Date: Sunday 13 May 2012

Venue: Biddestone CC (Home)

Toss: Wiltshire U13 Girls won the toss and elected to bowl

Result: Herefordshire won by 17 runs

At last some cricket to report!  At a sunny but very windy Biddestone, Wiltshire played host to Herefordshire in the first game of the ECB Cup competition.

After three attempts, the toss was eventually won by Wiltshire Captain Ellie Osbourne, who sensibly invited our visitors to bat first.

Herefordshire began carefully, restricted by a fine opening spell by Louise Charlesworth-Herbert from the pavilion end. Steady progress was made by Hereford who capitalised on Wiltshire’s uncharacteristically slow start in the field and the generous amount of wides.  However, wickets fell steadily despite dogged resistance from the opener Jefferies who was well supported by teammates Lewis and Taylor. Despite Wiltshire showing fine ground fielding in the closing stages (4 direct hits!) and Charlesworth-Herbert completing an excellent bowling display by clean bowling Stockdale on the last ball of the innings, Herefordshire batted their full 35 overs to close on 81 for 8.

Wiltshire lost their Captain, Ellie Osbourne in the third over of their innings who was adjudged LBW to visiting skipper, Larkin. After a disastrous mix up in the middle, Lara Mayhew was run out without troubling the scorers and Wiltshire were reeling at 4 for 2 with the game barely 6 overs old.  Katherine Mills and ‘keeper Elizabeth Bools steadied the ship before Bools departed after being bowled by Lewis for 12. The middle order struggled to cope with Hereford’s accurate line and length bowling and runs were hard to come by. An excellent 8th wicket partnership between Ellie Russell and Lilly Jackson provided 23 runs and took Wiltshire to within striking distance of the target. Unfortunately two quick wickets were lost and Herefordshire were victorious by 17 runs.

So near and yet so far! The girls were rightly disappointed to have lost the game but all in all a positive and promising start to the campaign.

We are indebted to Biddestone for being such excellent hosts and providing a fantastic pitch under very trying weather conditions during the previous week.

The games are approaching thick and fast and Worcestershire will be our visitors at Urchfont CC on Sunday 20 May.