Colt Swayne Campbell made his Western Counties debut count by bagging the MVP awrd after picking up three for 34 and scoring an unbeaten ten-ball 16 runs as Southampton Rangers defeated Somerset Bridge by six wickets on Saturday.

Campbell, the only change made by the champions from their victory over Warwick, fellow left-arm spinner Derrick Brangman (three for 14) and off spinner Dion Stovell (two for eleven), were instrumental in Rangers bowling out Bridge for 88 in 32.5 overs in the third round at White Hill Field .

In pursuit of their lowly target, Herbie Bascome’s side lost four wickets before Campbell, who last played for Rangers in the First Division Champion of Champions match at the end of April, hit the winning runs with a six off the bowling of Noel Woods to wrap up the chase in 14 overs.

“It’s nice always to come out, have a little knock and get some bit of bowling,” Campbell told The Royal Gazette.

“I’d like to thank my coach and my captain for giving me the opportunity to play in this match. They haven’t seen me all season, so for them to give me the opportunity and actually believe in me to actually do a job today, I appreciate them for that.

“To be honest, no one’s ever going to undermine another team. You always got to come expecting to have a hard game.

“I wasn’t expecting to have a good game like I did. Being my first game back since I last played at the beginning of the season, I was just trying to get through my overs and just try to get the ball down to the other end of the wicket.

“My first over kind of looked crazy, but I was happy that I pulled it back and got three wickets.”

After winning the toss and opting to bat, Bridge struggled to get the runs on the board. Guest player Jermal Proctor, who was dropped twice, had the highest score of 36 at the top of the order before he was cleaned up by Stovell.

Bridge could have had an early breakthrough had Proctor been sharp on the field when Dante Wellman offered a chance off Callum McIntosh’s first over.

McIntosh did eventually get a wicket as some good fielding by Steven Bremar had Nacori Smith caught close to the boundary.

By the time the lunch break was taken, Rangers needed 28 runs with nine wickets in hand. Bridge removed Wellman, Dalin Richardson and Alex Dore after the interval, but that was not enough to prevent them from conceding defeat.

Bridge’s efforts to defend their low total were not helped by their bowlers giving away 20 extras. Proctor conceded most of the bonus runs by sending down nine wide balls.

Adrian Burrows, the Bridge captain, lamented his team’s effort with the bat as root cause for coming out short.

“It was a good game overall, we just didn’t score enough runs,” he said.

“It always makes it difficult when you don’t score enough runs against a classy outfit as Rangers.

“The plan was to try and put up a decent score, something that we could defend. The wickets fell. It didn’t go according to plan, the wicket and conditions were fine, but we just didn’t score enough runs.

“It’s always disappointing to lose in Western Counties. But that’s what happens when you don’t score enough runs.”

Bridge coach Shane Hollis felt that they could have put Rangers under pressure if they had managed a decent score.

“The players were a bit disappointed with their batting,” he said.

“We didn’t give ourselves a compatible total to defend. We showed a bit of character after the lunch break to show glimpses of our quality which shows when we get it right with the bat we can give the best teams trouble.”