After a delayed start due to rain, Ashford were put in to bat on a cold and very windy afternoon at Short Lane. Gill Bonham and Becky Halls got them off to a steady start, and had put on 47 together when Bonham was out in the 17th over. Once again Halls was the glue which held the innings together, as wickets fell steadily at the other end. At 89-6 with less than ten overs to go, any sort of a decent score was looking unlikely, but Elize Brown joined her Skipper and played with real intent from the off. The pair added an unbeaten 62 for the seventh wicket, Brown scoring 22, and Halls carrying her bat for her third fifty in as many games, giving her side a total they would be confident they could defend.

Ashford’s bowlers were soon among the wickets. After missing the last couple of games because of exams, Hannah Merchant was straight back at her best, and dismissed both Purley openers in her first three overs. Jenny Tippell joined in at the other end, thanks to a fine catch by Angharad Purser, and when Elize Brown hit the stumps with the first ball of her spell, Purley were 14-4. Any hopes they might have had of a recovery were dashed when young Katie Brown came into the attack, taking three wickets as she improved her best league bowling figures for the third time this season. The rest of the team played their part too, with another catch from Purser, two from Merchant, and good fielding all round restricting the Purley scoring. It looked like another record win for Ashford, as the penultimate wicket fell with the score on 26, but the last pair, Sembi and Hobkinson, got their heads down, and more than doubled their side’s score before Ashford finally managed to seal their victory, thanks to a brilliant piece of fielding by Tippell to get a run out.

Alison McCreedy

Match details

Match date

Sun 31 May 2015

Kickoff

13:00

Competition

Wostrack

Team overview