THE annual South Essex womens’ indoor six a side cricket event, sponsored by Thurrock Sports Council, started on Thursday (13th March) at Gable Hall School, Corringham.
The first contest was between Stanford and Thurrock. The former batted first, but were soon in trouble as Rhiannon Hales was bowled by Sarah Fergey and opening colleague Wellard was run out. When Reynolds was caught by Becky Owen to provide Fergey with her second wicket of the match, it was left to Stanford’s Olivia Wyatt and McCarthy to steady the ship with nine and ten runs respectively.
Even so, Stanford were eventually dismissed for 35 as Fergey claimed two wickets at a cost of just nine runs from two accurate overs, while Allison Edmeades returned 2-10 from 1.5 overs. Carys Hammond was the other Thurrock bowler to claim a wicket when she bowled Wyatt in a two-over spell from which only seven runs were conceded. In reply, June Hammond led the way for Thurrock with an undefeated 14 runs, despite the run-out loss of Edmeades midway in the piece for nine runs. There was no further loss as Thurrock reached their target after 6.1 overs.
The second and final match of this first week of competition involved the meeting of Belhus and a strong Rayleigh team, who are looking for their third consecutive indoor title.
Rayleigh won the toss and invited Belhus to bat first, a decision which appeared to be more than justified as the North Stifford-based team were kept at bay by some very accurate bowling.
But it was to their credit that the batting did not capitulate; the final wicket only fell on the final ball of the final over as Kirby top scored with 15 runs. Five Rayleigh bowlers, Louise Harmsworth, Kingston, Elisha Brett, Freya Barnard and Lees, picked up one wicket each as Belhus were restricted to a score of 29 runs. In reply, Kingston made light work of the target as she struck one six in a rapid undefeated innings of 23 to provide her team with an impressive six-wicket victory. Both matches were umpired by local coaches Laura Knight and Terry Hills.
This week’s fixtures: Thurrock v Belhus (7pm) and Rayleigh v Stanford (8pm).
