For the 2017 season, it had been decided to enter the Girls under 12 (Gu12) team into the West Surrey Development u10 league, playing hardball, pairs cricket vs boys teams on Sundays. League rules allowed girls to play two years down (one for county players) and the 2017 Gu12 squad had a wide range of ages with two genuine u12s down to one u8! With four girls in the Middlesex u11 squad that season and Sunday county games, our availability had varied each week, and this was the first time the county girls had been available.

Whiteley Village u10s vs RCC Gu12
West Surrey Dev. League (Pairs, -4 runs per out, 10-a-side, 20 overs)
28/May/2017
RCC Flossie, Libby, Maggie, Laila, Poppy C, Zoe, Heidi, Emily, Charlotte*†, Issie D
RCC 155 for 4 (20 overs), net 139. Charlotte 30/0, Libby 12/0
WVCC 140 for 7 (20 overs), net 112. Maggie 1-8, Flossie 1-10, Poppy C 1-15, 4 run-outs
Manager VF, Umpire DD, Scorer RS

Whiteley Village is a retirement village built following a bequest from William Whiteley, the founder of the Bayswater department store, situated near to the M25/A3 junction with a very picturesque cricket ground and a little pavilion which (back in 2017) served very good bacon butties!

WVCC won the toss and elected to field. Flossie and Libby opened for RCC with some excellent running and calling which took the boys by surprise. Libby hit the first four of the day (straight drive past the bowler) and finished on 12/0, with the total on 31 after four overs.

Our two u9s were next in (Maggie and Laila) and scored seven off the bat with no wickets lost, as the net score moved on to 46. Zoe and Poppy (Maggie’s older sister), both u11s, followed and put on 30 for the loss of just one wicket to bring the net score up to 73.

Emily and Heidi (u10s) had to face the two strongest WVCC bowlers, but were able to put on another 30 for the loss of only one wicket each, so that the score had reached 97 by the time Charlotte (u11) and Issie (u10) came in. They put on 42 off their four overs with Charlotte hitting 30 off 18 with a six behind square to finish the innings on 155/4, a net score of 139.

After elevenses [mid-morning tea], the girls took to the field and the WVCC opening batsmen were somewhat surprised by the accurate bowling as Flossie opened with a maiden. Libby was the other opening bowler and some tidy bowling kept the net score to 18 after four overs, with Flossie picking up the first wicket. Poppy and Issie took over and the score had moved onto 44 after their four overs, with Poppy also picking up a wicket. Zoe and Heidi bowled the next four as the total moved onto 78.

Sharp fielding from the girls led to two runs outs as Emily, Maggie and Laila bowled at the fourth WVCC pair, and the net score reached 97 as the final pair came out to bat, putting the scores level after 16 overs! Maggie took a wicket and two more run outs following as Libby and Flossie applied pressure having been brought back on for the final two overs. The final pair of batsmen were only able to add 15 and WVCC finished on 140/7 (net 112) giving the girls their first-ever game vs a boys team by 27 runs!

The girls and their parents, managers, and coaches have done an amazing job growing girls cricket at Richmond CC, and Middlesex Cricket are all the better for it! To see how you can ensure that they can continue this journey please check out our appeal.

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