Lympsham lost their opening league game of the season against Pakistani Express.

LYMPSHAM kicked off the new season at home to newly-promoted Pakistani Express.

Jack Luff won the toss and elected to bat first. Rich Ford was the first to go for seven, which brought Tom Gooding to the crease. Along with Jason Parsons, the pair kept the scoreboard ticking before Parsons was removed for 34, which allowed Lympsham Concrete man of the match Jack Luff to join Gooding.

These two carried on the momentum, but once Gooding was removed for 41, wickets started to tumble around Luff, with only his sister, Sophie, showing some support at the other end.

Luff made an excellent 63 before being caught. Some lusty blows from debutant James Taylor, who made an impressive 35 not out, along with some good running saw Lympsham to a competitive 242-8.

After tea, Lympsham made early breakthroughs, with Simon Cowgill (9-2-29-3) and Liam Morris (6-0-47-1) opening the bowling and leaving the visitors 11-3 off of three overs.

Another wicket from Cowgill left the visitors struggling, but this brought Ali and Zaheer the crease. The pair rode their luck and managed to put on a 100+ partnership, taking the game away from Lympsham.

Pick of the bowlers was Sophie Luff (8-1-25-3) who gave the home side a slight chance, but the lack of bowling in the middle overs meant that the visitors cruised to the target in 41.2 overs.

Lympsham Sunday Development X1 edged home by three runs against Draycott.

Captain Tom Gooding won the toss and put his team into bat. Lympsham lost wickets regularly with three players all finishing on unlucky 13. Top scorers were Sam Poole (59 not out) and Jack Luff (52 not out) with a useful contribution of 25 from the senior man of the team Dave Luff.

Lympsham finished on 209-9 off their 40 overs. Pick of the Draycott bowling was S Russet (3-50).

In reply, Lympsham took two early wickets James Taylor (1-15) and Mark Skidmore (1-29). Some tight middle order bowling from youngsters Felix Granfield (0-13) and Ben Evans (1-8) made it difficult for Draycott to put on runs.

However, with M Sims (75 not out) joining R Hathaway (55) at the crease, the game began to turn and Draycott started to pile on the runs. Tom Gooding (0-22) and Sam Poole (0-12) bowled the last four overs with Draycott needing seven off the last over to win. They could only manage three off of Gooding’s last over and Lympsham ran out the winners by three runs.

Nuts and Bolts man of the match was Sam Poole.