Ashford continued their fine start to the season with another victory, this time against Essex side, Harold Wood. The win was set up by another outstanding performance in the field. Harold Wood got off to a great start, looking for every run, and scoring 20 off the first three overs. Ashford, however, were not fazed by this, confident that if they just carried on with what they were doing, then success would come. Sure enough, in the next over, Hannah Merchant hit the stumps, and Ashford were on their way. A good throw from Elize Brown ran out the other opener, then Merchant bowled the new bat with her first ball. Brown got her reward for a lovely spell of six overs which only conceded 11 runs, when she picked up Ashford’s fourth wicket, and they seemed to be in complete command. Shona Keaney, however, had other ideas, and she began to build a partnership for Harold Wood. 29 runs had been added for the fifth wicket, and it looked like the home side were mounting a recovery, when Rhianna Southby made the breakthrough Ashford needed, taking a sharp stumping in Ali McCreedy’s second over. Keaney looked comfortable at the crease, but was unable to find a partner to stay with her from that point. The lower order had no answer for the Ashford openers, and Merchant and Jenny Tippell soon cleaned them up, Tippell taking wickets with her last two deliveries, and Merchant ending up with her best league bowling performance for the club.

Chasing just 81 in 45 overs, Ashford knew they did not have to take any unnecessary risks, and made a very steady start. Katie Butler went in at number three, in the 6th over, and began to punish some loose deliveries, finding the boundary with some lovely drives. The score had moved on to 48 when she was unlucky to deflect a ball which kicked up off her gloves then on to the stumps. Angharad Purser moved the score along with some aggressive shots, then Yolandi Maynier was sent in with a licence to attack the ball. She delivered just what Captain Becky Halls had wanted, with 11 off only 8 balls, taking her side within two of victory. With only two wickets left, the game could still have gone either way, but Elize Brown and Rhianna Southby kept their heads, and it was Southby who hit the runs to take her side to a well deserved win, and keep themselves near the top of Division 1.

Ashford have shown in their first two matches that they are not out of their depth at this level, and are reaping the rewards of a winter spent playing indoor cricket, and a thorough pre- and early season training programme put together and delivered by head coach Daniel Simper.

Alison McCreedy

Match details

Match date

Sun 27 Apr 2014

Kickoff

13:00

Team overview