Captain Emma V, evidently on a winning streak with the toss, elected to field first. We started with seven fielders out of our eight which meant Aldershot took advantage of the gaps in the field and started scoring runs quickly. Soon though, our field was complete after Emma R saved the day by stepping in at the last minute. We fielded, as usual, with alertness, good stopping and accurate throws into our keeper, Katie, who kept with her usual consistency, stopping nearly everything that came her way. Emma V gave everyone a bowl (except for Katie) and everyone did a great job. Ellen opened the bowling, setting a high standard for us to reach for the rest of the match. She was unlucky not to be rewarded with a wicket, but did bowl a maiden in her third over. Georgina also bowled brilliantly, with an excellent line and length, limiting opportunities for Aldershot to score. In fact, she only let Aldershot score two runs in the overs she bowled. Emma V also bowled well, taking three wickets, two clean bowled, including their county batter, and her third wicket was assisted by a catch from Chloe. Alanna bowled well as she normally does, and this constricted Aldershot’s chances to score. Chloe did some good bowling, taking a wicket, as did Alice. Emma R bowled superbly! The consistent accuracy of her bowling was rewarded with a wicket when Chloe took another catch. Everyone fielded well and were very unlucky not to get a few run outs this match.

After a break and a pep talk, we prepared to bat. Aldershot’s bowlers were tall, accurate, fast and scary so scoring began slowly in comparison to Aldershot who had set us a target of 95 to win. Wickets began to fall for a low number of runs, (it was when their county bowler took 3 wickets in an over that we began to worry) but Ellen managed to hang on in, scoring some great boundaries and taking the quick singles. She eventually retired on a great score of twenty seven. Emma V also batted amazingly and set a great example to her team (believe it or not, I’m not being sarcastic) she played with patience when necessary, and whacked everything else playing some fine cricket. Eventually, she also retired. Another wicket fell, bringing Ellen back to the crease, as our score crept towards the target. Unfortunately, Ellen got out quickly (which was funny) so after a two ball rest, Emma V was sent back to the crease, with the added of pressure of not being able to lose any more wickets, to bat with Alice (poor Emma I know). They formed a great partnership, (even if, not once, but twice, they were saved from being run out by Aldershot fumbling, causing everyone on the boundary to nearly keel over and die from a heart attack) and scored some great runs taking opportunities they created. The score we needed to beat drew closer, but we knew it would be a close finish. (Emma C started pacing on around the 17th over, apparently she doesn’t like close matches.) Emma V and Alice continued to bat well and in the 19th over, we only needed a few runs to win. Emma V hit a good pull shot, that raced towards the boundary and we thought that was it, until it was halted by a magnificent stop from a diving Aldershot player. We were drawing at this point, but they crazily took another run. We all thought this would be the end. However, a fumble from the Aldershot keeper who had been injured earlier in the match, meant Emma and Alice could take the run to win the match for us.

We all bowled well, with hardly any extras and particularly from Sian, Flo & Kayla. P took a wicket caught & bowled and Kira & Natasha proved to be decisive in the field.

Providence & Kayla got the batting off to a tremendous start with lots of calling & backing up and a 4 from P. Natasha & Flo and Stephanie & Charlotte batted well, including some great defensive shots.

264 left the Eversley girls with some work to do, but having one less in the field proved to be too much of a handicap and we recorded another defeat. However, there was fantastic spirit from our girls after the extremely difficult first innings (SORBET) particularly from Heather having the courage to open the bowling and Kayleigh who went out fighting after a disappointing time with the bat, with the determination to 'go out and get wickets' - and she got 2 with her first 2 balls! A soggy pitch, attacking fielding from Kayla, Kerry, Kayleigh & Kathryn (4 K's this time!) and great keeping from Jess & Georghia kept the run rate well down, but in the end there were just too many gaps in the field. A great effort.

Bowling award - Kayleigh - 2 wickets
Batting award - Kathryn - 8 runs
MoM - Heather for a courageous performance

Jess (C) and Georghia (VC) led the way in the batting with some superb running between the wickets. The HP bowling was accurate and we lost several quick wickets leaving Florence to slow things down and then Providence as last man standing, frustrating the HP girls by facing 6 overs (for 2 runs!) before throwing her wicket with a suicidal run - maybe she was as frustrated as the opposition!

A bit of a whitewash, but a different form of the game so lots to take away and learn from.

Batting award: Jess & Georghia for great maturity & running between the wickets.
Bowling award: the 3 K's
Managers MoM: Emma C for a great effort with her bowling

Luckily we won the toss and went out to field first. The first two bowlers, Ellen and Chloe, bowled accurately, with neither of them giving away any extras, which limited Coves runs. Ellen bowled particularly well in her last over and was rewarded with a wicket. The next few bowlers, Emma V, Alice and Alanna all bowled extremely tightly. Emma got three wickets, helped by an amazing catch from Alice. Alice also did well in her bowling taking a wicket in her final over. Alanna also did well as she took three wickets, even bowling their South of England player out. The run rate for Cove was slow as there was plenty of great fielding including a brilliant catch from Ellen. Heather and Emma R both fielded well and they showed us how much they have improved this season. Katie, our keeper, also had a great game in the field, as she stopped many runs and was consistent throughout the whole match.

The highlight of the match was how well everyone had improved in the batting from the last matches. Alanna and Ellen, our brave opening bats(wo)men, started well, defending their wickets excellently against some accurate bowling. Alanna’s batting was unluckily short lived as she was bowled by a good ball, which brought Chloe to the crease. Ellen and Chloe formed a strong partnership, gradually closing the gap. Both of them batted magnificently with Chloe retiring on 30 and Ellen contributed, well adding 14 to the total before unfortunately being caught. This bought Emma V and Katie to the crease, who managed to hit the winning runs, meaning several players didn’t get a chance to bat.

Overall an incredible performance by the U16 girls against a team with several county players and a South of England batsman. Our team spirit shone throughout, well done girlies!

However this Aldershot side meant business and their openers started strongly before being caught by Jess off Alices bowling and run out. All the catching practice paid off with further catches from Alice and a high catch taken by Providence and the exceptional fielding from Yateley resulted in another run out. Wickets came from Alice (2,) Heather (1) and reluctant bowler Jess with her best ever haul of 4!!

With only 15 balls to go and only 1 wicket to fall (and the parents dancing with excitement on the boundary) the pressure got to us and we conceded the match with a wide. A wonderful game of cricket and very entertaining.

Batting awards - Georghia Binstead - 12 runs & Kayla Cameron - 8 runs
Bowling award - Jess Hill - 2 overs (8 ball overs) 27 runs 4 wickets
MoM voted for by their team mates - Alice Micklethwaite & Providence Cowdrill

13 May - U16 v Aldershot
Faced with county players from Aldershot our tails were well down before the match had started on Tuesday. Fielding a team relying heavily on U13's playing up, we failed to make the most of our bowling attack and Aldershot romped to 134. There were consolation wickets from Emma V and Kayleigh, but the fielding was sluggish, the batting lacking in confidence and we were comprehensively outplayed. Lots to work on for the next match!!

MoM - Ellen Knighton

17 May - U13 v Aldershot A
3rd Aldershot match in 6 days! This time against the Aldershot A team - again a physically huge side and all U13. The Yateley U9-U13's opened the batting and managed pleasing boundaries from Addie, Heather & Kayleigh. We still need to work on taking the quick singles, something Aldershot excel at, but in general we seemed more alive at the crease.

We produced some accurate bowling and this was rewarded with wickets from Kayleigh, Kayla and Heather (2.) A superb catch from Kathryn in her first ever match, together with her solid batting performance and impressive bowling gave her the man of the match award.

Batting award - Addie MacGregor for her hook shot to the boundary.
Bowling award - Heather Southgate - 2 overs, 11 runs, 2 wickets
MoM - Kathryn Styles - great all round performance despite the butterflies!!

18 May - U10 v Eversley
A disappointing match for our littlest team. Yateley lost the toss and were put into bat. Again there were many runs lost by inertia at the crease, with only the last pair of Georgia & Providence showing any willingness to run, however to be fair there were very few hittable balls and a couple of wickets due to pea rollers meant we were restricted to 255.

Unfortunately we produced more accurate bowling, enabling their batsmen to knock 3 boundaries and take a few singles. Wickets were taken by Florence, Kayla & P with some good bowling from Stephanie and Charlie.

Their total of 284 doesn't do justice to the standard of our play.

Batting award - Georgia Royle
WK award - Kerry Taylor - a great effort behind the stumps
MoM (voted for by Eversley) - Providence Cowdrill for a run out and for bowling.

The U13's showed so much Yateley spirit that it terrified the boys teams they played! Alice and Jess were magnificent with the bat, but Heather, Emma C, Kayleigh & Georghia also rose to the occasion with some super boundaries. All the girls bowled accurately and they also produced some tight fielding resulting in a semi-final place. However, by this stage the heat and the length of the day defeated them and though there were some uplifting moments in the semi-final (Alice & Kayleighs catches, Jess' run out), the bowling and running between the wickets became slightly wayward and lost us the match.

An enjoyable day as you can see from the photos!!

Despite this, our fielding and awareness was much improved from last season and Emma C & Addi fielded very well. Alice excelled taking 2 catches, Jess kept a tight show behind the stumps and all in all I was very pleased with the girls.

Bowling award: Providence 2 overs 1 wicket 4 runs
Batting award: Alice 13 runs
Fielding award: Addi & Emma

The girls put us into bat first and (after minor squabbles over who opened - you first, no you first, no, no I insist....) Laura & Chris went out to face the bowling of Emma V (now you can see why none of us wanted to open!) Laura took advantage of the gaps and retired on 10. Chris sadly was run out after a slightly too adventurous call. Ace batsman Liz Halson struck out fiercely (almost decapitating the umpire at square leg!) and soon retired. Rachel & Sarah had a good knock before Emma C & Liz finished the innings putting on 25 runs. The girls bowled extremely accurately with Alanna & Emma R taking wickets and both Jess & Heather performing well behind the stumps.

Laura opened the bowling for the ladies, with Emma then getting tonked by George for a super 6. Chris was the pick of the ladies bowlers, only conceding 2 runs off her 2 overs. Rachel & Sarah (whose bowling earned admiring comments from some of the watching colts) bowled tidily and nothing could get past WK Liz.

In reply, George batted well amassing 19 runs and Emma V 9 runs. Heather & Jess struck a lovely 6 and 4 respectively, however the girls total fell short of the ladies 66 runs and for only the second time in their history the ladies triumphed! All the hard training is paying off.

Many thanks to our 2 umpires - Isaac Cowdrill & Joe McGowan - and scorer Georghia Binstead.