Tuesday 24th June V Birmingham Women

Birmingham Women returned to the Graveyard with 5 experienced players and a couple inexperienced, although one a U11 county player in the 7. Again having won the toss, I learnt and listened from Sunday and decided to field first, with some tight bowling to begin with saw the dismissal of the one opener bowled. However, the number 1 batsman was punishing the bad ball, as were the following batsman coming in, with runs freely coming from extras the batters had it easy and were not put under pressure to score runs, Manjit then reaped the rewards for bowling straight with the important wicket of number 3. The runs from the bat soon dried up with two inexperienced batters at the crease although they were still putting the bad ball away and always taking singles, Birmingham finished with 114, although only 58 of these runs came off the bat, with 22 wides being bowled all worth two runs and 12 byes totalling 56 extras almost doubling their score, we need to learn the importance of bowling accurately consistently. 114 was a realistic target to get, we knew they would not give away as many extras and would be tight with their bowling, the two openers were out without any runs off the bat. Some good supportive work from 4,5,6 allowed myself to reach 33 when I had to retire with the lower order seeing off a few overs taking some singles when available, with 3 overs left and 6 down I returned to the crease and again some excellent supportive work and running by Manjit allowed a further 20ish to be added for no loss meaning Ashfield finished on 89-6, although 63 came off the bat and only 26 extras bowled it is clear to see the difference of bowling accurately consistently. Hopefully this has been another lesson learnt and with a couple of bowlers back next game we can improve upon this.

The game was finished off with a great curry provided by the Anson’s which was enjoyed by all home team and away team, thanks once again. And for Chris umpiring the whole game, both ends on his own.

Sara Eccleston 4-0-14-0
Michelle Cole 4-0-6-2

Michelle Cole 51*

Sunday 22nd June V Lullington Park CC

Lullington Park were the visitors to Britannic in a rearranged game from the beginning of the season, although it was their first season in the Midlands league, they were clearly experience with half the team playing for Derbyshire, and the other half having played many games before. After winning the toss and deciding to bat first for a change, to give Ashfield girls the experience of setting a target, we were bowled out extremely cheaply for 19 after 21 overs. With heads down and an almighty task ahead Lullington knocked this off with 4.2 overs. Two mentions must go to Laura R who came and supported us, even though she could not play and got roped into scoring. Aslo Laura B who came to watch, having never picked up a cricket bat before played as our 10th.

Sunday 15th June V Walmley 2XI

Sunday 15th June brought Walmley 2nds to Britannic, their team consisted of one senior member a few Warwickshire age group players and some very young players playing in their first 40 over game. We won the toss and chose to field first. Their two openers made a good positive start showing patience and experience putting the bad balls away, until Manjit expertly ran out the batter whilst she was backing up! Some tight fielding and accurate throwing again by Manjit got another run out with a direct hit. After the top three batters were out they struggled to score, mainly due to the tight bowling of Chelle Hughes on her comeback game for Ashfield and Vicky Sears on her return to the side for this season. Once again Sara Eccleston struck in her second spell finishing with 3 wickets. The fielding again was tight and bowling is becoming more accurate, although two improvements in the field for the next game are needed; more urgency in retrieving the ball and getting through overs and secondly more noise, it was far too quiet on Sunday! Walmley finished their innings on a gettable score of 117. Batting again was a disappointment, although we scored more than previous games. With only 4 people scoring and the top score being 14 (Sara) vast improvements are needed from everyone, so everyone is contributing. In terms of batting, the result points out the importance of playing straight as they bowled very accurately on the stumps and people got bowled playing across the line. With some more intense work on batting in training this shall come with time.

Notable performances

Michelle Cole 8-2-12-1
Sara Eccleston 8-4-22-3 and 14
Michelle Hughes 8-2-15-0
Vicky Sears 8-3-12-1

We now look to the next match which is a rearranged game V Lullington @ Britannic 2pm on Sunday 22nd June.

Followed by 2020 game V BIRMINGHAM WOMEN Tuesday 24th June @ Graveyard 6pm. Lets please give Lullington and Birmingham an Ashfield welcome…