It’s been a couple of years coming and after feeling robbed last season, we did it – we finally got promoted! Overall, we finished 4th in Division 4, which was enough to earn promotion for 2009.

We played 15 games in total, 12 of which were league games and won eight of them. We also entered the cup competition and managed to get through to the second round.

Our home performances were unprecedented, winning all but one of our league matches at Short Lane. The highlights were a 10-wicket win over Spencer and an eight-wicket win over Wokingham. It must have been the home support that cheered us on. Unfortunately, when we played the return fixtures it was a very different story, winning only two games on the road. The low of the season was at Hastings where the whole game took less time than the journey down there! We’ll face them again next season and are keen on getting revenge.

This season our strength was the bowling attack. Our bowlers took 80 wickets in total, which smashes previous years’ records. Jenny Tipple was our strongest bowler and on three occasions took four wickets in each game. She deservedly has been named player of the season for the Ladies. All the other bowlers took their share of wickets with excellent economy rates. It was wonderful to have so many bowling options and to be able to mix pace and spin to pin down the opposition.

Sharp fielding led to catches and run outs, which supported the bowlers well. Behind the stumps Liz Kinsman once again had a successful season taking numerous catches and three sharp stumpings.

Our batting was possibly the weakest part of our game, with only two half-centuries in the whole season. We struggled with some of the better bowling and gave away too many wickets to what should have been run-scoring balls. Consistent performances by Urusa Ahmed and Fiona Grant scored valuable runs and achieved what the openers couldn’t. The middle-order also provided good support, with Beth Evans and Liz Kinsman seeing us home in victories.

I would like to thank all the players for their commitment and performance this season. We picked up some new players and as the juniors are getting stronger we are building a great team. Special thanks go to Steve Smith for umpiring and Helen Cook for scoring; we would have been lost without you both.

Looking to 2009 we need to build on this year’s performance and establish ourselves in Division 3. Over the winter we will be working on our batting to bring this up to the standard required to face up to the tougher opposition we can expect next season. I’m looking forward to next year and another enjoyable season.