Yorkshire Girls in the Shadows (courtesy of Peter Watson) LV Women’s U13 County Championship Final: Yorkshire .v. Devon at Clifton CC (Derbys) Last Sunday the sun shone in Derbyshire, it beamed down on Devon but Yorkshire felt little of its warmth. Sadly our two local girls Jess Watson and Emily Jordan were unable to carry their semi-final form into this match but sunshine or shadows, to be chosen to represent your county in the final of a prestigious nationwide competition is a very fine achievement in itself.
Yorkshire won a toss the captain would sooner have lost but the decision was taken to bowl first. Devon got off to a slow start with a good deal of playing and missing especially against the bowling of Jess Watson but Yorkshire was unable to make an early breakthrough. However, Emma Bolt removed Lydia Harris with her first delivery bringing to the wicket Rebecca Bertrand who immediately stroked an exquisite boundary through mid wicket and continued to look a quality player punishing in particular anything bowled at her pads. The dismissal of Anna Gower by Beatrice Firth only created further problems as Jodie Dibble strode to the crease and soon got into run scoring mode. Bertrand and Dibble had added 33 runs when Bertrand appeared to play too early to give a return catch to Firth. The return of Millie Wallis instigated a collapse which was as welcome to Yorkshire as it was unexpected as the dynamic diminutive bowler proceeded to achieve a never to be forgotten hat trick of victims, all bowled. Alert fielding compounded by a misunderstanding between the batsmen brought about the downfall of Clare Reynolds, while Wallis completed her memorable effort by claiming the wicket of the hard hitting Dibble. Given such a solid start Devon must have taken tea a touch disappointed at a total of 107-8 whilst Yorkshire’s comeback gave them every hope that Devon had been restricted to an attainable score.
However, Yorkshire’s ambitions soon lay in tatters as opener and main run scorer Jess Watson was bowled when appearing to be playing the highly rated Jodie Dibble with comfort. Dibble, bowling left arm over, fast and straight accounted for Megan Storey first ball, the first of a woeful column of ducks as the Devon girls bowled a good line and length punctuated by the occasional wide delivery. Emily Ward bowled a teasing line swinging the ball away from the right handers in her opening spell. Rebecca Bertrand capitalised on the early inroads with a five wicket haul while Ellyn Clarke batted with hugely commendable resolve throughout to amass 25 runs as she witnessed the devastation from a pitch length away. Regrettably, further meaningful resistance came only towards the end of the batting order as Beatrice Firth and then the indomitable Millie Wallis coped admirably. This all left Yorkshire some 23 runs short of the victory target as the innings closed on 85-9.
Whilst in itself this was an enormously disappointing result, there was no doubt that Devon’s victory was thoroughly deserved. As a team the Yorkshire girls have improved as the season has progressed, peaking with the fabulous semi-final win over a very strong Kent side six weeks earlier. A similar level of performance would have been necessary to conquer this impressive Devon team with its two star performers. Even so, this gallant loss was preferable to accepting share of the championship which would have been a hollow triumph. There was no shame in this defeat; to the contrary, the whole squad including manager/coach Wendy Brown should be proud of their season of success. All the players should look forward, work hard to realise their potential and strive to make sure that next time, the sun shines for them. Devon Women U13 L Harris b Bolt 1 A Gower b B Firth 2 R Bertrand c & b B Firth 36 J Dibble (capt) b Wallis 22 S Stacey b Wallis 1 A Cherrington b Wallis 0 T Swart (wkt) b Wallis 0 C Reynolds run out 1 C O’Keefe not out 2 C Mitcham not out 4 C Ansley dnb Extras 38 TOTAL 30 overs 8 wkts 107 FOW1-10 2-43 3-76 4-81 5-81 6-81 7-82 8-98 Bowling: J Watson 6-1-9-0; M Wallis 6-1-10-4; H Jennings 6-1-20-0; E Bolt 6-1-24-1; B Firth 4-0-18-2; R Pickersgill 2-0-20-2 Yorkshire Women U13
J Watson (capt) b Dibble 5 E Clarke (wkt) not out 25 M Storey b Dibble 0 E Bolt c Dibble b Ward 0 A Firth b Bertrand 0 S Berry b Bertrand 0 H Jennings c Harris b Reynolds 0 E Taylor b Bertrand 0 E Jordan b Bertrand 0 B Firth b Bertrand 8 M Wallis not out 6 Extras 41 TOTAL 30 overs 9 wkts 85 FOW 1-11 2-11 3-12 4-19 5-27 6-30 7-31 8-31 9-69 Bowling: J Dibble 6-2-5-2; E Ward 6-2-18-1; C Reynolds 3-1-8-1; R Bertrand 6-0-17-5; C Ansley 4-0-11-0; C Mitcham 3-0-12-0; L Harris 2-0-9-0
Result: Devon won by 22 run |