U13 Girls - 2011 Lady Taverners South/South West Regional Champions

In a long but exciting day at Eversley Cricket Club, the Finchampstead U13 Girls represented Berkshire in the Lady Taverner’s Regional Final.
Placed in an initial pool of 5 teams, Finchampstead's first game was against close neighbours and Hampshire representatives, Yateley, and were delighted to record their first ever win against them. Buoyed up by their success they went onto to record an excellent win against Dorset’s Christchurch CC, which saw Lauren Bell bowling a double wicket maiden in the final over, but then lost to Bovey Tracey CC from Devon. Finchampstead now had to win their final game against the Gloucestershire representatives, Cheltenham CC, and bowled and fielded superbly to restrict Cheltenham to 45 runs, thanks to 2 wickets in 2 balls from Kymran Shargill. There were no slip-ups with the batting
and the Finchampstead girls and supporters had to sit and wait it out until the final two group games were completed and the results announced. Finchampstead and Christchurch had tied on points but the Berkshire side, with 288 runs in 4 games, had scored the most runs of any team in their group so faced Oxfordshire’s Banbury CC in the final.

Team captain, Ashleigh Muttitt, won the toss and elected to field first. It proved to be an inspired decision as a great catch by wicketkeeper, Megan Forth, off Ashleigh’s first ball of the game saw Banbury’s opener caught behind and this was swiftly followed by another catch by Collette Bell off Ashleigh’s second ball to dismiss their no 3. Collette then bowled another Banbury player in the second over to see them in disarray, with 3 wickets down and only 5 runs on the board. A 3rd wicket for Ashleigh and an excellent over from Amie Coombes, which saw another catch behind from Megan, kept the pressure on Banbury and a run out in the eighth and final over saw them reach 49-6. In reply, Finchampstead scored 6 runs in the first over, then Ashleigh took the initiative, scoring runs off every ball of the second over, including two boundaries and a 6, and set up the game for a Finchampstead win. When she
retired on 21 not out it was left to Collette and Megan to score the remaining runs and see Finchampstead home in the 5th over without losing a wicket. In a wonderful day's cricket every team member contributed with Olivia Squires, Isobel Prior and Annabel Jones also taking wickets, while Megan was outstanding behind the stumps, taking some excellent catches and conceding very few byes.

The team now look forward to representing Berkshire in the Lady Taverner’s National Final in Shropshire on August 24th.