Hertfordshire Girls U15's season so far........
Hertfordshire U15 girls started the season with a record total of 298 for 7 (source play cricket) v Bedfordshire at Blunham CC. All but one player reached double figures with Emily Pollard (55), Tilly Larkins (24), Sophie Stewardson (22) and Elizabeth Ruxton (21) top scoring. In Bedfordshire’s reply Alice Jones took two early wickets but then Bedfordshire reached 83/3 before an excellent spell of bowling by Keya Patel 5/12 helped bowl the hosts out for 101.
In the T20 competition at Tring the Herts Girls lost the first game by 36 runs to Hunts who posted 127 for 6 with E. Burgess (52) and K.Vaseeharan (42) doing the damage. Herts never really recovered after losing two wickets in the first over. A 44 run partnership between Emily (23) and Elizabeth (17) briefly kept hopes of victory alive but both were dismissed with the score on 60 and the innings finally finished on 92 for 9.
The second game of the day against Suffolk was a different affair. Openers Gemma Marriott (63) and Sophie Stewardson (24) shared a century opening stand and a useful cameo innings by Cecily Austin managed to push the score to an impressive 145 for 4 off the 20 overs. A great opening spell of bowling by Arminah Awan (3/14) soon had Suffolk in trouble and with Gemma completing a great performance in taking (2/6) together with the team managing to complete three run outs the visitors were bowled out for 86 with an over and a ball to spare.
The last game of the half term was at Saham Toney CC in Norfolk where after been put in to bat Herts were soon in trouble at 6 for 2. A captain’s knock of 33 by Elizabeth aided by Cecily (12), Arminah (15) and Evie Bourne (8) managed to get the side to a defendable total of 117 but with a quarter of the overs not used it could have been a lot better.
The girls needed a good start and opening bowlers Arminah (2/26) and Gaby Pimm (1/9) did not let the team down as Norfolk reached 29/3 off the first 12 overs. Norfolk then inched their way towards victory with Herts claiming the odd wicket until, with 8 overs remaining, 13 runs were needed with 3 wickets left. The last bowling change saw Seona Stevenson claim the 8th wicket but going into the 36th over only 3 was needed to win. However Seona kept her nerve and aided by a great catch by Emily claimed the 9th wicket followed by a clean bowled next ball which saw Herts scrape home by 2 runs with Seona claiming 3 wickets for 2 runs in 3 overs.
The U15s hope to continue the winning run at Boxmoor on 18th June v Huntingdonshire in the 40 over a side encounter.
Match Scores
Herts 298-7 (40 Overs) won by 197 runs against Bedfordshire 101
Herts 92-9 (20 overs) lost by 35 runs to Huntingdonshire 127-6 (20 overs)
Herts 145-4 (20 overs) won by 57 runs against Suffolk 88 all out
Herts 117 (29.1 overs) won by 2 runs against Norfolk 115 (35.5 overs)
Tom Ruxton
Manager
Hertfordshire Girls U15