He ended up with 4-8, with Heppell bowling unchanged to take 4-48, as Cheadle were bowled out for 83 in only 26.1 overs.
With better catching from Bramhall that could easily have been lower.
The challenge for Bramhall was to ensure that Cheadle weren’t given the chance to get back into the game.
The youthful opening batsmen – Alex Hunt and Harry Oliver – showed that they had listened to their instructions, putting on 34 for the first wicket.
Oliver, who had been picking the balls to attack, was bowled by a fine delivery from Tony Whiteley, but Hunt continued to show patience.
He was joined by Jack Harris, who played reasonably aggressively to score 32 off 41 balls before holing out with the score on 72. Archie Tittle missed out on the chance to be there at the end, playing across a straight delivery to be bowled, but there were no further alarms as Hunt hit the winning runs to end u on 20 not out.
A convincing win for Bramhall, but with the top three teams in the division also winning, more will have to follow if the outside chance of promotion is to be realised.
The 3rd XI rounded off an excellent weekend for Bramhall on Sunday, routing Alderley Edge for just 58 to win comfortably.