“It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me. And I’m feeling good”

Today started a new chapter in BPG history as for the first time we took on an official fixture against a boys team on a beautiful sunny May evening. And not just any team but Twickenham boys U13 who play in Div 2 of the West Middlesex League. They turned up with a full squad of U13 boys, including a powerful switch-hitter from Afghanistan.

David v Goliath? It certainly looked like it might be that way as our team of mostly U12 and U13 warmed up.

Twickenham won the toss and confidently put us into bat. Abi and Amelie opened the batting and both got off the mark in the first over with no alarms. But in the next over Abi was bowled (its all your fault dad!) prompting Molly to stride to the wicket. Amelie and Molly negotiated the next few overs with some crisp shots from Amelie before she called for a run, but picked the wrong fielder who threw down the stumps and we were 2 down. Phoebe and Molly set up trying to repair the damage before the girls picked out another wrong fielder and the stumps went down again. This time it was Molly making the long walk back. Emily came to the crease and hit some confident shots but could not pierce the field. She hit another good one and this time went for the run. Sadly one of those pesky wrong fielders was lurking (Do I detect a pattern here? – Ed) and yet again the stumps went down. If nothing else it was clear Twickenham practised their fielding! Either that or it was divine inspiration from the self styled Jesus who moved in mysterious ways through the outfield.

18 – 4 and things didn’t look good but Phoebe and Millie Mac doubled the score hitting some fine boundaries before the colossus from Kabul struck to bowl MM. Phoebe kept going to record the highest score in the innings but wickets fell regularly at the other end and then once Phoebe was bowled it wasn’t clear that we would bat our full quota of overs. But the last pair of Jess and Ella took us through to the 20th over before one of those pesky fielders sprung up again to end our innings. 65 all out. It was going to take some good bowling and fielding to defy the mighty Twickers.

Jess opened the bowling against their big switch-hitter who took some huge swings to the first 2 balls but missed them before edging the 3rd into a gap. The other opener clearly thought he could do better and tried another big shot first ball sending the ball oh so high into the evening sky. As gravity sent it back towards earth Abi got herself underneath and snaffled the catch (we will just ignore the technique ). Switcheroo then made his intentions clear by slogging the next 2 balls to the boundary. Ella bowled a tight over before Jess came back to grab a second wicket as Millie Mac grabbed the chance. 14-2 and we were in the game. The girls chatter increased. Ella crunched a ball into the No 4s thankfully strong protector prompting some smiles and giggling. However the runs started to flow as Switchy mixed slogs with classy reverse hits. The introduction of Sadie, resplendent in her new kit, stemmed the flow and Switchy tried one wristy stroke too many and was out LBW. Sadie quickly followed up by bowling the No 5. Paige, Molly and Abi then all bowled well, and there were a few balls in the air ,and a few close calls for run outs (we didn’t have Jesus in the field to help us!) but we just didn’t quite have enough runs to play with. Iris, Molly and Paige did a sterling job patrolling the boundary but the outfield was fast for May and this time, sadly, Goliath defeated David.

But David will be back all the better for the experience. It is a new dawn for BPG and I for one feel good about that performance. We bowled and fielded well (not a single wide!) and with a bit more luck would have scored a few more runs. The margins between winning and losing were not as great as the scores indicate and I think we can take a lot of plus points from the game. Well done girls!

Thanks again to Ben for umpiring, Alban for scoring and everyone for coming down to support. And lastly Happy Birthday to Erin on her birthday today and Iris on her birthday tomorrow (or today by the time you read this!)

Beware HWR as David’s sling is primed and ready………