No league matches for a few weeks for Blackheath Women. Instead we’re in a Super 8s competition organised by the Womens Cricket Southern League. Two divisions of seven teams each from across the South. Good chance to play new and high quality teams as Blackheath are in the ‘North’ (although it’s more like East) Div with Gunnersbury, Leeds & Broomfield 1s, Harold Wood, Radlett, Margate and Spencer. All bar the latter two are in divisions above us. Format is 15 overs of 8 balls an innings, 8 players a side. Teams play each other once, and then top four from each division go through to knockout stages. Blackheath hosted both Radlett and reigning champions Leeds & Broomfield 1s at another new home ground – the delightful Catford Superleague.
After conducting a litter pick, Abi won the toss and we got ready to bat. Radlett’s bowling tended towards the slow, loopy stuff at the beginning, which doesn’t suit our style of batting, being used to the ball coming on from our own bowlers, and the top three got in a spot of bother, Biggie and Leanne “Dobbs” Atkins making just singles, and Grace a few more, til unluckily given out LBW. Livs however went in with top determination, and held the innings together whilst still accumulating, until she was joined by skip Abi, who fancied opening her shoulders. Their partnership saw the total past the 100 mark, before Livs fell in the penultimate over, and only a few more could be added before we were all out for 106. Livs 24, Abi 42*.
So not a huge total, but feeling our bowlers could cause some trouble on a pitch with a bit of uneven bounce. Surely enough, after a good start by Radlett’s top order getting them to 50 without much drama, pressure from the bowlers and tight fielding all round, and the wickets began to fall. Bigs getting one in her opening spell, Becki “Dennis” McWhinnie picking up three, Grace one plus a run out, and Blackheath won by 27 runs, bowling them out with balls to spare.
Last year’s winners in this format, and championship side Leeds & Broomfield were up next, but before that we settled down to watch them play Radlett. L&B won that fairly comfortably, chasing a total of 80-ish.
Abi won another good toss, and Dobbs and Bigs walked out to start us off again. This time, the bowling was quick and well-directed, but suiting our style of play better, and both got off to a rollicking start (e.g. 33-0 off 2ovs).
Regular readers will know we play L&B 2nd XI in our regular league, and we were pleased to see their skip Super Cheryl playing for the 1s as well. Bigs in particular must have taken heart in the familiar and resumed her modus operandi against this club (2010 season: 150* and 151*) smashing it to all parts. Although Dobbs fell in the third, Bigs kept slugging away and had to retire after making her 50 (helpfully getting the most out of the retire-at-50 rule, by going from 49 to 53 with a boundary straight down the ground). After such a good start, and knowing Biggie could come back if we were all out, the rest of us were given the technical instructions of ‘See ball. Hit ball. Run.’ (or not run as the case may be, giving two run outs as we perished for the cause of tip-and-run... sorry Gib!). Bigs only managed one more in the last over but we were really chuffed with 148-6 off the 15 against a side three divisions above us.
Naturally it still wasn’t going to be easy to defend, and surely enough their openers got the chase underway strongly, although we had set the field back. More tight bowling from Dennis, Abi/Chewy and Grace kept them just behind the required run rate throughout, and level heads in the field meant that L&B had to try to force it and as such gave catches: to the keeper off Dennis, and a safe caught-and-bowled for Chewy. Chewy continued to restrict the boundaries and her reward was three more wickets.
Still, their batting just kept coming, and every new bat seemed well capable of smashing out and taking the result away from us. Then an experiment with spin didn’t pay off as poor Jemma got slaughtered on the leg side. The last pair were two lefties (one being Super Cheryl), and there was a great duel between them and Grace bowling around the wicket as they swung and missed by inches for the best part of two long overs. The last over: 18 required. Dobbs with the unenviable task of rolling her arm over. About 7pm and getting dark, watched the largest audience we’ve had this year (bemused locals attending a 21st birthday at the Powerleague). Eight balls have never felt so long. A couple, a wide, a bye, couple more... squeaky bum time... but ultimately they couldn’t find the boundaries needed, and their final score was ‘just’ 142-5, meaning Blackheath Women won by 6 runs.
Great effort from all concerned, particularly the skip with 42* in the first game and a four-fer in the second. Maybe our best result ever considering the opposition, roll on the next lot.
