Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI v Hitchin on Sun 05 Sep 2021 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 156

Match report St Albans Women’s 1XI delivered their best all round performance to date on Sunday to comprehensively beat fellow title contenders Hitchin and seal the North & West Div 2 no.1 spot - only 12 months after winning the Div 3 title. With a promotion spot now sealed for next season we have the small matter of trying to secure the overall Div 2 title with a home Semi Final this Sunday v Binfield CC (2nd place in the South & East Div 2) at Clarence Park. The final to potentially follow 19th September.

The win against Hitchin though was both comprehensive and impressive given the team knew anything less than a win could have left us down in 3rd and outside the play offs. Skipper Amy kicked off the winning feeling by winning the toss (for once!) and electing to bat on a flat deck at Clarence Park. We lost opener Jess early which brought Amy to the crease and she along with Nicki Bloor set about a master class of batting, Nicki reaching her half century in the first 10 overs as she continuously pierced the field and found the boundary. Nicki went on to reach an incredible 96, her highest score to date, but the nervous 90s proved very nervy indeed as she was bowled trying to force the boundary for 3 figures. It was a classy innings and all the team were made up to see Nicki return to form after an injury at the start of the season. Amy’s batting became more expansive as the Mojito’s from the previous night wore off and she finished 77* alongside Jennie Kitzinger 16*; Amy’s trusty slog sweep doing considerable damage in the last few overs. St Albans closed the innings on 206-2 - a daunting total for their opponents after a long hot 30 overs in the field.

If the batting performance wasn’t impressive enough, out came our opening bowlers Cerys Jones and Arminah Awan who seemed determined to steal the show. They bowled one of the best opening bowling spells most of the team had ever seen. It was accurate, tight, nagging, impossible to get away and the Hitchin batters quickly began to capitulate under the pressure of dot balls and a huge total. Cerys got the first break through with Hitchin’s leading run scorer "01 Andy" caught by Jess in the covers and finished her 6 over spell with 6-3-15-3. Arminah at the other end was proving equally challenging to play with her probing line outside off stump and deadly yorkers and also finished her opening spell with incredible figures of 6-2-7-2. However, appeal of the day definitely goes to Cerys - almost Flintoff-esque as she trapped another Hitchin batter dead in front lbw.
If Hitchin thought the second and third change bowlers would offer some light relief they were rudely mistaken as the line continued to be tight and the batters were made to work for every run, backed up by brilliant catching & fielding from the team’s more youthful members. We even saw some great circus skills from Keeper Louise as she juggled a sharp catch down the leg side. Liv Howeson returned figures of 3-0-10-2 and Jess Cowen 2-0-3-3, ably supported by Sophie Meredith and Kate Pankhurst who barely gave away a run between them. Hitchin simply had no answer and were duly bowled out for a meagre 50 inside 22 overs with St Albans bagging a 156 run victory and the league title. Cue much singing of “oh when the Saints…..” post the handshakes!

And yet despite all these amazing performances the beauty of this team is that our MVP for the day went to Katy Langley who as 12thers did an outstanding job of keeping our batsman hydrated in the hot sun. It truly was an outstanding team effort all round and everyone felt so proud at the end of where we’ve come from these last few years to produce a team performance like that today. Best of all though how much this team love playing together - it’s just so much fun!

Onwards and upwards now into the Div 2 title play offs and supporters welcome from 1pm at Clarence Park for our Semi-Final.

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 5w 7b 2lb 
for 2 wickets
17
206		        
Jessica Cowen b I Pawar 0 3 0 2
Nicki Bloor b R Bell 96 65 17 147.69
Amy Price Not Out  77 62 9 124.19
Jennie Kitzinger Not Out  16 10 1 160.0
Olivia Howeson  
Charlotte Nelson  
Kate Pankhurst  
Cerys Jones   2
Sophie Meredith  
Louise Nichols   1
Arminah Awan  

Hitchin Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Inderjeet Pawar4.0017117.004.25
Megan Brown6.003400.005.67
Yasmin King4.003900.009.75
Izzy Gurney6.003500.005.83
Sophie Gates3.002900.009.67
Charlotte Page4.002800.007.00
Rebecca Bell3.0015115.005.00

Hitchin Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 8w 6b 2lb 
for 10 wickets
18
50 (21.2 overs)		     
Charlotte Page lbw A Awan 6
Rachel Godschalk ct J Cowen b C Jones 1
Izzy Gurney lbw C Jones 3
Kirsty Ford ct C Jones b C Jones 2
Inderjeet Pawar ct J Cowen b A Awan 5
Rebecca Bell ct L Nichols b J Cowen 7
Sophie Gates b O Howeson 2
Megan Brown lbw O Howeson 0
Evelyn Page ct C Jones b J Cowen 6
Emily Page Not Out  0
Yasmin King b J Cowen 0

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Cerys Jones6.031535.002.50
Arminah Awan6.02623.001.00
Olivia Howeson3.001025.003.33
Sophie Meredith2.00800.004.00
Jessica Cowen2.21230.670.86
Kate Pankhurst2.01100.000.50

  • Umpire :
    Matt Howeson
  • Scorer :
    Everyone