Following their league game cancellation U14 Girls took on LCC Women's 1st XI in a friendly fixture at Ockham - the Girls confident to win again, the Women’s side determined to deny them.
With only 7 runs in it the ladies pipped it - 132/2 vs 125/4 with plenty of action along the way. The dynamic duo of Lisa and Caroline tore up the crease to open the batting for the Women, making the most of the great bowling from Kirsten, Maya and Daniela to slot some 4s - until the efficiency of the fielding trio of Kirsten’s ball, Poppy at point and Sophie debuting at WK ran Lisa out. After 6 4s and a stolen single Caroline retired making room for the pocket rockets Rachel and Suzi which timed nicely with Georgie (Suzi’s daughter) coming in to bowl, who was disappointed not to get her mum out and to instead watch the 4s find the gaps in the fielding. Rach and Suzi opted to retire to generously give others a go, but Pippin got over-excited after notching a couple of 4s and suffered the blow of a perfect caught and bowled wicket from a calm and composed Tia. Heather played defensively against Poppy and Jess’ remaining overs, with Kirsty adding to the tally but couldn’t quite penetrate Grace’s boundary or Maya at cover, both ladies not out on the scorecard, which was boosted by extras that the Girls need to continue to work to limit.

Anu swallowed her nerves to expertly open the bowling but was narrowly denied wickets by a solid performance and great communication between Sophie and Poppy. Frustratingly during a sprint to cover third man Heather pulled up with a calf injury and was unable to play on. Joshua Hackett jumped at the chance to step in, which unsettled his older sister Poppy and she was bowled by her mum Pippin. Throughout the innings Jess faced her mum Lisa, Sophie faced her mum Rachel, Georgie faced her mum Suzi and Daniela faced her mum Julie. This is a first for LCC and is such a positive reflection of all the work that is being done to build on girls and women’s cricket. Julie was grateful for bowling coaching during the match from the umpires James Hackett (4 Hacketts on the pitch in one game) and Charlie Slater (3 Slaters on the pitch). Caroline, our all rounder, bowled Kirsten and then caught and bowled Tia, sadly shutting down these strong batters before they could do too much damage. Suzi didn’t manage to get her daughter out, who instead ratcheted up the 4s before retiring, and who would have scored considerably more without Kirsty, Caroline, Lisa and Julie protecting leg side so well. A Rigby combo of Suzi’s ball and her son Benji (injury replacement) catching behind ended Daniela’s runs. Grace and Maya edged towards the target in the final overs and were looking very comfortable but luckily for the Women they just ran out of time.

It could have gone either way, and it was a game played with enthusiasm and humour (bar the aforementioned sibling fury!) Thank you James Hackett for scoring and umpiring, Charlie Slater for umpiring, Joshua Hackett and Ben Rigby for subbing in, and Ash at Ockham for the hospitality.