Scorecard

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI v Ampthill Town CC Womens 1st XI on Sun 26 Apr 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 67 runs

Match report God, I love cricket.

After a winter full of longingly shadow-batting in the mirror and unconsciously marking out a run up every time they got out of bed, the mighty St Albans Women’s 1XI finally found themselves returning to the hallowed Clarence Park fortress to take on Ampthill CC. New co-skipper Arminah Awan was at the helm today, later to be joined by ‘Coach to the Stars’ co-captain Amy Price, in an unplanned cameo to save the youth contingent from further aggravating an injury. More on that selfless heroism later.

Start as we mean to go on: we lost the toss with our trademark flair and panache, finding ourselves put in to bat first. Our openers looked menacing, Annie ‘I Made Cupcakes ONE TIME, Stop Making It My Nickname’ O’Gorman and Kara ‘Best Vijender in the Club’ Vijender sauntering on to the pitch.

Annie looked in fine touch from ball Juan, showing due respect to the good balls (and there were a lot of them), seeing herself in safely to begin with. Kara was less fortunate, finding herself trapped LBW to depart for a golden, heading back to the scorer’s table to frown at her maths homework. This dangerous left-arm opening bowler went on to dismiss a three of our top order each for nought, claiming the scalps of Anum Ahmad and TikTok superstar Molly Green. Green had recently opted to take part in ‘Runs for Research’ meaning that every run scored and wicket taken would earn a donation to charity to help fight Alzheimer’s. Basically, what I’m saying is the Ampthill opener clearly hates charity.

Sighing, realising that if you want something done you’d best do it yourself, skipper Awan approached the crease to help steady the ship. By this stage, we were on a grand total of 6 runs, none of them having been scored with the bat, rather all coming from various extras. Thankfully, Annie and Arminah stood tall, preserving their wickets beautifully and sensationally striking the sparse bad balls when they came. Tact and controlled aggression were the themes of their innings, seeing both batters flirt with the 50 milestone in their very first game back: Annie would eventually depart via LBW for a crucial 46, while Arminah would find herself bowled for a vital 41. This partnership of 89 very much put us back in the game after a frightening start: bloody well done, guys.

We were treated to a cameo from 1XI debutant Sally Cheeseman, who showcased some truly lovely shots that went largely unrewarded. She dabbed, drove and defended beautifully, a well-held catch eventually dismissing her for 2. The remainder of our innings was seen out by Freya ‘Best Witty in the Club’ Witty and Evie ‘Insert Pokémon Joke Here’ Davis. Both bats were efficient, seeing themselves in for an appropriate amount of time before beginning to strike a bit more heartily. After showing a great amount of maturity and skill in their approach, the final ball of the innings saw Evie run out on 10 attempting to turn a double into a triple, with Freya remaining undefeated on a regal 13.

Tea came and went, the highlight very much being some delectable cookies provided for us by St Albans’ Glaze Bakery. Large, soft, gooey and mouthwatering, we tucked in with reckless abandon, with local influencer Molly Green lurking around with a tripod, demanding live reviews. Naturally, high scores were delivered by all: a lovely treat that we hope to see again!

Thus, we strode back out there to defend a respectable total of 159. With the bowling we had in the shed, this didn’t seem like too tall an order. Davis and Kate ‘KP’ Pankhurst took the new ball and got to business.

Davis bowled an admirable spell, despite carrying an injury that left her hobbling back to begin her run up each time. She bravely bowled through it, conserving runs well and eventually claiming a well-deserved wicket in her final over (thanks to a firm hold from Awan behind the stumps) before departing the pitch to avoid further exacerbating said injury. As mentioned, co captain Price had recently arrived to survey the troops, and was only too eager to join the pitch to help make up the numbers fielding-wise, having spent the last five overs muttering “bring someone in close, GET THERE, get the ball in, GET DOWN TO IT.” Needless to say, she led by example once joining the field of play.

Amidst all this, Pankhurst was doing a sensational job of keeping the batters honest and ensuring runs were hard-fought. She picked up a wicket of her own with her trademark guile, the bellow for LBW knocking spectators off their seats. Davis and Pankhurst retired after a fierce opening spell, making way for our next form of attack in Anum and Laura.

Anum tried her hand but was unfortunate not to quite find her usual rhythm. A wayward first over for 14 runs saw her step down, replaced by Kara. During this, Laura was making cricket look easy. A four over spell from our favourite Knill-Jones saw her concede only a measly 6 runs, while she viciously ripped through the Ampthill middle order as if they’d kicked her dog. A well-watched catch from Kara, a clean bowled delivery and an effortless caught and bowled saw Laura claim no less than 3 scalps, only missing the potential hat-trick by a hair and cementing an excellent start to her season. Kara ably supported her from the pavilion end, with a confident catch from Sally securing a wicket for Kara.

Things were starting to look very positive, and we naturally wished to capitalise on this upwards momentum. So, what’s the only natural course of action in such a scenario? Let loose the dogs of war and deploy our nukes. Thus, Green and Witty ominously approached, the fear in the batters’ eyes visible from several counties over. Green claimed a wicket in her first over, allowing Alzheimer’s patients across the country a sigh of relief. She went on to secure her second wicket in her third over, while Freya ran riot from the other end. Tight bowling was brought to a fitting end when Freya decided she’d had enough of playing with her food, dismissing the final two batters in her final over to bring the game to a close.

A rousing 67 run victory to begin our season! A brilliant start, with performances from everyone contributing to a well-earned win. After albeit a scary start with the bat, the rest of our order showed a fantastic amount of tact and controlled aggression to put us back to a decent total, while our bowlers put on a masterclass with the ball. Areas upon which to improve do, of course, exist, but on the whole it was terrific to see everyone get back into action so seamlessly. Can’t wait to do it all over again next week!

Noteworthy Moments:

Glaze Bakery’s sensational cookie masterclass

Laura putting on an absolute clinic with the ball

Molly claiming her first wicket and hitting the Mbappe celebration with the whole “modest shrug”, then immediately bowling a no ball and a wide

Annie and Arminah for reminding us just how bloody good they are with the bat

Arminah (again) for claiming 2 great catches behind the stumps

Price for nobly replacing an injured Davis

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
13nb 20w 8b  
for 7 wickets
41
159		        
Annie O'Gorman lbw Douglas 46 76 5 60.53
Kara Vijender lbw Clark 0 1 0 1
Anum Ahmad b Clark 0 6 0
Molly Green b Clark 0 3 0
Arminah Awan b Middleton 41 42 6 97.62 2
Sally Cheeseman ct Molyneux 2 12 16.67 1
Freya Witty Not Out  13 30 43.33
Evie Davis Run out  10 21 47.62
Kate Pankhurst  
Laura Knill-Jones   1
Dharmista Nagar  

Ampthill Town CC Womens 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Clark6.512839.334.10
Molyneux7.0021121.003.00
Baney4.002200.005.50
Middleton5.0014114.002.80
Parsons3.001000.003.33
Anna Q.3.002200.007.33
Douglas4.00919.002.25
Wilson1.00400.004.00
Bartholomew1.001400.0014.00

Ampthill Town CC Womens 1st XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
13nb 11w 3b 1lb 
for 10 wickets
28
92 (24.0 overs)		     
Bedford lbw Pankhurst 10
Ritchie ct Davis 12
Douglas Not Out  33
Clark ct Vijender 2
Baney ct Knill-Jones 1
Molyneux b Knill-Jones 0
Middleton ct Knill-Jones 3
Wilson ct Green 1
Anna Q. b Green 4
Parsons b Witty 0
Bartholomew b Witty 0

St Albans Cricket Club Women's 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Evie Davis5.0017117.003.40
Kate Pankhurst5.02818.001.60
Anum Ahmad1.001400.0014.00
Laura Knill-Jones4.01632.001.50
Kara Vijender4.0017117.004.25
Freya Witty2.511929.506.71
Molly Green2.001025.005.00

  • Umpire :
  • Scorer :
    Ciaran Walsh