Sam Crisp clinches ECB Indoor 6-a-side Club Championship for Bashley (Rydal) at Lord’s

TEENAGER Sam Crisp was the last man standing hero as Bashley (Rydal) Cricket Club won the ECB Indoor 6-a-side Club Championship with a dramatic one-wicket win over Ickenham in the Lord’s final.

The tail-ender was left to bat on his own after Bashley, having been 50 without loss chasing Ickenham’s 93 all out, suffered a dramatic collapse, losing five quick wickets.

Bashley needed only five runs to win, but with a largely partisan crowd cheering for Ickenham, Crisp kept his cool, clipping two shots off his legs to clinch the title for a relieved New Forest side, who won in 9.3 overs.

Skipper Michael Porter highlighted his four-person bowling attack’s significance in the victory: “Lord’s is a high-scoring arena, and Ickenham had scored over 150 in their semi-final, but we bowled superbly well, conceding only five wides while bowling them out for 93.”

Bashley looked to be winning at a canter after Porter (27) retired and Tom Jacques (23) and Harry Broderick (12) trimmed off two-thirds of the target. But then five wickets fell, three to Jack Hayward (3-14), son of one-time Hampshire and CCC cricketer Richard Hayward, and one to former Portsmouth University seamer Krissie Mistry (1-15), who conceded only 29 runs off their six overs.

But 18-year old Crisp, who studies at St Edward’s School in Poole, had it all under control. With plenty of time to spare, he picked the two scoring shots he needed to get Bashley across the line, albeit far more nervously than they had anticipated.

Bashley had powered into the final with a crushing five-wicket win over Flitwick in the morning.

They restricted the Bedfordshire side to 121-4 and coasted to victory with 16 balls to spare with Dan Goodey blasting an unbeaten 30.