Ashford Ladies v Sibton Park Ladies

Despite missing several key players, Ashford were able to pull out a comprehensive win over league leaders Sibton Park. Batting first, Gill Bonham and Becky Halls got Ashford off to a good steady start, putting on over 50 before Halls was unlucky to be judged run out. That brought Jenny Tippell to the crease, and she and Bonham upped the pace, almost doubling the score before Tippell lost her wicket. When Bonham fell for a fine 42 shortly afterwards, the Ashford innings lost its momentum. Apart from Hannah Merchant the lower order struggled to score off the Sibton bowling, and their desperation to take any run on offer resulted in a few more run outs. Only 18 runs were scored in the last ten overs, due to some excellent bowling by the visitors.

123 looked like being a hard total to defend, so Ashford knew they needed early wickets. Jenny Tippell and Hannah Merchant didn’t disappoint, taking three wickets between them in their first spell, with the score on only 12. Angharad Purser then stepped up to bowl Skelton-Hook, who was looking dangerous, and Yolandi Maynier took the wicket count to five. The Ashford fielders were backing up their bowlers very well, Beth Evans doing a great job standing in behind the stumps, Nicky Sawyer doing well on her debut, and Katie Brown carrying on her fine work on the boundary. A further spell each from Merchant and Tippell was enough to clear up the tail, and Ashford claimed victory by 56 runs with more than 13 overs to spare.

A great performance by Ashford, which should see them climb the league, towards the promotion places.

Alison McCreedy