Scorecard

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Ladies XI v Hemel Hempstead Town CC on Sun 26 Jun 2011 at 13:00
Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Won

Match report Ladies liquidate league leaders – in the best performance ever seen by TMCC Ladies ever, Hemel Hempstead Town Ladies are browbeaten into submission!

The weather was unbelievably hot, that Sunday when we reached 30 degrees in the shade, and there wasn’t any shade out in the middle, for the HHTLs to hide from the blistering onslaught.

Nicely the boys opted not to play a serious match on the track the previous day, so it was in near pristine condition and in the middle of the square, so we got a pitch fit for Queens and the queens provided a performance to match the big stage.

On advice from husband, 4th XI captain, V-C and ground supervisor (i.e. 2 people) Zoe opted to field first on winning the toss…. This might have seemed like madness given the rising mercury but there was method contained within. The outfield was lush, and the boundaries long. TMCC ladies back their fitness over all other sides, so we thought make ‘em run the 1s, 2s and 3s, deny them boundaries, limit the total to something attainable, and then knock the runs off. See scores. It worked.

Sarah Parker at £1 million is the bargain of the season for Fantasy purposes (oo-er missus) and opened the bowling from the Lyall/Coppice end. Her inswingers swung in and went off the seam as well. The experienced opening pair of HHTLs struggled to get either Parker or Aileen off the square, though this was soon to change once their gun no.3, and fast bowler and captain, replaced Ahye (David Haye under an anagram pseudonym?) who was bowled by Aileen. The mother and child reunion carried on for a while until skipper Zoe got in on the act, in good nick after a lengthy pre-match bowling practice session, bowling Mommy Dearest for 5. Pearson Minor and Batchelor showed what a great track it was in their partnership of (xx). But the rationale worked, in that the fielding was excellent, the relay throwing superb, and Shanyn’s exhortations were annoying; the pair had to run so many 2s, although not many 3s, that they soon became, not to put too fine a point on it, knackered.

Perhaps trying to heave the accurate bowling over the long boundaries caused Loopy Lou to do her groin in. This became very important later. Sarah came back for her second spell and bowled Batchelor for 36. She then took out Hobson lb with a toe-crushing yorker for 0. Zoe took the big wicket herself by bowling LL for a hard-hit 69, and Emma chipped in with a wicket.

Charlene kept wicket for the first time and did a great job (directly) behind the stumps. Ali bowled fast and straight as ever but her pace might have been what the batters were looking for, while Caroline gambolled around the field like a two-year old, bruising her fingers, and wearing herself out so she couldn’t bowl more than one over. Tolly, Julie and Susan fielded like goddesses. All in all everyone contributed to keeping HHTLs down to 148-6 from 30 overs, a run rate of less than five an over thus required.

Zoe and Shanyn opened and deployed the tactic of playing out the star bowler’s overs, not worrying about the scoring rate, but keeping wickets intact. This worked wonderfully, in that she failed to take a wicket (as a bowler, that is; she did run out Zoe with a fantastic direct hit from mid-wicket when the skipper dawdled out of her ground, so all respect to her). Shanyn and Charlene saw off the new ball fantastically, and set the scene for the partnership that took us home.
Groins are terrible things and to a fast bowler a groin injury can be an absolute shocker. LL came back for a second spell but was obviously struggling really badly. Finishing off her 5th over off no run-up meant the onus was on the other, weaker, bowlers; her travails meant that the wheels began to come off, in that tempers became frayed, there was poor communication and a lack of encouragement offered to those weaker bowlers – in short, HHTLs self-destructed.

In Imma Bicker and Parker we had two ladies magnificently equipped to take advantage of any chinks in their opponents’ armour. Emma pulled to the on-side and nudged and nurdled to the off – an addition to her game. Sarah drove fluently and cut like Robin Smith, for those who can remember him. Their judgement of runs, their fitness and empathy soon began to drive HHTLs to distraction, and us to the verge of victory. Though the required rate was up to sixes, we were scoring at tens, so we were cool in the heat.

As the electronic scoreboard relayed the drama and the impending glory one issue remained; could Imma git to her fifty? Sarah weighed up the situation, and with us needing 4 to win, and Emma on 47, she calmly drove a single to extra cover, taking her to 40*. Emma on strike, three needed, gaps in the field … no dramas, a short ball on leg stump was just what she would have ordered, and duly she pulled it to backward square for yet another boundary, that took her to 51 not out.

I’m sorry that I missed the Pimm’s in the sunshine that formed part of the entirely appropriate and proportionate celebrations of the greatest win in TMCC Ladies’ XI’s history. But I was there, and feel privileged to have witnessed it.

Hemel Hempstead Town CC Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
147 (0.0 overs)
S Ahye Bowled  A Kennedy 6
D Pearson Bowled  Z Aspinall 5
L Pearson Bowled  Z Aspinall 69
J Bachelor Bowled  S Parker 36
C Hobson Lbw  S Parker 0
K Morton-Smith Bowled  E Becker 1
E Bright Not Out  2
C Bates Not Out  1
J Wiggs  
S Avurla  
S Bright  

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Ladies XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sarah Parker6.031226.002.00
Aileen Kennedy6.0022122.003.67
Zoe Aspinall5.0028214.005.60
Ali Benn6.003600.006.00
Emma Becker3.0018118.006.00
Caroline Giles1.002100.0021.00
Charlotte Tollington1.00400.004.00

Totteridge Millhillians Cricket Club Ladies XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 3 wickets
0
149
(0.0 overs)		    
Zoe Aspinall Run out  L Person 4
Shanyn Altman Bowled  E Bright 6
A.N. Other Stumped  S Bright 0
Emma Becker Not Out  51
Sarah Parker Not Out  40
Ali Benn  
Caroline Giles  
Aileen Kennedy  
Julie Loebell  
Susan Swales  
Charlotte Tollington  

Hemel Hempstead Town CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
L Pearson5.031000.002.00
S Bright5.0019119.003.80
E Bright4.0030130.007.50
C Bates4.003400.008.50
C Hobson3.001900.006.33
K Morton-Smit1.00900.009.00
J Bachelor1.001100.0011.00
S Avrula1.00600.006.00