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PAGING DR WALLIS
View From Silly Point by Jamie (Mitch) Mitchell
Pompey 2s' positive start to the season continued last weekend (conveniently ignoring the previous week's trip to Ferndown), with a 76-run win over promotion-chasing Bramshaw.
Despite last week's dismal showing with the bat, skipper Nicky Wyatt didn't pause for thought (a concept as widely believed as Natalie Portman dating Moby) in electing to bat first, under blue skies at St Helens.
The oft used cliche "it'll do a bit early" rang true, as openers Wyatt and Jamie Mitchell made the task of batting look like North Korean hard labour. Once Wyatt had picked out the only fielder on the leg side on 20, the bulk-scoring baton was passed onto Tom Wallis, who caressed a peerless 110.
While Wyatt wielded his bat like a lumberjack would an axe during his ton in the previous home game, Wallis' was more the surgeon's scalpel, incising the Bramshaw attack with the ease of Matt Shaw combing his hair of a morning.
Unlike the major political parties during the week's EU elections, Wallis gained support throughout the order (Mitchell 28, Paul Hungerford 18, and Jed Whitecross a dubious 17), in enabling Pompey to post a defendable 237 for 8.
With the job only half complete (like these match reports once submitted), the Unicorns needed to return to the Wyatt/lumberjack analogy, and start chopping down the strong visiting top order.
Although wicketless, Whitecross made scoring difficult for the Bramshaw openers - only conceding 17 from his 7 over spell. The ever-increasing required run rate nudged the door open for debutant Scott Dale (3 for 40 from 9 overs) and Lee Hungerford (2 for 36 from 9) to barge on through unceremoniously.
Paul Hungerford chimed in with a wicket of his own, before Ethan "Dyson" Randall cleaned up, claiming the scalp of Bramshaw's top-scoring opener during his 15-ball spell of 3 for 6, to dismiss the visitors for 161.
Pompey 2s are back on the road this Saturday, as they make the trip to the picturesque Odiham & Greywell.
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