Sat waiting to bat against Norfolk
Me and Jacob – Not out against South North 3rd
Photo’s taken by Lisa Scott
I’ve not been the best at keeping this blog anywhere near up to date but I blame work commitments for that.
Update…
We’ve been on a bit of a roll.
We beat Benwell Hill 3rd XI comfortably by 6 wickets on a horrible day where we weren’t sure what the weather was doing and if we were even going to get a game in or not.
I missed the win at Stamfordham because I was away to Badminton Horse trials with work, which also meant missing the first 4 women’s games including a County match which Northumberland lost. Stocksfield 1st women won all their matches though.
I was back in time for the away match at Hexham Leazes which stands out as the most miserable match I have ever been involved in, not because we lost although that doesn’t help but more because it was a horrible day, we were on and off for rain so many times I lost count, no one could get their rhythem. The Hexham Leazes batsmen were just up to everything we could throw at them. It’s a weird ground Hexham and the highlight of the day was the look on JD and Jacob’s faces when they arrived. “What the f***?” it could be described as. I love playing at Hexham on a sunny day because the views down the valley are wonderful, but when the wind is up and the rain is sweeping in Christ it’s horrible. I never wear a jumper on the pitch because I don’t like how restrictive it is but I was wearing everything in my cricket bag, my Maften shirt, my county shirt and a fleece lined jumper and I was still freezing.
We never really got going with the bat and we were struggling all the way, finally Hexham put us out of our misery.
The match against Stocksfield 2nd XI was cancelled because of the rain, not on the day but the day before.
I played my first women’s match of the season against South Northumberland and it was a shock to the system after playing Men’s cricket all season. I was put in to open and I never got going, I was too relaxed because having faced Men’s pace in net’s it was so slow and I got complacent and went to drive a ball that wasn’t there and got bowled. The fielding from South North was pretty dire, they had a lot of young players who seemed to be scared of the ball and it was frustrating just watching it. We put on 125-2 in 16 overs without breaking a sweat. We bowled them out for 28 and I stood in the field as South North collapsed thinking ‘what am I doing here?’. It wasn’t enjoyabele it was boring and it was easy and it was a very sad moment to watch a team that we used to have epic battles reduced to that, the loss of all their top batsmen has really destroyed them as it would anyone but it was just very sad.
I contempted not playing any more women’s cricket this season at that point because I couldn’t really see the point. I wasn’t enjoying it and I was taking a place in the team that could be filled by a junior or allowing one of the younger players to get up the order. I was going to pull myself out of the county team for the match in Norfolk the following weekend but with it being a bank holiday there were 17 of the squad missing and since I said I would play I couldn’t in good conscience pull out.
Matfen v South North 3rd XI was a bit one sided too. They have a lot of juniors playing in that team and they’ve had a bit of a torrid time after being promoted. I spent most of the match with an eye on the time because I had to leave by 7 to get to Stocksfield and meet up with the late car down to Norfolk. We bowled them out for 133 every one of out 7 bowlers got at least 1 wicket including a first wicket in the West Tyne League for the youngest of our team U-13 superstar in the making Tom Scott who has been responsible for some of the funniest banter I’ve heard, most of it directed at his Dad. A very memorable comment when Eddie caught a diving catch was ‘you could have walked to that’, while watching his Dad bat the commentary is fabulous ‘what is he doing?’; ‘what was that?!’; ‘look at him *shake of the head*’ it’s brilliant. He really is a good cricketer already, excellent in the field, he puts a lot of us to shame, his enthusiasm knows no limits. He loves to play and for a U13 he’s pretty nippy with his bowling, when he gets taller and stronger he could possibly be very quick. He did Eddie out of £12 at Hexham with a batting display that was really good, the money was £10 for making 10 runs and a £1 for every run after but it was his composure at the crease and his shots that were really impressive for someone so young.
The long drive to Norfolk was worth it when Northumberland women recorded a win. A solid opening stand, which has always been one of our problems saw us with some pressure off for a change down the order. Rachael Godschalk made a really good 68 working herself into a bit of form. 45 from Nicola Hawes and a everyone chipping in with runs gave us a total to defend, a total that we knew we could defend as long as we bowled well and fielder as well as we can. It didn’t quite go to plan, we had two bowlers taken off for dangerous bowling because of beamers, we bowled so many wides it was ridiculous, we dropped 10 catches, it took us the best part of 10 overs to get the last wicket which was horrendous, we kept dropping them and the final pair wouldn’t hit out no matter how much flight I put on the ball, I mean it was coming down with snow on. Still we won by 90 odd runs so the hike back up the A17 – A1 was worth it.
So it’s been an interesting start to the season.
topofoffstump 