Scorecard

Beaconsfield v St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI on Sun 15 Sep 2019 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 29 runs

Match report So, the last game of the women’s XI first summer season had arrived. A bright day dawned, as the team met at the hallowed home of St Albans cricket…….Clarence Park car park. Some hastily arranged new bodies arrived, as the enormity of the occasion had felled 1 or 2 of the regular players, and Manager-of-the-Year (Michael) grappled with the logistics of multiple females (-room for improvement there, given the 18 years of practice at home).
We convoyed our way to Beaconsfield in the manner of a Kentucky Speedway and changed into our beloved blue shirts. M-o-t-Y gave us all a technical and very specific pep-talk which came up with a cunning plan…..if the opposition could somehow score less than us, we were in with a smashing chance of victory. Genius – we lapped it up! Emboldened, we set off to bat first, which had been the choice of our lucky tosser (the captain, not M-o-t-Y).

Emily and Charlotte strode out to the crease with their bats held high, and settled us into a solid, grounding batting performance. Luck blew our way with a couple of dropped catches, but quality shone through. The ground had an unusual bounce, thanks to the recent summer sun, and Emily was unfortunately undone by an awkward delivery. Arminah took up the mantle to join Charlotte at the wickets and we could detect fear in the air, from the field. Now by this time, M-o-t-Y had switched caps and was umpiring, and, as another unexpected bounce caught Arminah, he called a rather harsh LBW. Gutted, we watched Arminah make the slow walk back to the picnic rug. Charlotte was still in, and greeted Georgina with the welcome she deserved. The pair batted on and we were relaxing in to the play, when the ground struck again……what looked like an definite wide, hit the ground and curved in a way which had more to do with the pitch condition than the swing, and Georgina’s wickets fell. Charlotte was still in. Celeste rose from her sunbathing, now with cricket-pad tan marks on the front of her legs, and had some whizzy swipes at the curvy ball. Sadly, the ball was playing its own game and she was clean bowled. Our wickets were falling, but Charlotte held steady, as Laura went into the breach.

Now the tension was hotting up….5 overs to go and 4 wickets down – the prospect of making it all the way to the twinkly twenty was definitely in sight, but not there yet! Charlotte hit a couple of delicious fours and Laura played some good tactical defensive shots, when Charlotte was unexpectedly caught from behind. She walked off the pitch, to the appreciative applause of her grateful team-mates, as Lashi donned her helmet for her debut performance. She was as good as her name, and batted with gusto, until she, too, fell victim to the LBW fiend. Trish donned the by-now rather sweaty helmet and took her place on the crease. With 3 wickets left, Laura and Trish were able to benefit from the foundations laid by our previous batters and finished the game, not-out, with a cheeky two on the last ball. The first-innings score was 85-6.
M-o-t-Y had swapped hats again and admitted that his plan was working so far – just the small matter of the opposition’s batting stood in the way of success. Ceri requested a boundary position, thanks to an impressive throwing arm (which came in handy more than once in the innings!), and Arminah set out her field as she got ready to bowl. From the off, she was masterful in her run-up and delivery. Emily took an impressive catch, in direct sunlight, and we were off! Wicket after wicket fell, and Arminah finished her 4 overs with 4-4.

Alice was up next and tried out a few different (unusual?) delivery techniques. The direct cracker, or the sunlight catcher, out in the rough?? She cleverly opted for the former (most of the time), and ended her stint at 1-24. All this time, the players in the field were as tight as a gnat’s chuff and Beaconsfield were generally scoring only rare singles. Emma kept the short boundary position resolutely and there was no way that the ball was ever going to hit her picnic rug! Celeste was next up and delivered 4 overs with aplomb (what is a “plomb” – answers on a postcard please) finishing on 1-5. Charlotte wicket-kept like a pro, and coped very well with the fielders calling “Howzat” every time the ball wasn’t hit by the bat. Laura covered the deep spot with military precision, and was brought in closer and closer by the bowlers, as, like a pack of sharks on a Sunday swim through the ocean, we began to smell blood. Next up was Georgina, who bowled her overs with grace and mastery. She was wearing the batswomen down, and they started to wilt, as Emily took up the ball. With Beaconsfield now staring down the barrel of the remaining wickets, Emily went for the jugular and, with a fantastic boundary stop by Georgina, we dared to dream that M-o-t-Y’s cunning plan might just work…….

Lashi came in next to continue her debutante performance extraordinaire, and bowled a very impressive over (o-3). This team was unstoppable! But it was not the end….we still had our secret weapon! Not content with 15 fantastic batting overs, Charlotte came out, like a Pepperami, to finish them off, and the job was done. With Georgina ably wicket keeping for this second half, Charlotte was free to launch her WMDs at the poor remaining batswomen and ended up with a sizzling 3-2. (Note: this will be henceforth be known as a St Albans’ Ladies hat trick!)

Their innings was 56-9, so victory was ours! The opposition had only scored 20 runs, thanks to the gnat’s chuff, and therefore the remainder of their score was kindly donated by Miss Wide and Ms Extra. M-o-t-Y struggled to round up the celebrating ladies but the lasso worked eventually, and he congratulated us on fulfilling his cunning plan in spectacular fashion. He took both hats off; Charlotte put her 3 on and, after a lovely tea of pizza, and lashings of ginger beer, we trundled off home, happy, in the papery sunlight of a late summer Sunday afternoon.

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
18w 7b 1lb 
for 6 wickets
26
85		        
Emily Pollard b Slater 9 6 2 150.0 1
Charlotte Nelson ct Easterbrook b Sullivan 25 40 3 62.50
Arminah Awan lbw b Slater 6 2 1 300
Georgina Reynolds b Sullivan 7 20 1 35.00
Celeste Jones b Sullivan 0 2 0
Laura Knill-Jones Not Out  4 16 25.00
Lashika Jayawardena b Sullivan 0 2 0
Trish Jones Not Out  10 15 2 66.67
Emma Nelson  
Alice Jones  
Ceri Laird  

Beaconsfield Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sullivan4.001243.003.00
Slater4.0026213.006.50
Lloyd4.001000.002.50
Bushell2.00500.002.50
Townend2.00700.003.50
Easterbrook4.001700.004.25

Beaconsfield Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 15w 2b  
for 9 wickets
19
56 (20.0 overs)		     
Hickson b A Jones 2 12 16.67
Lloyd ct E Pollard b A Awan 0 3 0
Banerji b A Awan 0 2 0
Clarke b C Jones 2 3 66.67
Noble b A Awan 0 1 0
Ul Ghani b A Awan 0 7 0
Easterbrook b C Nelson 5 24 20.83
Slater Not Out  9 25 36.00
Townend b C Nelson 2 9 22.22
Bushell b C Nelson 0 1 0
Sullivan Not Out  0

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Arminah Awan4.01441.001.00
Alice Jones4.0124124.006.00
Celeste Jones4.02515.001.25
Georgina Reynolds2.001000.005.00
Charlotte Nelson4.02230.670.50
Emily Pollard1.00600.006.00
Lashika Jayawardena1.00300.003.00

  • Umpire :
    Michael
  • Scorer :
    TBC